Kitten is hungry all the time

I have a seven-month-old (almost 8 months now), formerly feral kitten, that I adopted from a rescue a couple of months ago. He has a HUGE appetite. When I first adopted him, the rescuer / foster mom said she had been feeding him 9 oz. of wet food (three 3 oz cans of Fancy Feast) a day to "fatten him up" since he had been feral, but I could take him down to six ounces once I adopted him. She had him about a week and a half before I adopted him. Prior to that he was with another volunteer foster person for a few days (not sure what she had been feeding him). And when he was feral, a woman had been leaving food out for him and his mom and brother.

Anyway, I switched him to a rotation of higher quality, grain-free, high-protein wet foods when I adopted him. He gets one full can a day (5.5 ounces), plus a VERY small amount of Blue Buffalo Wilderness duck dry food (this is just so he will take to a dry food if I am ever going to be out of the house and miss a feeding so I can leave him a little food out). 

Anyway, Magnus loves food. Not a picky eater at all. I have yet to determine if he has a favorite flavor or type of food because he just scarfs it all down indiscriminately, it seems.

Anyway, as soon as he eats a meal, he's crying for more food, literally within minutes after eating. I started giving him some raw giblets earlier this week as a snack (on top of what i was feeding him) and he seemed to really like that, however, I am not sure if I am overfeeding him by adding this to his regular meals. So now he's raiding the trash can looking for scraps so we have to hide the trash - otherwise, he's grabbing bits of egg or meat scraps out of it. And once he even stole a bite of pizza we were eating. 

I told my husband not to feed him table scraps so he wouldn't get into bad habits but now he's begging whenever we're at the dinner table or I'm cooking. (I know begging for food is normal though). 

Should I be feeding him more? He acts like he's starving.

My vet warned me former ferals can balloon up with weight because they will overeat if they can get it.

I had brought him to the vet a few weeks ago and his weight was perfect at that time. He still looks a good weight, he just has a ferocious appetite. He also has very good energy level. We play with him after dinner and after breakfast and get him leaping around after stuff to work off his energy. He's been climbing up his cat tree like a little panther and leaping around after his toy mice - doing flips in the air etc. So he's got good energy and plenty of exercise.

Here is a recent picture. Three weeks ago he weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces. I'm not sure what his weight is now, but he looks longer I think, so he's definitely still growing. The vet thinks he'll be about 14 to 15 pounds when full grown.

Here's a few pictures from a few days ago that show his body shape. He's mostly fur at this point. I felt around his middle and don't feel a big belly or anything (not does he seem super bony either, but feels about right)









here you can see his big feet

Awww what a sweet looking guy I'm assuming he's been to the vet etc. so I'm not even going to go there.  Is he on a scheduled feeding schedule?  Kind of sounds like it.  You may want to try feeding him smaller amounts throughout the day more times.  Instead of twice maybe try 3 times.  You can also feed his kibble at a different time than his wet.  This will break the meals up a bit for him as well. You can try one of those automatic kibble feeders and program it to feed during the times you want to.  Just some random thoughts here

I'm not sure what to say, our Ella is 4 months and eat's all through out the day because she has one of those automatic food + water dispenser's. I was told that kitten's should have the opportunity to eat through out the day..

HI Mike

Thanks for replying.

I do feed him three times a day, and this past week, I started trying out four times a day. He gets fed in the morning when I get up, then at noon, and then around 5 PM. This past week I started giving him a little bit of raw giblets around 7 PM or so.

Also I do wet food, and not dry, as I am told dry is not good for them. I just give him a very small handful of dry in the morning (maybe 15 pieces of kibble) as an extra snack. So the automatic kibble feeder wouldn't work really. And he was at the vet's three weeks ago and he had flying colors all around.

If he's getting the 5.5 oz of wet food a day, plus the small bit of dry as a snack, plus the occasional giblet or treat as an extra, is that the right amount of food? Or is that too much? I assume he's on a growth spurt for a little while longer?

@ Lana

Hm. Do you know at what age you don't free-feed the kitten?

He's almost 8 months now

I'm no expert, but it seems to me he's still a kitten since he's still growing. Kittens are fed more than adults. An equivalently sized adult is fed a 5.5 oz can per day. Maybe you can up it to 1.5 cans a day?

So give him 7 oz a day of the wet instead? I could do that.

Yeah. If he seems to be putting on weight you can decrease it, of course.

He looks like he may have some large cat (Maine Coon or Ragdoll??) blood in him. If that's true he may not finish growing 'til he's 2 yrs old.

He sure is a cutie. I wanna hug the stuffin' out of him. 

Ok thanks for everyone's advice. I will feed him more then and just monitor his weight.

@aeevr. He's a moggie as far as I know. The rescue lady said he was party Maine Coone, however, I notice she calls all long-haired cats as Maine Coon mixes. Looking at his face shape, he does not have that square muzzle look that they have (His face shape looks more like a Siberian to me, but I know that is rare. He's basically a big floofy moggie, no pedigree, but I don't care I hope he does get big though as I like big cats.

