Properly feeding a kitten

Long story short, we ended up with a 7 week old kitten here at our office. Vet says he is healthy and to feed him dry kitten food and water.

I had a cat in college many years ago and we always left a big bowl of dry food out for him to nibble on all day.

My question is whether it is appropriate to do that for the kitten as well?

For the last week, we have left a bowl of dry Eukanuba kitten food out for him in his play area of the office as well as a bowl of fresh water. He comes and goes at will eating as much as he wants. Occasionally, we give him a small soft kitty treat which he likes.

My concern is that he's getting a touch plump already! Then I read the bag on the kitten food and it recommends providing only 1/4 cup of kibble every day. Wow. That doesn't seem like enough.

He passes about 2-3 normal stools per day right into his litter box which we promptly remove.

Recommendations?

How do y'all feed your kittens?

Halo was 8 weeks when we got him. I feed him canned food morning and evening and leave dry out all the time(as well as plenty of fresh water).
Kittens need a lot of food to grow. Mine also have a "pot belly" and that is fine. Just be carefull nt to overfeed with treats and all. Also play with him often.....
Good luck

I am feeding 5 7-week-old fosters right now. I give them four meals a day of a mix of dry and wet kitten food, plus constant water and two bowls of goat milk. They are not especially fat but are putting on weight. In my opinion, you can't ever feed a kitten that age too much - they need masses of food for growth and energy!

I currently have one kitten he's 4mths old now i have done the same method before but i do think it's important to realize everyone has their own methods and what works for one may not work for all

He has access to free choice dry, i have various formulas here and he is fed wet food twice daily.

If he comes nosing around for food i will offer up an additional wet food meal as the wet food is important especially for males.

good luck!

For all our kittens - we fed one meal of canned kitten food (supper) and left a small bowl of dry kitten food to nibble on. But none of our kittens were fed kitten food after 4-5 months old and they were not free fed after 4-5 months. They were never fat.

Young kittens do need food a lot and while the kitten looks plump now, its ok, he won't stay that way - he will grow into his body. You want a solid growing kitten - you don't want to "starve" him to have a slender body right now.

I don't free feed my kittens as they don't eat dry food. They get 4-5 small meals a day.

I free-feed as soon as they're old enough to eat on their own (although I went to measured feeding for a while after I transitioned my current two from kitten to adult food, because my Chilsa , who was already a grown cat at the time, got a bit chubby from stealing the kitten food). It's easier than any alternative I've found.

Don't worry about the kitten getting a little bit round. The kitten is in shape; round is a shape (and a perfectly reasonable shape for a kitten). If it's still round when it gets close to adult size, run it around with a laser pointer and some catnip toys.