How much to feed?

Right now Nora and Milo are eating Iams kitten. Next Monday I plan to start switching them to Wellness (I can't decide if I want to do the kitten food until Nora gets to a year, or just go straight to the Core, I'd prefer to give them grain free and the Wellness kitten is not grain free).

Nora just turned 7 months and is about 8lbs. Milo just turned 3 months and weighs between 2 and 3lbs, but is gaining each day as he was skin and bones when I got him. I doubt he even weighed a pound a week ago.

On the Iams bag it says to feed Milo 1/2c and to feed Nora 3/4c. It doesn't say anything about feeding wet food.

On the Wellness bags it says to feed Milo 1/2c + 3oz can, and to feed Nora 3/4c + 3oz can.

I am trying to figure out how much exactly to feed them because I want to get them on scheduled feedings rather than free feeding which they have been doing. I think it would help them eat more wet food if they are hungry, since now I don't know when they have last eaten.

I give them Wellness wet kitten food, the 3oz cans. While I am still giving them Iams should I do what the Wellness bags say? Or should I remove some of the suggested amount of dry food from the Iams bag and replace it with the wet? How many times should I feed them?

Oh, and when I took their food away from them today you would think I was torturing them. Nora started throwing herself on the floor in the kitchen, which means "shake food out, I'm starving", even though she just ate wet food. They both started meowing like crazy and were hunting for their food. Silly cats.

How are you planning to switch?

Like we are switching now and we are going 25% new with 75% old for a week 50/50 for a week 75/25 for a week. (dry)

http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/dryfood.html

That site tells me that IAMS kitten has 468 calories a cup
so Milo is getting 234 (1/2 c) calories a day
and Nora 351 (3/4 c) calories a day

Wellness Core has 338 calories a cup
so 1/2 c would be 169 calories and
3/4 c would be 253.5 calories

http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/CanFoodNew.html

That site tells me that wellness kitten 3 oz cans have 151 calories a can

So if you fed 1/2 c dry and 3 oz wet wellness it would be 320 calories
3/4 c dry and 3 oz wet wellness it would be 404.5 calories

Wellness also has way more protein than IAMS 47 compared to 30--so you may find that they eat less dry for that reason.

I would offer 3 meals a day at least until the older cat is 1 year old. 2 dry meals and a wet meal maybe?

The way I switched dry was figured how much dry my boys eat in a week--almost 5 cups of dry food--to make a 25/75 mix I put 3.75 cups old food with 1.25 cups new food in a separate container. Next week I'll take 2.5 cups old food and 2.5 cups new food and mix it in a separate container to make my 50/50 mix week after I'll make my 75/25 mix then they'll go to full on new food.

I have no idea if I helped...

Leslie

I'm going to switch the way you talked about.

So should I go ahead and feed them the Wellness dry food according to the suggested amounts on the bag, and just return any uneaten food to the container? I plan to give 2-3 meals of dry (3 at first until Milo gets bigger, and then 2 later on), and one meal in the morning of wet.

I don't really understand the calories thing you talked about. How many calories should a kitten be eating per day? If Wellness has more calories, and you say because of that they will usually eat less, why do they say to feed MORE than what Iams suggests to? I'm just curious.

How much would YOU give them at each feeding, according to what you told me already?

I would follow the Wellness bag and just watch their weights. Their vet should be watching their weights--if he thinks they are gaining too much cut back slightly on dry. My vet didn't really start worrying about weight GAIN until Jack was a year old or so--assuming they are still growing until that point. Last time we were there he wanted him to gain more actually.

I'm not sure about kitten calories a day my boy who are about 1.5 years old eat about 200 calories a day and maintain a healthy weight. I would think kittens would easily need 300 calories a day--but I can't give you an honest quote on that.

Wellness has less calories than IAMS but is higher in protein and grain-free.

