Question about food amount

My heartfelt thanks to everyone for your inputs finding the source of Calvin's tummy issues and suggestions regarding a high quality food to meet his needs. So far we are doing good on that front.

The issue now is finding a balance between the right amount of food. Now I hear that kittens should be fed as much as they want since they are growing but we've realized that Calvin has gotten chubby. He came to us Nov 28th at about 4 lbs (@ 4 months age) and on Jan 4th he was 6 lbs and Feb 4th he's very close to 8 lbs. He did have a rounded belly when he came and that's been there througout but he's also very food oriented - he loves to eat. He does not barf after eating a lot, though. He's also very active. He's about 6.5 months old now.
till about 10 days ago, he was eating:

1/4 cup Wellness kitten dry food
3 oz - wellness kitten wet food
4-5 oz other wet food - not specifically kitten

On all wet diet for 9 days or so:
3 oz wellness kitten wet food
10-11 oz other wet food, not kitten

Since yesterday:
1/4 cup or less - Acana wild prairie dry food
8 oz wet food - none are kitten
Unfortunately, he was used to getting wet at noon when he was only on wet and he's sorely missing that. However, in a couple of weeks I will be going out of town for 6 weeks and there will be no one to give him that and so I introduced dry back in his diet

I know he was getting more calories on the Kitten dry and wet than he's now, probably. But am I still feeding him more than I should? I think the issue of balance is important since he's a kitten (7 months in a couple of weeks) but having all life stages food, which I am finding tricky. The canned food that he's on - mostly Wellness grain free adult - say that he needs 6 oz per day. So according to that we are feeding him more.
So my question, I guess is, should I decrease his food or let it remain since he's a kitten and growing?
I just do not want this to be a chronic issue that we have to deal with in a year or so when he's no more a kitten.
Any opinions/ shared experiences will be highly appreciated.

For the wet food, he should be getting 1/2 oz to 1 oz per pound of body weight. Then, you can supplement with dry.

When Tumbles was that age, we would feed wet in the AM and PM then he'd eat dry mid morning, lunch, mid evening, then just before bedtime. We were feeding him about 3/4 C dry a day. We'd put some in the bowl, put it down, then pick it up when he walked away.

Tails jumped from 3.5 pounds at 8 weeks to 5.65 pounds at 11 weeks, and he's only up to 8 pounds at 6 months. I was also worried when he was basically exploding, but kittens frequently grow in spurts. As someone who had to grow from 5' 6" to 6' over one summer, I can say its normal for any species in puberty.

@stephanietx. So I am in the upper range now. My regular schedule is feeding wet at 6-6:30 am and 6-6:30 pm and a snack before we go to bed. Earlier Calvin had dry available all day and then when I had him on wet food only, I supplemented with wet food at noon. For the last couple of days I left out dry in the afternoon. But eventually will leave out the dry in the morning after they eat their wet food so that they can graze till dinner time.
By the way, saw Tumbles's pic - how adorable!

@rad65: Have seen growth spurts too and Calvin seems rather lethargic during those. But are they supposed to look chubby while growing? He does look chunky these days and hence my concern.

Tumbles is quite chunky! I've noticed he looks chunkier right before he grows, too. We have cut back on the amount of dry food we give him now since he's getting a bit older.

Tails does look chubby before growth spurts. My roommate is convinced he's going to be a fat cat because he looks chubby half the time, but after the spurt he looks longer and skinny. Sometimes I think he looks strange because his body has quadrupled in size relative to his head since I got him. I always have t do a double take since I'm used to seeing my tiny little kitten.

Oh the relationship between the chunkiness before the growth spurt totally makes sense. Come to think of it, I did see the progress that way but did not connect the dots. Thanks stephanietx and rad65!
Funny how Calvin was listed as a "small" sized cat when we got him. Not till we had Calvin and Hobbes side by side did we realize how much Calvin has grown.

So now that I know how much I am supposed to feeding my kitties, let me just share what I am doing and the fact that this is not working out. Hope someone can help me with this.

Before Hobbes arrives: Calvin ate about 7-8 oz of wet food and about 1/8 – ¼ cup dry (Wellness kitten). Often times there would be leftovers of the dry. Calvin was having soft poop and so I stopped the dry. In 3 months he has grown from 4 lbs to 8 lbs (he is currently 7 months and I got him at 4 months) and is a little chubby.

