How much to feed 6 month old kitten?

I thought cats were considered kittens until 1 year of age. What's the difference between this measure & show measure?

If you think about it there isn't a magic date at which they stop being kittens and start being adults, any more than there is with people.  Some kittens mature physically earlier than others, it's a gradual process, so you have to look at each kitten as an individual.  The show rule is for showing, but cats shown at 9-12 months are often obviously immature compared to older cats, just as there's a physical difference between the average 17yo and 27yo men.

Anyway, the important point is that kittens are growing fast and should be allowed to eat as much as they want so long as they are not getting fat.  And as I said above, condition scoring is the best way to decide if a cat or kitten is overweight.

I think the magic number is about 7 oz. I fed him that much for dinner last night, and he was satiated. in fact, he didn't finish his plate totally. There was about an oz left that he ate an hr later.

He did wake up hungry this morning and tried to hold Oksana and myself hostage with one of his temper tantrums. I can shoo him away, but I feel for her as she has to wrestle him to the death(or at least until breakfast) She's as much a part of the WWE Wrestlemania as he is, actually.
My inclination is to not feed him when he gets that way, b/c just like anything else he'll learn acting out pays. I feed them at their set times only.

Have any of you dealt with kittens that throw temper tantrums over food when it's not feeding time? Did you just go ahead and feed?

Kittens need to eat when they are hungry.  If he asks to eat, feed him.  When he stops growing his appetite will reduce.

Ok, I'll feed him when he asks, but I'm changing his name to "Bottomless Pit" like someone else already mentioned

He will have you well-trained very soon.  Life is so easy when you hand it over to a cat, and resistance is futile. 

You can go broke feeding kittens. And teenage boys. And a teenage boy kitten? Oh noes! :lol3:

OrientalSlave said:

He will have you well-trained very soon.  Life is so easy when you hand it over to a cat, and resistance is futile. 

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It's amazing the more I try to make sure they understand that they are the kids and I am the daddy (AKA I'm in charge), the more I concede that they run things and I just live here.

I have finally been getting through to Leonidas that I am the "top cat" with regards to his scratching & biting me. I think his previous owner let him use her hands as toys when he was a kitten. I have to hiss at him to scare him and occasionally bear my fangs and growl. I guess he thinks I'm a big cat, but it's the only thing I've tried that's working. He's very sweet when he wants to be, but when he lays in to me it's rough. I'm glad he's making progress there.

Like I said, your kittens will get your trained pretty soon.  Have you come across the saying that dogs have owners and cats have slaves?  There's a lot of truth in it.  There is also the comment about 'herding cats':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herding_cats

But they can be trained to a degree (not as much as you can!), and also the biting and scratching tends to die down anyway as they mature.  Mine two older ones will often come when I call them (not if they think a trip in the car is in the offing),  but they have me letting them out in the garden several times a day - the cat flap is shut at present because of the two kittens.  BTW they can't escape the garden.

Personally I like an easy life, and waiting hand and foot on my cats is mostly easier than trying to train the unwilling.

Actually the statement is, "Dogs have owners, cats have staff." I see it everywhere.

Some people say cats are not spoiled; they train us.

OrientalSlave said:

Like I said, your kittens will get your trained pretty soon.  Have you come across the saying that dogs have owners and cats have slaves?  There's a lot of truth in it.  There is also the comment about 'herding cats':



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herding_cats



But they can be trained to a degree (not as much as you can!), and also the biting and scratching tends to die down anyway as they mature.  Mine two older ones will often come when I call them (not if they think a trip in the car is in the offing),  but they have me letting them out in the garden several times a day - the cat flap is shut at present because of the two kittens.  BTW they can't escape the garden.



Personally I like an easy life, and waiting hand and foot on my cats is mostly easier than trying to train the unwilling.

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That's funny I've never heard that before. I do think I prefer "staff", in the quote although the former is the more accurate statement. I don't remember the last person who came in my room and woke me up early on a Sunday morning and lived to tell about it. My cat's do it without fear of reprisal

As far as Leo scratching & biting, I figured it would get better as he got older.
My fear is: What if it doesn't, and he's clearly set in his ways by then? Saying No! and then putting him down did nothing. The hissing and growling is working nicely. He's even being nicer to Oksana. That wasn't even my intention. I'm only having to do it once or twice per day now as well. He's a much easier cat now.

Both are quite common - cats having staff, cats having slaves.  If you type 'cats have s' into Google staff comes top of the list that pops up, followed by slaves.

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bigperm20 said:

Ok, I'll feed him when he asks, but I'm changing his name to "Bottomless Pit" like someone else already mentioned

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We call our 5 month-old boy "the Mouth with feet and a tail".  He's had a major growth spurt and has put on 2 pounds in the past month.  He can't get enough food lately, and there have been days this past month that he's eaten three 5.5 oz cans BY HIMSELF.  Hopefully he won't be a 'teenager' much longer.

My boy is a "3 canner himself"
I keep thinking he's going to get too fat, but he's turning it all into "man cat".

I feed my kitten three times a day with wet with Bone meal and cat vitamins with taurine mixed in it.

MeuzettesMom said:

I feed my kitten three times a day with wet with Bone meal and cat vitamins with taurine mixed in it.

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Is there any reason you add bone meal to a balanced wet food? I know that in large dogs, excess calcium can cause serious growth problems. . .maybe it's not so bad in cats, idk. I suppose a multi-vitamin and taurine won't hurt (although commercial foods already have vitamins and taurine added) but I do encourage you to look into the possible problems that an improper amount of calcium can cause. Commercial foods have all the calcium a kitten needs (even "adult" foods). I know that adding vitamins and minerals seems like a good thing but oversupplementation can be worse than undersupplementation sometimes. This might be a good thing to ask your vet about.

Bone meal actually is bad because it comes from 4-D animals. If you need to add calcium, which is only necessary if you are making the food yourself, eggshells are a safer option.

I figure the percentage of bone meal in the cats food isn't enough for a kitten.

I too have a muti vitamins with  taurine in it for the same reason. It is to make his brain grow, I tell him.

The bone meal is to make his bones grow. Hopefully he is getting enough protein for his mussels. I want a big musselily cat.

There isn't enough kitten food to help a growing cat. They do so much just over night. They have to have extra.

Don't you think?

What makes you think there isn't enough calcium in the food?  How muscular he ends up is down mostly to genetics and exercise, not diet.

MeuzettesMom said:

I figure the percentage of bone meal in the cats food isn't enough for a kitten.

I too have a muti vitamins with  taurine in it for the same reason. It is to make his brain grow, I tell him.

The bone meal is to make his bones grow. Hopefully he is getting enough protein for his mussels. I want a big musselily cat.

There isn't enough kitten food to help a growing cat. They do so much just over night. They have to have extra.

Don't you think?

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I VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY strongly urge you to not add supplements to a kittens diet with the guidance of a vet. You can do permanent damage to a growing kittens body with over supplementation. Giving too much calcium is just as bad as not giving enough.

If you are feeding a food labelled as being for kittens it has been formulated to provide the added nutrients, including calcium, needed by a growing kitten. There is no need for you to add more.