Anway, i will give him hugs for you. It was so hard when we first got him and he was shy with us and all I wanted to do was snorgle him. lol. Anyway, he's used to us now and is a lovebug with us. (still shy with strangers though!)

Also, I just want to add that with kittens, you're supposed to feed them as much as they want. It should say this on your food cans if the food is appropriate for all stages - which I think all the grain-free foods are. I really wouldn't worry about his weight until he's full grown especially if he went through a period of deprivation.

I've been feeding my cats as much as they want and now that their growth is tapering off so are their appetites, thankfully. They seem to be at good weights.

I'm thinking maybe when the cat's a year old? i know that's when you can switch from kitten food to Cat food. I'm not an expert either. How about try asking a vet? i'm sure they will be able to help you.

The vet told me he should be on adult food now. As for what to feed him, he wanted me to switch him to science diet, 1/2 cup a day dry food plus some science diet wet as needed.

I looked at the ingredients on Science Diet and I really prefer the food I've been feeding him as the ingredient list looked better. I've been feeding him a mix of grain free foods by Wellness, Authority (the PetSmart brand), TraderJoes brand and Blue Buffalo. His coat is shiny and he's healthy with good energy so I figure if it ain't broke....  And then I had been looking into a some supplemental raw feeding on occasion (feeding him chicken giblets sometimes for extra protein.)

Anyway, I will take your advice and give him a little extra and just watch to make sure he's not getting tubby.

Nuthin' wrong with a big appetite! Give him a big fat bloody slice of raw beef liver. Mmmmmmm.........

welll, I started feeding him 1.5 more oz of wet food (for a total of 7 oz daily), and then I also treated him with some giblets or a sardine (sardine was canned in water, no salt). Plus he still gets the very small helping of dry Blue Buffalo wilderness formula (maybe 15-20 pieces of kibble).

Then I read that sardines can give cats crystals? Is that only if you give them too much? How much is too much? I was planning on giving him one can over the course of a week (about three or four sardines I think).

Where did you read that?
 

redvelvetone said:

Then I read that sardines can give cats crystals? 

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Like tuna, I think administered as a treat, sardines are fine. Sardines would cause harm if fed as a dietary staple because they lack essential nutrients (taurine comes to mind first, of course).

so like an entire can over the course of a week would be considered a "treat"? (as long as he has other food sources).

You're still feeding him the prescribed amount of cat that (hopefully) provides him with all his essential nutrients. Everything you feed on top of that is supplemental - a treat -  and should probably be less than ~10% of his total caloric in take. It's like dessert.

 1/2 a sardine a day  seems like a great treat for a cat - way better than Temptations or Pounce - rich in omega3 fatty acids without the mercury.

Has he had a thorough fecal test done recently?  Poops normal?

Ritz lived on the streets for the first five months of her life, and I worry (too much) about her weight.  She is around 2.5 years old now; I adopted her two years ago.  She seems hungry a lot.  I notice that on the days I can fed her a bit of food in the mid afternoon, she is less hungry (MEOW MEOW MEOW) the rest of the day.  I'd always rotate the foods you feed her.

I too have read that feral cats may have a hard time self-regulating even when they are fed regularly.  So I'd just watch her, weigh her about once a month.

PS:  he looks normal weight to me and a real cutie.

HI Ritz

He had a fecal test when I first got him, and also when I brought him the the vet again a month ago they gave him another dewormer just in case, even though he was not showing any signs of anything. His bathroom habits seem good to me. He goes normally. The vet said his weight was perfect. At that time his weight was 7 lbs, 12 oz. I don't know what it is now ( I don't have a scale) but I'd guess he's more as even though he does not look fatter, he looks longer / bigger to me overall so he is obviously still growing.

I know ferals can get fat once they get access to regular food because, as you say, they don't self-regulate. My last cat was overweight (I didn't know as much about cat nutrition then and didn't realize I was doing a bad thing by free-feeding him dry food). Anyway, now that I am a little mroe informed (though FAR from an expert) I don't want to overfeed him and make him overweight, BUT he is a kitten so I don't want him to go hungry either.

Basically, whenever I go anywhere near the kitchen he is whining for food.

I started, this week, giving him about five meals a day. His biggest meal is at breakfast (I give him 3 oz of wet at that time, plus the small amount of kibble).

Mid-morning I give him a little snack (of either the sardine or a bit of raw giblet).

Mid afternoon  he gets 1.5 oz of wet.

Dinner time he gets 3 oz. of wet

Later that evening he may get another bit of giblet, depending if he seems hungry.

I am going to watch to see how he does. If he looks like he is getting tubby I'll cut out some of the food. 

Hopefully by a year old or whenever he stops growing he''ll be OK if I cut him down to 5.5 oz of wet a day plus some treats of raw food. I'm just trying to figure out what is the right amount for him to keep him satisfied but not to get fat.

aeevr said:

Where did you read that?
 



Like tuna, I think administered as a treat, sardines are fine. Sardines would cause harm if fed as a dietary staple because they lack essential nutrients (taurine comes to mind first, of course).

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I have to looks to see where exactly I got it but I had googled "sardines for cats" or something and came across some vet site where they said not to give cat fish.