Leslie

I fed them at 5:30, and then again at 9:00. Both times I gave Nora around 1/4c, and Milo a little less. Both of them didn't finish either time. I will be curious to see how they eat in the morning. They normally go most of the night without eating because Nora sleeps in our room with the door closed but wakes us up most mornings at around 6am to pee and eat. Milo up until last night slept in a cat carrier.

I have no idea how much they ate before around 2pm when I took their free feed dish away. Hopefully they eat better tomorrow.

Dont know if this helps you,

Mine eat freely on dry food until they are 1 full year old.
My kitten and adult share a large can of food morning and night (the can is about 5oz)

My adult lost some weight once she matured, and my kitten is kinda chunky Unless a cat is bored, they wont over eat to much without you noticing.

I would do that but Nora is a full 4 months older than Milo.

On the Halo pet food site they said this:

Leave food down for your cats for only a half hour in the morning and a half hour at night. Free-feeding your pets tends to age them and puts their bodies in a constant state of digestion – which depletes their vital organs of blood and oxygen supply. A healthy cat in the wild may only eat but every 28 hours. Let’s face it – they don’t have a tidy little dish of mouse or bird to nibble on all day long. Allowing them to eat throughout the day is very “anti-nature.” Periodic brief fasts and natural cleansing cycles are very beneficial. Stay close to the ways that nature intended, and we can’t go too wrong.

It makes sense to me, and this has always stuck in my mind.

One of the main reasons I want to put them on a feeding schedule instead of free feeding is that I'm having a hard time getting them to eat much wet food, and I can't get Nora to eat hardly any at all. I figured if I put them on a feeding schedule (with 4 feeds a day until Milo gets older, since he is still pretty young) and gave them the wet food as their first meal, they would be hungrier and more likely to eat it. They seem to drink plenty of water (a big dog bowl full almost every day), but I don't know if it is enough or not.

Originally Posted by kara_leigh

I would do that but Nora is a full 4 months older than Milo.

On the Halo pet food site they said this:

Leave food down for your cats for only a half hour in the morning and a half hour at night. Free-feeding your pets tends to age them and puts their bodies in a constant state of digestion – which depletes their vital organs of blood and oxygen supply. A healthy cat in the wild may only eat but every 28 hours. Let’s face it – they don’t have a tidy little dish of mouse or bird to nibble on all day long. Allowing them to eat throughout the day is very “anti-nature.” Periodic brief fasts and natural cleansing cycles are very beneficial. Stay close to the ways that nature intended, and we can’t go too wrong.

It makes sense to me, and this has always stuck in my mind.

One of the main reasons I want to put them on a feeding schedule instead of free feeding is that I'm having a hard time getting them to eat much wet food, and I can't get Nora to eat hardly any at all. I figured if I put them on a feeding schedule (with 4 feeds a day until Milo gets older, since he is still pretty young) and gave them the wet food as their first meal, they would be hungrier and more likely to eat it. They seem to drink plenty of water (a big dog bowl full almost every day), but I don't know if it is enough or not.

Click to expand...

Hi Kara -
The problem with scheduling feeds for kittens (under 1 year old) is that their tummies don't fit enough food/nutrition to wait until the next feed, like a cat would. That is why they nibble most of the day... They can eat only a little at time.
That is not to say that you can think about changing that after they are one... But I wouldn't restrict a kitten from food - you might risk them being malnourished.

Everything I've read says that you can start doing scheduled feedings once the kitten gets to be 3-4 months, but don't do only 2 feedings until they are closer to a year old. I will be doing one wet food feeding and 3 dry food feedings, and they don't have access to food at night anyway. I don't work, so the feedings will be evenly spaced out from 7:30am until anywhere between 10pm and 12am when we go to bed.

The feedings I gave them today, they didn't even eat everything that I gave them, so I think they will be fine. In fact, they didn't even seem hungry when I fed them before bed.

Ah-ha! That does make sense... I thought you were going to do 2 feeds - sorry...

No problem!

Really great links Jack31 posted...bumping this thread up because people have been asking lately about quality foods. The two links are definately worth saving. (you could also add to them, as I plan on doing since I'm playing with different types of wet food)