Hobbes and Calvin together:
Hobbes seemed weak and malnutritioned when he got him about 3 weeks ago. He is 7.5 months and was 6 lbs 3 weeks back. He has put on some weight recently but smaller than Calvin.

So around the same time that Hobbes arrived, we were stopping Calvinâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s dry food for his tummy troubles and had both on only wet food. They ate 5.5 oz can divided among the 2 at 6 am, another 5.5 divided at 6pm. A 3 oz divided at noon and another at 11pm. So each were getting a little over 8 oz – Calvin in fact a little more than Hobbes.

Then I started replacing the wet food at noon with a tiny bit of dry. This is what I was doing till yesterday. Now my kitties always seem hungry and are constantly begging for food, especially Calvin. He tries to bully Hobbes and eat up his food. He at times hisses and growls at Hobbes, who gets scared and tries to leave his food bowl for Calvin but we do not allow than. We sit between the 2 when they eat.

My ideal situation (and purely from a selfish human need aspect) is to feed them 1) wet at 6-6:30 am, 2)leaving out dry to nibble on during the day when no oneâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s home, 3) wet food at 7pm and 4) a little snack at 11pm. So today I decided to see if Calvin has the self-regulation that he had earlier and if Hobbes had it too. They got their 2.25 oz of wet each at 6:30 am and then at 8 am Calvin was vocalizing for food and Hobbes was also right there pacing the kitchen as they both do. I wanted to try and see what happened if I gave them some dry. I put a little less than ¼ cup in each oneâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s bowl and they gobbled it up in a few minutes and now seem content and playing. Also when I set the bowls down, Calvin constantly tried to growl and chase Hobbes off his bowl. So seeing this I have a couple of concerns:
1)\tAm I underfeeding them considering they are technically still kittens? How to ensure that I am not?
2)\tHave they become little piggies with no self regulation and I should not attempt to free feed them (I am not for unlimited free feeding, but measured food)? I also fear that when we are not around Calvin will eat up Hobbes;s food.
3)\tWorms? But the reason I do not think that may be the case since they are both putting on weight. With Hobbes we see the improvement more starkly than Calvin who is a little chunky.
4)\tDo I leave out a ton of dry food at multiple locations around the house so that the 2 get over their need to eat all in one go? Perhaps they may overstuff themselves initially but then their internal regulation will kick in?

Would appreciate any suggestions that you may have. What would you have done? Some of you in the past suggested that I can just feed wet food to the kitties at 6 am and 6pm and they do not really need the dry during the day. But then it seems that the 2 are hungry quite a bit and still being less than 1 year, I do not want to mess with their growth.

Four meals a day is a lot, I feed mine two meals a day so they don't always expect food. I'd guess your cats are used to basically always getting fed, which is why they are vocal the second they start getting peckish. Sometimes my cats will start crying for food an hour or so before a meal because they're greedy . I think that's all calvin and hobbes are doing, it's just that they do it before every one of their four meals as opposed to my cats doing it before their two wet meals, so you are thinking they are always starving when they're just being like impatient little kids.

And for the dry, try putting it in their food bowls during the morning wet meal. The way you're doing it now, it's acting like another meal and the kittens get excited and eat it all. If you leave dry food out right away, they'll go back when they get a little hungry to nibble, and it should last longer. You can also try filling their dry up to maybe 1/2 a cup, just so there's always food around. As kittens, it really is hard to overfeed, and they aren't likely to stuff themselves past capacity (that's something us humans tend to do more often).

I wouldn't worry about worms, my kitten is about 6 months and could eat four 3 oz wet meals a day and still find room to polish off his 1/3 cup of dry. My kitten also used to push my other cat out of the way for dry food, and I was worried about it as well, but that went away over time as the two got to be better friends.

My kittens are all about seven to eight months. A couple of weeks ago they stopped finishing all of their food and seemed not to need as much food as I was offerring. I feed three times a day, am, pm, and late night snack before bed. As of two days ago, they are all gobbling up every last morsel and seem to be begging for more. I worry too about if I am feeding tooooo much or not enough. I think they are going through another growing stage and might need a bit more now. I figure kittens should be fed about 25 calories per pound, but this doesn't seem enough for them. They are all in good weight though with a bit of belly jiggle . I think until they are adults, you need to adjust according to the age, rate of growth, and how their body condition looks. I find if I stuff tooo much into them, then the loose poops come. My kittens get about the same portions per day you are feeding! about 9 oz. wet and 1/2 cup dry, split into three meals.

