Am i starving my kittens?

[FiveSugarsPlease]

Had my kittens for almost three weeks now. They will be 11weeks old on Monday.

They are constantly hungry. And following me around wanting food.

I had them on pouches before. But they were devouring a big multipack of 10 within 2 days. And at £3 a box, it was getting too expensive.

So at the vets last week, I was given 2 complimentary bags of Royal Canin kitten food. And I've moved them onto this.

So their new diet is as follows.

7.30am - 10g of Royal Canin each mixed with water so the food floats in it.

11.30am - same again as above

2.30pm - same again as above

5.30pm - 1/2 pouch of wet food each. Right now I'm using Tesco's.

9.30pm - 20g of Royal Canin food mixed with water, and I leave this down for them during the night.

There's also a bowl of fresh water constantly available to them.

The vet told me that the Royal Canin stuff is very high calorie. According to instructions they should be getting 40-50g a day. So technically, i'm feeding them more than the recommended amount. So why are they always hungry and finishing the food within 10 minutes of me putting it down?

[deliasmithy]

What breed are they?

Do they appear to be the right weight?

[FiveSugarsPlease]

They are just moggies, a boy and girl.

The vet said the boy was a good weight, but the girl was at the slightly lower end of what he would consider a good weight.

She was the runt of the litter though.

I've since separated them at meal times, to ensure they're getting equal amounts, but they're still constantly hungry and meowing, trying to climb my legs whenever they hear me rustling around the kitchen.

And whenever I put a new meal down for them, they'll bolt over as if they haven't been fed for weeks.

[deliasmithy]

I looked online and it says 4 month olds need 60-80g a day if feeding them royal canin exclusively.

There are going to be variations in how much kittens eat depending on breed, how active they are etc.

The main thing is just to watch their weight. It sounds like you could get away with a little more at whatever time of day they appear most hungry.

I started to reduce the amount of water I added to the dry mix slowly as well.

[FiveSugarsPlease]

Thanks for the help, DeliaSmithy.

It's the paediatric weaning one I have.

On the back it says:

1month weighing between 0.35-0.6 - to be fed 25-35g of the food

2month weighing 0.8-1.2 - to be fed 40-50g of the food

3month weighing 1.4-2.1 should be fed 50-65g of food.

I think I've been feeding them according to the 2 month old instructions. I'll increase them to 65g each per day and see how it goes.

Thank you!

[Fluffycloudland77]

I feed kittens on demand, like my mum did, because they are growing so quickly.

We've only had one chubby cat by doing this, out of 6, but he has a gannet anyway who'd eat until he vomited.

[cozietoesie]

Agreed. If a kitten is hungry, I'll feed it.

[FiveSugarsPlease]

Thanks everyone. There just so much conflicting advice on the back of packets and on the internet. I'll give the feeding on demand thing a go then. At this rate, I'll be feeding them every hour. Hopefully it'll get the little girl kitten's weight up a bit before her next check in 3 weeks.

[cozietoesie]

Keep a weather eye on them then and come back to let us know how things are going. There's usually someone around.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Yep, I couldn't go in to the kitchen without being hounded for food by a cat screaming "bowl empty" for a while.

He was a skinny little thing when we got him though.

[MumnGran]

Young kittens will not usually overfeed. I always allowed mine to eat as much dried as they liked, with wet food three times a day (or cooked chicken/fish etc).
They eat as much as adults .... just spread over more meals!!

If they are falling into food bowls, and crying for food, then I would try free-feeding the dry food for a while .... at least until the girl is up to a good size.

[cozietoesie]

'usually' being the operative word I think. I fed Oneago at will but he was a pig - and I had the ignominy of having the vet say to me 'He's a bit fat, eh?' (In my defence, I had gone through eating struggles with a dying Twoago so I was just thrilled that Oneago would eat and lacked discipline.)

Anyway - I would feed at will these days - but keep a watchful eye on weight.

[deliasmithy]

My cats now self regulate on royal canin. They are on the slender side of normal despite 4 bowls of food being left around the house for them to graze on. I may have to watch my new male kitten. He seems to have a large appetite!

[Sarah1611]

I'd also go with biscuits all the time, wet food as and when. We foster kittens and all ours are fed like that :-) not a problem.

[Rikalaily]

I'd leave dry food down for them to graze on and give around 4 wet feeds a day, they are growing really quickly and kittens burn off a lot of energy. Most cats won't over eat once they realise they have access to a constant supply of food.

[readysteady]

Have they been wormed? If not that's top of the list in my experience.

[FiveSugarsPlease]

Thanks everyone. As i said, the reason i switched to dry food is because the wet food was becoming far too expensive whilst they're so hungry all the time. I was buying a big multipack of 10 pouches, and they were barely lasting two days. I'd rather just give them one pouch of wet each per day and the Royal Canin dry food on demand. This is what ive been doing the past few days and they seem much more satisfied.

They haven't been wormed by me yet. The vet will do that in 2 weeks as part of the healthplan i took out with them. he said last time that my girl kitten was too small to have the worming treatment anyway, so getting her weight up for our next appt at the end of the month is really important.

I've been checking their poo every day though, and not seen any sign of worms.

[readysteady]

Erm they won't be too small for worming very young kittens can be wormed with the right drug. I would ask your vet practice again about that to be honest! Something wrong there!

[readysteady]

Panacur is what you want. Very cross at your vets your kittens could be riddled! No worms in poo as not worked their way through yet! Wait until the meds take effect!

Good luck and tinned kitten food cheaper then pouches.

[readysteady]

Cross post Wotme :)