Should I let kitten eat as much as she wants?

[LilLilLi]

I have a 12 week old kitten, health checked, vaccinated and up to date on working/flea treatment so don’t think it’s worms, but she wants to eat all the time!

She has dry biscuits out all the time and clears the bowl at least once a day, as well as a pouch of wet food a day split into two meals. The wet food is good quality, 93% meat so I thought would be quite filling but she is always looking for more and on the occasions where I do give her more she eats it all.

Advice online is conflicting, and I don’t want to make her unhealthy!

Cat Tax -

They're hungry hungry hungry at this stage! Yes, they should have full bellies and fat legs, as dd put it so graphically! Using up loads and loads of energy, growing like fury, yes feed and feed again!

It'll slow down. Unlikely that so as they're running about, climbing walls and curtains and being what they are, that you're setting them up for anything bad.

My Maine coon is constantly looking for food. He eats and eats. He is a huge cat but also slim. His sister is not as big and doesn't eat nearly as much - and he will literally force her away from her food bowl. They have a five pouches between them plus dry. They'd eat more but I'd go broke!
I'd let your kitten eat, but watch it when he stops growing

Beautiful cats on this thread!

Thank you all I am definitely sticking with free feeding, so far today she’s had two pouches of wet (split into 4 meals) and is on her second bowl of dry. She costs more than my children to feed!

She is so energetic, currently zooming up and down the stairs while periodically trying to jump into the bath with me 😂

If it's only the stairs and not the curtains she's zooming up count yourself lucky! 😺

My chubster. Very food oriented, weighs 6.6kg.

When he sits upright it looks like he has a cleavage.

@TroysMammy he's beautiful! I love his nose!

@LilLilLi thanks. He has a pretty face and a lovely temperament but he has a vast array of faces he pulls and sometimes he can look like a mean ol' cat.

I have to join in with this photo of my chunk. He's 5.6kg. I've only had him a month and we are trying to gently get him to lose weight, but it's so hard knowing exactly how much to feed him.

Currently he has 65g wet food twice a day and 15g biscuits, but I don't know if that is enough as he is quite insistent that I should be in the kitchen feeding him more.

Oh look at him! 😍 He looks like he’s definitely the master of the house!

My kitten ate so much I actually phoned the vet for advice! They said free feed, so I did. She grew into a beautiful cat and now eats quite sensibly.

Obviously it depends on the quality of food on how much he needs but my 2.65kg would still be hungry on what you are feeding yours 😱

He was on 100g × 2 a day plus 15g biscuits at bed time, but I contacted Butcher's (the cat food company) and they recommended 50g × 2 + 20g biscuits, but I know he would be starving on that. Biscuits don't even touch the sides for him. I have to feed them from a big Ferreo Roche box so that he doesn't eat them all in three minutes and biscuits are more calorie dense too.

It's hard, because he is overweight and he's 7 l, so I do need to do something about it. He's currently an indoor cat as we've only had him for four weeks. Once he starts going outside, he may lose some weight, although he's a bit of a charmer, so I worry he might be a six dinner Sid.

@LilLilLi Thank you! He is a prince among cats and we adore him! He loves being around people.

I'm wondering if I need to feed my boys more now. They have a pouch each and a bowl of dry biscuits but one in particular is always hungry for more. Maybe I'll top up the biscuits more throughout the day!