How much should a 12 week old kitten be eating??

hi im new to this forum found it when googling my above question and seemed really good so though id join up.

We have a 12 week old ginger male kitten (olly) got him a week ago. I have him on whiskers kitten food and dried food he has a boowl of dried food down throughout the day which he nibbles at and then i have been giving him 3 pouches of food a day (one about 7 am one about 3pm then one about 7 pm) out of this he probably eats about 1 1/2 - 2 pouches i would say but today hewolfed down his breakie didnt eat his lunch then i put hid tea down and he has only just eaten half of it now not really touched his dry food either. he has been toileting fine and been in a perfect mischeviou kitten mood a bit overly affectionate tonight but all fine.

advice would be very much appreciated this is both mine and my husbands and our kids first ever cat so all a bitt new to it .

thank you in advance

rach

Welcome to TCS...


Kittens are like newborn babies... they all eat a different amount... But I will give you some real Geaneral guidelines-and a few questions....

Generally kittens will eat roughly 2 to 3 times the amount of a adult cat at their wt...

So a 12 week old kitten is roughly 3 lbs - that would be = to a 6-9 lb cat....

1/2 cup of dry and 2 packets( Are the packets like 2-3 oz ?)

Has your kitten seen the vet? If not this is a very good idea as many kittens are born with worms. The vet can check basic health and worm kitty plus start on the baby ( kitten) shots

thank you so much for your reply.

i have no idea how much he weighs whats the best way toweigh him.we only got him last week i have frontlined flead and wormed him also when cclearing his litter tray out i had a check for worms and none in sight. He is in at the vet next week for his first lot of injections and microchip.

this morning we got up about 7 and he was pestering me constanly for his breakie and has polished it off.

How much you feed really depends on the food your feeding. Whiskas has quite a bit of filler in it, which means a kitten (or cat) needs to eat more of it to get their fill of nutrients. Sharky gave good advice on figuring out how much to feed, but I would highly recommend browsing the forum (and elsewhere online) to learn more about cat food in general.

our almost 4 month old has dry food all the time, taste of the wild. we now feed her canned and she doesn't touch her dry to save her life,lol. We started her on fancy feast canned and now this week we got her natural life canned from walmart. She eats canned 3 times a day and the fancy feast she was eating 3 cans a day and with the natural life she eats about 1 and 1/2 cans (roughly 1/2 can per sitting). I hope to just put her on an all canned diet and we keep offering her better quality canned food each week.

Natural life Imho is the best out that bunch and often is = to many of the"super Premiums".If she will eat it use it.. Most of the time the better quality foods they end up eating less of as they are nutrient dense... Taste is a very good dry food , can you get / afford the wet?

Kittens have such a high metabolism rate and they're sooooooooooo active that they eat...A LOT! They're like teenage boys!

We feed our 6 month old mainly wet food (3X day). He gets a combination of EVO cat/kitten food, EVO venison cat food, and a dash of Wellness grain free cat food. He's fed that in the morning, in the evening, and then a smaller portion after playtime, just before light's out. He can have dry food whenever he wants, which is usually once mid-morning, lunchtime, mid-afternoon, then mid-evening (before bedtime nummies). We don't leave food out during the night and we haven't done that for about 2.5 months. He'll sometimes get a bit of dry first thing in the morning if he's really hungry, but usually, he's fine because he knows breakfast is coming. He's a very healthy boy, too!

Originally Posted by sharky

Natural life Imho is the best out that bunch and often is = to many of the"super Premiums".If she will eat it use it.. Most of the time the better quality foods they end up eating less of as they are nutrient dense... Taste is a very good dry food , can you get / afford the wet?

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i'm not sure if the store has the TOTW canned they probably do. We'll check it out next week. I know my husband's only concern is shipping foods. Unless medically neccasary he does not want to have to order online.

Although Samara, the kitty seems to enjoy the natural life, but we want to give her other stuff too the healthier we can feed her the better.

I am not a online shopper cause I worry like your husband

Are you getting taste at a pet store or a feed store?

Originally Posted by sharky

I am not a online shopper cause I worry like your husband

Are you getting taste at a pet store or a feed store?

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I go to a pet store and they are pretty nice about ordering it if they don't carry it, if they can. When I go up for dog food i'll check it out.

2 POUCHES?!

mine is only eating half a pouch and very few kibble (both high quality)! I'm getting so worried

scotfold said:

2 POUCHES?!
mine is only eating half a pouch and very few kibble (both high quality)! I'm getting so worried

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He's only 8 weeks, right? How much does he weigh? Usually at that age they're around 2 pounds. If you figure that kittens eat 2-3 times as much as an adult cat, he would need to eat as much as a 4-6 pound adult. Check the pouch and kibble bag to see how much a cat that size should be eating. What kind of pouch food are you feeding? If it's something chunky, try one with a smooth texture. . .young kittens sometimes have trouble with chunks (and kibbles), they can get tired of trying to manage the chunks and will give up and not eat enough.

Plus, he's ill, right? Ask the vet for some high-calorie foods/supplements (Hills a/d is the usual kind recommended for sick kitties)

I will ask the vet tomorrow when she calls back with his blood results,
I have not changed his diet as I've only had him for 3 days from the breeder.
He's apetite hasn't changed since I got him, he's always had so little,

Its advance Kitten food http://www.myshopping.com.au/ZM--717820012_Pet_Supplies

his 12 weeks old. 580grams 1.2pounds.

The breeder said he lost 50grams since they last weighed him, I thought it was because he just been desexed... but now it seems its something more serious

He's veryvery small/underweight for his age; he should be about 1.5 kgs by now. I would definitely work closely with the vet to try to fix this poor little guy .

Have you contacted the breeder? He/she might have seen this kind of thing before.

why did the breeder give him to me if he was still underweight...

I thought it was because his breed is small type.

it's so heartbreaking.....

I can't say for sure if he's underweight. . .ask your vet. But that's WAY smaller than most kittens his age, so much so that I don't think being a smaller breed accounts for the difference. I don't believe Folds are supposed to be small anyway---the breed description says 9-13 pounds for males, which is pretty average.

Do work closely with the breeder on this one. If the breeder is any good at all they'll help you with everything. Ask her about his size, maybe the breeder thought he was just a late bloomer, at any rate she should have an explanation. And read your contract to see what the health guarantee covers.

the vet did say he was underweight, I just didn't realise it was by so much..

Breeder from her past emails, sounds like a moody cat lady lol and I was never comfortable asking her much...

Does the vet know why a kitten is LOSING weight? I would address that right away.

Even if he is a very small cat it's the weightloss that is concerning.

Hope all is well.

scotfold said:

why did the breeder give him to me if he was still underweight...

I thought it was because his breed is small type.

it's so heartbreaking.....

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The breed is medium/large, not a small slender cat. And should be cobby.

l got mine at 11 weeks old and he weighed 1.387kg.

l'm so sorry that you're dealing with this, this is not a good start for your poor little guy.

l hope the breeder follows through on whatever terms you have in your contract. 

Sending good vibes for both of you 

Well the breeder got back to me today, she said her litter was all around the same size as the parents are not big themselves.
My kitten was the smaller one and slower eater, but not by much.

She said to see how the blood results go and offered to give a new kitten if he is really sick, but I don't want anotherrrrrrrrrrr

wow Andrya mine is less then half of your size.