A feeding experiment

Hey folks,

I've recently been on vacation (for 1 week) and have come back. When I first came home, I noticed that the kittens were a good bit larger (or looked that way) then when I left.

My parents, who were feeding the cats for me, said that they had been feeding them more, and that was probably why they had grown while I was away. They also suggested just trying leaving dry food out and seeing what happened.

Now, please note that I am a fan of feeding at set meal times, but I just can't seem to be able to get enough food into the kittens just feeding them three times a day (the most they can eat is about 1/4 cup EVO dry or 2 ounces of wet at a sitting).

So, I borrowed my brother's baby scale and weighed everyone, including the fat cat Toby, yesterday and have started leaving a measured amount of dry out... I tried 1,1/4 cup last night.

I am going to try and weigh them throughout the next couple of weeks and, if I don't see a weight increase from Toby and the kittens seem to be gaining weight faster, then we'll keep it this way for a while. If I see a weight increase in Toby, we'll go back to seperate meals for everyone.

Weights for everyone on 12/31:
Toby 14.12
Frazier 9.29
Niles 9.57

I'll try to update this thread weekly (with weights, etc.) and I'm planning on trying this for about 1 month to get results one way or the other.
Art

Good luck, but I am not a fan of purely dry diets, especially not with male cats and certainly not if you want to keep an eye on their weight

I already feed canned for 1 meal... What I was planning on doing is feed a measured amount of dry in the morning (to be left out) then a meal of wet when I get home. With this plan, they *should* still be getting about the same amount of wet that they got before.

Art

If Toby gains weight, is there a way you could put dry food in an area that he can't get to, like a closet that only opens a little bit or a box with a kitten-sized hole? That way, the kittens have unlimited access to a measured amount of dry when you're away, but they still have the meals when you're home. Kittens need more food than adults, so I agree with teaching them about mealtimes but ultimately they need to have enough food to grow with.