Hey again, after our PM's yesterday, I re-evaluated the amount I have been feeding my kittens and figured calories. They have been getting way too many calories, and that is why they are having some loose poops. And putting on some pouches . According to the bag on Wellness Core day. A cup of dry is 546 calories. So in a quarter cup there is 134 calories and I was giving them two feedings of that. So right there is 268 calories and on top of that they were getting all that wet food about another 300 - 400 calories. That's over 500 calories a day YIKES . They are such piggies and I started feeding them more than they really require. So I am cutting back a bit on those three feedings a day I was mentioning, i.e., still three feedings but less dry for sure. I will see how that goes, according to the feline nutritionists, kittens should get about 30 calories per pound. So eight pounds would be 240 calories. that just doesn't seem like enough to me though.

Originally Posted by Feralvr

Hey again, after our PM's yesterday, I re-evaluated the amount I have been feeding my kittens and figured calories. They have been getting way too many calories, and that is why they are having some loose poops. And putting on some pouches

. According to the bag on Wellness Core day. A cup of dry is 546 calories. So in a quarter cup there is 134 calories and I was giving them two feedings of that. So right there is 268 calories and on top of that they were getting all that wet food about another 300 - 400 calories. That's over 500 calories a day YIKES

. They are such piggies and I started feeding them more than they really require. So I am cutting back a bit on those three feedings a day I was mentioning, i.e., still three feedings but less dry for sure. I will see how that goes, according to the feline nutritionists, kittens should get about 30 calories per pound. So eight pounds would be 240 calories. that just doesn't seem like enough to me though.

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I was just writing an response to this quote and I just received your PM and thought I 'd respond to this first. I think I calculated yesterday and I am feeding Calvin close to 280-300 calories and Hobbes eats a little less. So I am feeding them more than I should too. But then again, as far as kittens go, I hear that they should be fed on demand, and much self regulate etc, which makes sense too. So I do not know how they can be overfed. Who knew feeding kittens would perplex me so much.

Originally Posted by rad65

Four meals a day is a lot, I feed mine two meals a day so they don't always expect food. I'd guess your cats are used to basically always getting fed, which is why they are vocal the second they start getting peckish. Sometimes my cats will start crying for food an hour or so before a meal because they're greedy

. I think that's all calvin and hobbes are doing, it's just that they do it before every one of their four meals as opposed to my cats doing it before their two wet meals, so you are thinking they are always starving when they're just being like impatient little kids.

And for the dry, try putting it in their food bowls during the morning wet meal. The way you're doing it now, it's acting like another meal and the kittens get excited and eat it all. If you leave dry food out right away, they'll go back when they get a little hungry to nibble, and it should last longer. You can also try filling their dry up to maybe 1/2 a cup, just so there's always food around. As kittens, it really is hard to overfeed, and they aren't likely to stuff themselves past capacity (that's something us humans tend to do more often).

I wouldn't worry about worms, my kitten is about 6 months and could eat four 3 oz wet meals a day and still find room to polish off his 1/3 cup of dry. My kitten also used to push my other cat out of the way for dry food, and I was worried about it as well, but that went away over time as the two got to be better friends.

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Makes absolute sense. Before I pulled off dry food following Calvin's tummy troubles, I did measure out the dry in the morning. It is when I did that was when I added the wet meal at noon. The meals in the morning and evening at the substantial ones. The one late at night is a little bit of treat - can be 1-1.5 oz wet food, a little fancy feast appetizer or some dry treat. I guess I will have to keep the dry food out in the morning as I used to and hope they will not eat everything before their 6pm meal but I think they will be able to figure out the routine in a few days.

I have already cut back a bit in the calorie amounts and the kittens poops are now firmed up again . So it was just tooo much food recently. They seem alright with the lesser amount and finish all of the food quickly. Even Magilla's food has been cut down, she was getting to be a little pudge. She only weighs six pounds and is tiny. Now she eats all the food up in one feeding .