Underweight kitten

[Mamma22cats]

Hi.

We have just brought home (yesterday) a new 4 month old Kitty, she has been seen by vets today who confirmed she is a little underweight, they didn't really give any advice other than keeping an eye on and spaying her when she reaches 2kg, she's currently 1.5kg. She's drinking kitty milk, happily taking the tasty lick treats but has probably had a toddlers handful of biscuits and only 1/3 of a pouch in 24 hours, she perhaps doesn't have a big appetite and I appreciate it early days so she's likely stressed but do you think it would be ok to give her multiple tasty licks a day until she is feeding better? I wouldn't normally worry so early in, it's because she's a little skinny that I am. Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks.x

I wouldn’t give kitten milk. I would provide high protein good quality kitten dry food available 24/7 then good quality high protein wet food 3 or 4 times a day, small amounts each time if she’s only eating little bits at a time.
Most of the kitten/cat food in supermarkets are not high enough in protein, but make sure you change foods slowly so not to upset her tummy. Do you know what she’s been having up until now?
Also I think you forgot to post a photo of her!!

Agree completely with every thing previous poster said, I also would be wary about giving your kitten too many treats at this stage, instead just concentrate on giving it as much good quality food as they want and no kitten milk!

what was kitty eating at last ‘home’.
Did vet give mouth a proper look, does her breath smell.
In hot weather especially it could be best to only feed ‘wet’ food if she’ll eat it & only give several small meals.

Sorry, I've uploaded a picture now.

So she was eating whiskas biscuits, which she's just had a few more of and any supermarket brand cat food. I've tried her on whiskas and seriously good but she's just eaten a tiny amount of each. I've also given her tuna which she has just had a mouthful of. Her breath is fine and vet checked her teeth and said all looks good.

As I say I wouldn't normally worry about not eating much given she's only just come to us but it's because she's so ickle, she doesn't look like she really afford not to eat.

You can easily get better food thatn Whiskas and Felix.

A google for high protein, grain free kitten food will give you lots of options that meet these criteria and you can choose based on your budget. Look ideally for brands without 'meat or animal derivatives' in it or other fillers, and instead a high level of proper fresh meat (60% or more). They are more expensive but you can shop around for the sweet spot between cheap crap and expensive high end food.

Some of the subscription only food are worth considering if you can afford it, but good quality food is also available from supermarkets e.g, Scrumbles, Blink, Lily's kitchen. Online petshops like Zooplus, VioVet, even Amazon have a wide choice. (I now use CarniLove dry but was using Purr & Miaow from Amazon). Just read the ingredients and percentages carefully.

Trial boxes are worth a try as kitty may be fussy and you can get a sense of what she likes both in texture and flavours as welll as brand. Eventually you have to go with what they will eat. Mine only eats mousse, hates lumps (just licks off the gravy, won't eat jelly, and prefers fishy flavours. He'll eat any dry food though luckily.

So I wasn't really asking what better food there is out there as I don't want to completely change her diet, within 36 hours of having her, and it was the supermarket brands /whiskas which she was being fed prior to her coming to us yesterday but I'm happy to introduce other foods gradually. The seriously good is not Felix though, I think that's as good as it looks, or something similar, the seriously good is Pets at Home brand which I think is a slightly better quality, but the point is she isn't eating the cat food, or is barely eating, but did wolf down the tasty lick treats, so I really wanted to know whether until she starts eating the food she was eating again would it be ok to give her more of this or should I just bear with her, she does seem to be nibbling away at the biscuits a bit more now.

I wouldn’t give tuna. Maybe cooked chicken?

Oh really what's wrong with Tuna?

its generally thought that fish can’t meet all a cats dietary needs, but they can become,locked onto it & end up having difficulty getting them to eat what’s needed. That said i do allow tuna unsalted in spring water if mines in a fishy mood..
I agree that sticking to what she knows is invariably the best to start, just little & often seems to do the trick. 2 Final thoughts, was she wormed before you collected her & possibly some probiotics could be good & help with all the sudden changes of new home & humans.
She looks beautiful, well done for finding the little treasure ❤️

The lick tubes have something like 8 calories in them - I'd stop them and give more calorie dense food for a bit. Kitty might be filling themselves up with the tubes but isn't really getting much nutrition from them.

They are great as treats and for hiding medicine (crush tablets or mix in liquids with them if you ever need to medicated kitty- she'll wolf it down) but not fantastic for bulking up a tiny cat.

My youngest is a bit underweight and used to hold out to try and get extra tubes as he loves them. He knows he only gets one after finishing his dinner now. He's an old boy these days (12) and has always stayed on the smaller side while still being healthy. When he was a kitten and utterly tiny I was told to give him cat milk to get his weight up. Along with wet meat (little bits but several times a day) along with having 24/7 access to kibble.

Ok good to know, will get some chicken and probiotics for cats tomorrow. Confirmed today she was last wormed and deflead about 6 weeks ago so will do all that tomorrow. She has eaten almost half the seriously good food so that's kinda positive, although not food she was eating before so may not be best for her digestion. Thanks for all the advice will save the kitty licks for treats.

I sometimes squeeze a bit of of lic a lix onto the wet food and then the pesky cat wolf's it down so this might help.

We feed purizon dry food which is good quality. Have a look on zooplus for some ideas.

Little and often I think is the rule with kittens? They only have tiny little stomachs and if yours is underweight there's a good chance they aren't used to more than tiny meals.

So dry available 24/7, then 1/4 to 1/3 a pouch up to as many times a day as she will eat it rather than chucking an entire pouch down in one go.

Good luck with her weight, she looks a real cutie 😀

Oh, look at da ickle kitty!!! She is indeed underweight. 😭🥺Just keep offering her good-quality food, OP. Hopefully her appetite will improve. And give her lots of love. 🤗

So she's eating better today, she turned in to a wild cat early morning, really hyper and started gobbling down the food out for her and has eaten again this morning, so things are looking up. I have bought her some purina pro plan biscuits and mixed a few in with the whiskas so we'll see how that goes. She certainly seems to have turned a corner though so will monitor weight over the next few weeks. Next challenge is introductions with her big Kitty sister 😱

Picture of big sis (10 months)

love big sis’s white booties, what an angel!
sounds as if little sis is going from strength to strength, well done 😺

I think some cats can take a while to settle into a new home, and not eating is one of the ways they show this. I was looking after a friends cat who didn’t eat anything for two days , I was getting a bit frantic as she was a very expensive breed and the apple of their eye, luckily she stopped being a princess, crawled out from her hiding place and decided to eat. My current cat in contrast stepped out of his travelling basket, homed in on his food and had a few mouthfuls, then found his litter tray and had a wee, walked around the house, batted a few toys around, chose a sofa and curled up for a nap! They are all different.

She is very sweet, I hope she has settled in and is eating more today.

I think more licks is a bad idea. She will get too used to them and get further away from
proper cat food.

Thanks she's eating so much better already, she has quite a small appetite but gobbles it down when she does eat. She ate about a pouch and a half yesterday and had two small bowls of kibble, so actually not that bad at all and she already feels slightly less bony.

Tremendous news, isn’t it funny how much effect these things have on us. Mine was found age about 8wks in an empty railway st. cp., in 1st 24hrs he consumed 5 pouches (fed in 3rds of pouch @ time then halves obvs!) then seemed to give up,…even now 2yr later barely eats❣️
Thanks for super update ☺️

Our little underweight kitty has put on 300g in a week and now weighs 1.8kg, she still on the small side but I feel like we've made great progress already.