Seriously, they are always hungry!

[chickpea616]

Me again...we adopted 2 kittens last month, they are now approx. 8 months old. Apparently they were bottle fed, not nursed. One of the kittens is significantly smaller than the other one, she looks more like 4 months and very thin. The other one has plumped up since we brought them home, and now "almost" looks on the heavier side of average.

So the little one, Rain, and by extension the bigger one, Cinder, are always hungry. I'm feeding them wet food, with some dry out all the time so they can graze. I notice that Cinder goes to the dry food quite a bit, but I've never seen Rain at the dry food.

I don't have an exact "schedule", but they seems to want (and get) food every couple of hours - maybe every 3 or so?? As I type this I guess it seems like a lot, but I'm always splitting the cans/portions because there's 2 instead of 1. I also use the Iams Perfect Portions quite a bit, and those are only 1.3 oz, so perhaps it just seems like more than it really is. But I am a bit concerned that Cinder seems to be putting on weight and Rain, for whatever reason, does not.

I considered separating them for a bit just so I could feed Rain a little more - what do you think?

Also, should I be measuring out the dry, making sure there's just not that much out at a time? When we first brought them here, I filled the bowl up just to make sure they would eat, so perhaps I should but that down and measure out just a little bit?

thanks!

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! At their age they still need to eat as much as they can consume, so leave out the kibble as you have been, and increase the quantity of the wet feedings. You might find that the more canned food there is for them the less kibble is eaten .

They will need a lot to eat for a year and a half, or possibly longer.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I would definitely increase the wet if they always seem hungry even though they have plenty of kibble. They are smart kitties and know what they like!

I will tell you my experience with raising two kittens though. We raised two males together, and one was a little on the pudgy side, while the other was extremely thin. I NEVER saw the thin one eating, yet the pudgy one it seemed always had his face in the food dish. So every time I went into their room (we spent five months integrating them into the household ) I would pick up a handful of kibble and hand feed it to the thin one. THEN he would eat it. (at the time we were only feeding kibble, shame on me) I really think the other one was bullying him when we weren't around. Some cats are really food driven and to this day he still is. Anyway, maybe Rain doesn't eat the kibble because Cinder won't let her? Something to think about.

Also, not all cats are the same size. I don't know of they are littermates or not, but even if they are, that doesn't mean they have to grow up to be the same size. Is Cinder a female too? If not, I would expect him to be larger. Mine are both males, as I said, but one is 15 lbs, and the other is 9 lbs.

 

[__Dina__]

are you feeding in 2 separate bowls? make sure each has their own bowl and you supervise all wet food feeding times. also, cats that eat and eat and eat could have worms so check them for that (does their poop smell foul?). I would leave out two bowls full of dry food so that they have access while youre gone.