Weight Gain Ideas for Kitten?

[nearlynermal]

Cat Flu KItten is just turning 6 months old. He's out of danger and has gained some weight, but he's started losing it again, and is painfully thin. Please give me your best ideas.

Too skinny

Awwwww 😍
A selection of really good quality food
Our kittens (now cats) have always liked Orijen cat and kitten dry food.
For wet food, they used to like nature's menu kitten food but went off it eventually and now like Lily's kitchen cat food.
They are also very partial to tuna!

Does he have much appetite?.

Any particular food he likes? I would give kitten food.

He does have an appetite, but such a tiny tummy. He's on Applaws kitten dry food (and drinking well), and applaws complete pâtés. One person suggested evaporated milk, but he didn't go for that.

I have some powdery convalescent stuff and some brown gunk that the vets fed him when he was really sick, but he won't go for those (I suspect they don't taste nice).

AnotherEmma do you reckon tuna in oil would be ok? Because that would be nice and calorific. Or should it be water?

My kitten was very very thin when he came home from the rescue. He had to stay for a couple of weeks longer because they didn’t want him to leave looking like that. He had been poorly with giardia and riddled with worms on top.

I think it just takes time OP, I feed good quality food, canagen, purizon, nature’s menu, applaws, Lily’s kitten, all wet and dried.

Three months on you wouldn’t recognise him from the skeletal thing I brought home.

If you are feeding good food anyway I think you just need to give it a few months.

I advise you to look at the ingredients of the Applaws food you are giving and compare them to the ingredients of some of the brands I and lifeonprivetdrive have recommended. For example Applaws dry food has lower meat content than Orijen dry food and contains potato which Orijen does not. And it looks like the wet food contains rice?

I buy tuna specifically for cats from a pet shop, I think the one I get is Applaws as their tuna is pretty good, it is a complementary food (not a complete food) so I give it as a treat alongside other food. I don't think it contains oil but some of the tuna for cats does.

Is there an independent pet shop near you? Or a garden centre with a good pet section? It can help to buy individual pouches / trays to see which ones your cat likes and then once you know that you can order larger quantities online, to save money.

We bought the powdered milk formula they give to tiny kittens and he had this in a bowl most of the time rather than water.

I think he actually liked the taste of it so would choose to drink it vs just lapping water when thirsty.

They also do normal kitten milk in supermarkets which you could offer once or twice a day as extra calories?

Applaws is a perfectly decent food. Orijen contains lentils and pumpkin rather than potato, it's just another source of carbohydrate.

Thanks so much, everyone. He doesn't seem to be a milk cat, but is definitely a fish lover, and seems to like anything with broth. He loves Applaws adult chicken with rice, but I don't think that's calorific enough. He is snacking on the complete dry food, though.

Thanks AnotherEmma and lifeonprivetdrive, I'll start trying out those other brands.

Thrive does complete fish based cat food without rice. Some of the cat foods mentioned above can be bought from zooplus

Fish wise I have bought applaws little tray things from a local discount store recently.

Obviously not a complete food but these. Eight for £1.99.

I let him have a couple a day plus Canegan dried as lib when he was so skinny.

If you go to the pets corner website they rate/score foods for nutritional value.

The 'cat milk' you can buy is actually goat's milk so maybe try that.

'Hoomin' food always goes down well with mine.

Mackerel is quite cheap and it being an oily fish is quite high in calories.

But, mine was a stray, everyone still thinks she's a kitten, she has a really tiny bum/hips so he might always be petite.

He needs kitten food not adult cat food.
Has he been dewormed recently? (Should be every month til he's 6 months)

Don't mess around with oil and milk - you're much more likely to create nutritional imbalances or give him an upset stomach.
He needs regular meals of good quality kitten food (3-5x daily) and time, don't rush it. If he's bright and active then his energy levels are fine.

Kitten food is more calorific than adult food so I would feed the kitten version of what ever food you choose. Sardines in oil have always gone down well with my cats as an occasional treat and are quite calorific. They get calcium from the bones too.

Cat milk is very low lactose so I dont think it is just goats milk.

His mouth may have been very sore from the cat flu ulcers, which could explain why he likes broth. My cat flu cat was also starving when found, so he’s never not eaten. However, his mouth ulcers stopped him trying anything hard and he still isn’t keen on biscuits.

I’d just try everything and anything - tuna in spring water is a big favourite, I’ve just got a trial of something soupy from Cosma which he absolutely adores. He also gets chicken and will give almost anything a go. But soft, he still can’t really deal with biscuits.

When I had a non-eater I topped his food with a squirt of lik-y-lix. It's like crack cocaine and they can't resist it.

Mine also like lik-e-lix, webbox sticks, dreamies and cosma snackies freeze dried meat/fish treats

What does he like? Mine loves Sheba tuna. Try a variety of food until you find something he likes?

He loves those dehydrated Thrive treats. But I'm not sure how calorific they are. And when he was terribly sick I was feeding him my salmon fillets, which he liked. Maybe I'll try those again.