i want to say no to free feeding but...

Hey everyone!

I first want to say I do apologize if there are 80 billion post like this one, but I did search and didn't see exactly what my questions are.

I have a now... 16 or 17 week old kitten, and she is amazing and great. When we got her, she was in foster care, however it was clear that she was a little skinny for her age as her vet told us. Right now she has surprisingly gotten so much longer, taller, and rounder than when we first got her 4 weeks ago.

You can still feel her ribs (I've heard this is healthy?), but i'm already worried about her getting overweight.

I apologize for that rant, but my questions are as follows.

I want to get her on scheduled feeding times. However, I am gone at school from about 7 in the morning to about 5:30 or longer if I have a basketball game. This is how I would want to feed her.

7:00am- (Wet food) fed by me

11:45am- (wet food) mom

4:25pm- (wet food) fed my my mom

8:00pm- (Wet food) -me

10:30pm (dry food)-me

***My mom could come home on her lunch and feed Nala at about 11:45, What I worry about with that is if something happened at her work and she could not come home.

Is it OK for her to go from 7:00 to 4:25, or not? That's a long time! I could leave a could tablespoons of food down for her to eat between that time, but then that goes back from the whole schedule thing.

And lastly, is she too young to be on a schedule?

Oh wait this is the last thing, she wont really eat her dry food unless she has to. She comes Meowing and pitching a fit and complaining until I give her wet food. Is that ok?

She's a smart one, wet food is better for kitties anyway: www.catinfo.org

9 1/2 hours is awfully long for a kitten to be without food. You could leave a measured amount of dry food out during the day, or freeze some canned food on a plate for a later meal (put it down the same time as her first meal, by the time it thaws it'll be time for her next meal). Once she's fully grown that schedule shouldn't be a problem, but while she's young you do have to figure out a way to make sure she gets a midday meal.

When my cats were still kittens, sometimes my days went that long and it was the best I could do. The were fine. Mine only got fed 3 times a day anyway.

peaches08 said:

When my cats were still kittens, sometimes my days went that long and it was the best I could do. The were fine. Mine only got fed 3 times a day anyway.

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I'd say since she's already 4 months old she would be ok if you're mother couldn't make it over on some of those days.

And once she is fully grown, I'd say she can even go to a twice a day schedule.  Or 3 times a day at the most would be fine. 

mrsgreenjeens said:

I'd say since she's already 4 months old she would be ok if you're mother couldn't make it over on some of those days.

And once she is fully grown, I'd say she can even go to a twice a day schedule.  Or 3 times a day at the most would be fine. 

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That's really good to hear, thanks.

Willowy said:

She's a smart one, wet food is better for kitties anyway: www.catinfo.org

9 1/2 hours is awfully long for a kitten to be without food. You could leave a measured amount of dry food out during the day, or freeze some canned food on a plate for a later meal (put it down the same time as her first meal, by the time it thaws it'll be time for her next meal). Once she's fully grown that schedule shouldn't be a problem, but while she's young you do have to figure out a way to make sure she gets a midday meal.

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I didn't even think about freezing the food, thank you for telling me that.

I do have to other questions that maybe you guys could help me out with also. I'm trying to make sure she is getting enough food/ not too much food. Her bag of dry food says she could eat as much as 6 oz a day. However, I feed her wet too, and she doesn't like her dry food as much. So, should I stick with the 6oz mark, because she rarely even eats close to that, although she is the most active thing ever! And also when i get her on schedule, should all the meals be the same amount of food, or does that not matter?

Thanks everyone!