how to fatten up a underweight 7 month old kitten

any ideas on how to fatten up a underweight kitten? cynder is extremly picky with his food, and i have noticed that he is a bit underweight. i have tried every food under the sun and he still will only eat tiny amounts of it. he is a small cat but when i look at him from above he has that hourglass shape, but tucks in quite a bit by the back legs and his hip bones stick out. what can i feed him that will fatten him up a bit? any suggestions would be helpful to say the least. he is active and playful. pees and poops normally so i know he is healthy. i just want to put a little more meat on his bones.

Are you trying only wet food?  IMO kittens do well with dry food left 24x7 to graze on, and wet food in small meals around 3x a day.   Worked for these two munchkins.  

I'd be more concerned with quantity over quality too if not eating enough, as this is when their brains and heart and body and everything are growing fastest so they need those calories.  If it takes junk food like friskies wet, I'd throw that on the plate.   And I take it you already experimented with textures?  Tried diced, gravy, minced, pate, etc?   Usually kittens are such hungry little monsters, hmm... 

i have tried every texture under the sun, and he seems to not really like dry food at the moment and i have had to resort to ff. but he seems to only wanna eat about 1.5 oz of the ff at a time.. i ahve resorted too also putting some out before bed as i think he prefers it to be more quiet when he eats. i would be happy if i could get at least a 3oz can in him a day, he kinda nibbles on his dry, but not a whole lot, right now he is eating friskies dry, he doesn't like his bb anymore. i expected him to be eating at least 2 3oz cans of wet a day and free feeding on dry but he is not even close to that.. he eats maybe 1/4 cup of dry a day and maybe,maybe almost a 3oz can of wet.

Poor lil guy, and the poo and everything is well formed, and the vets ruled out some medical issue?   Usually you don't want to feed too much fish (at least not big predator fish like tuna), but its generally highly palatable, so perhaps present some foods with fish as an ingredient but not a primary protein if it can be helped.   Then just look for the most rich foods you can find, and definitely stick with "kitten" ones and not any adult foods unless you know they are very rich.

Its probably not an issue, but I heard some cats can even be picky about the bowls they are fed in.   I invested in some hygienic flat glass plates, and figured this way their whiskers won't touch.

The cheaper dry foods are generally more palatable (since they spray them with flavoring), but some cats have issues with the coloring used, and Friskies does have a lot of coloring. I wonder if a cheaper but not heavily dyed food would be better. Something like Purina ONE for kittens, or Iams (my cats have always found Iams Kitten to be quite tasty).

He has been de-wormed and everything, right? Does he throw up a lot or anything like that?

Has the vet told you he's underweight? Because of the cancer, Lazlo lost a lot of weight. He looked skin and bones to me, though his lowest weight was 10 pounds (he's pretty long and lean, and was never fat). He's around 11 now, and his hip bones stick out and he's got that hourglass figure. He STILL looks skin and bones to me... but the vet says he's PERFECT, with just the right amount of fat layer on him. That means even our other "thin" cats are technicaly "overweight" and our two fat kitties must be obese.

Are you feeding him kitten food? Have you tried adding anything to the wet food? Mix in a little meat babyfood (beef, ham, or chicken - just make sure it's not more than 15-20% of total food intake) with it? Buy freeze dried beef liver treats, and powder them (crush between your fingers) on top of the wet food? Or sprinkle tuna flakes on top? Or sprinkle Fortiflora on top? (It's a probiotic). Or try sprinkling parmesan cheese (a little) on top - some cats really like that. Or drizzle tuna juice on top? Or mix a raw egg yolk into the wet food?

My cats never at more than 1 ounce or 1.5 ounces of wet food at any one sitting. They still don't. I have to feed them four times a day (as I no longer give them dry food).

But first, make sure he actually IS underweight. And he's still growing! Could be he went through a growth spurt, and his appetite will catch up.

thanks for all the ideas guys. i have tried sprinkling with tuna juice, cheese, cat treats, you name it ive tried it.. he will just decide thats it i don't like my food anymore, he did it when he was bout 4 months old as well, decided no more wet and ate bb dry kitten. i would put a bit of wet food down but he only licked at it and walked away, so i thought oh well he is a dry food kitty, but last week he went on the hunger strike again and noticed that i wasn't havingto fill up his dry for roughly 2 days, so tried some bb wet and he ate that for a couple of days, then the 3rd day turned his nose up at it, went and got some ff and he ate bout 1.5 ounces. im having to rotate the flavors every day ,also bought some whiskas kitten dry and he seems to eat a little of that, but i have some bb dry kitten mixed in there he is a small male, and is neutered but compared to what he was eating before he is eating not nearly enough, if it does continue i will have to make a vet visit i guess to find out whats going on..

Are you actually weighing him to monitor progress? Sometimes it is difficult to tell how much they are losing/gaining just by looking. One thing I use for underweight kittens is fromage frais, which is fresh unsalted cream cheese. A tablespoon twice a day can work wonders, and you can easily put a little on their gums the first few times till they decide they like it. Almost all kittens do and it is low lactose and high calorie. But some cats are just thin - my Ellie is thin and I have had her assessed by three different vets during her life because I was worried about her, but she eats, drinks, plays, and has bright eyes and a shiny coat. ANd eventually I decided that if she were human she woulod be a thin supermodel, that is just hte way she is.

And no signs of congestion or something that might be preventing him from really smelling his food well?  Hmmm... If the tuna juice doesn't work, then most likely Purina Fortiflora probiotic won't either, but apparently it tastes delicious.   Amazon online was the cheapest I could find it, and can be sprinkled ontop of wet or dry food. 

Making food into play at least for snacks might work.   If I throw Greenies treats or little kibble pieces, Wesley and Buttercup go into attack mode ears back and get really excited to chase and pounce on it then when biting into em even do the head shake thing... pretty sure its dead guys. 

Hope somethin' works out.