Adjusting Kittens' Habits - Free Feeding to Timed Meals, Communal Bowl to Separate Bowls

Hi!

Just got my two kittens last night, and I've been letting them settle in. I don't want to freak them out while they're still getting comfortable, but I'm already planning on transitioning the kitties, which have been free-fed wet food, to timed meals. Additionally, I'm thinking of moving them from one communal plate to two separate plates. Even now, I'm not sure how much each one is eating (and, oddly they don't seem to be eating much generally). 

Does anyone have tips on how I can establish two feeding bowls? Do I just keep picking one up and moving them to their designated bowl? How can this be incorporated into trying to teach them how to eat timed meals? 

As for timed meals, they're twelve-week-old kittens and I'm home all day and night (studying for the bar exam). I don't want to leave out kibble at all, but I also want to make sure that the transition is slow and that they're eating enough. Right now, I'm considering meals at 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, and 9pm, in which I start off leaving the food out for an hour, and then taking it away for two. From there, I hope to transition to leaving the food out for less time. How does that sound to people?

Lastly, I put out three tablespoons (roughly) of wet food out for both of them this morning, and it seems like they still haven't finished it. I was prepared for them to eat a lot, and now I'm worried - are they eating too little?

Thanks for any tips and advice! I'm loving my little kitties, but I'm also a super nervous first time cat mom with a penchant for over-thinking things 

I am not an expert on cat nutrition, but in all honesty, I think they are too young to be transitioned to timed meals.  At 12 weeks, kittens should be offered however much food they want, and the best way to make sure that happens is to keep it available. If they were even a month older, I'd say maybe you can try it, but 12 weeks is really young for timed meals especially if they are not the types to eat much at once. Also to go 12 hours between 9 and 9 without their having access to food is just too long at that age.  

The decrease in appetite may just be because they are in a new place.  Where did you get them from? Is there someone you could ask how much they were eating before? Are you feeding them the same thing they were getting before or something new? Is it possible they don't like it?

ETA: regarding wanting them to eat separately, it's easiest when you begin timed meals to just feed them in entirely separate rooms, with doors closed if necessary. I think they are too young for this now as discussed above.  In terms of knowing how much they are eating, it's better at this age to just monitor their weight and make sure they are gaining. 

Congratulations on your two new furbabies! 

To transition them to their own plates, I think you should do just what you planned, just put out two plates and show them there are now two.  Keep moving one to the other plate if they keep sharing.  As far as transitioning to timed meals, since you have five specific times planned out, with an hour of the food down, you should be fine just to do that and see what happens, as long as they eat.  Your only issue is going to be that 11 hour period from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m.   That's a long time for them to go without eating, since they are still fairly young.  You might want to leave the final meal out all night for awhile, if that is what they are used to.

As far as how much to feed, that depends on what you are feeding.  I'm guessing you are feeding them canned kitten food.  Probably the same food they were eating before?  Right now they may not be eating as much as normal because they are in a strange place and may not be comfortable yet.  Once they feel "at home", that should change .  Then I would probably go by what the cans says, as far as their weight vs how much to feed, then break that down by the number of meals per day, and if they seem to still be hungry, feed them more, and if they don't eat it all, then feed them less.  It's really kind of a guessing game, and with kittens, they will go thru growth spurts, so some days will tend to eat much more than other days.  (Sorry I can't be more specific )

OH!  I see someone else has posted while I have been typing, and our replies are somewhat different.   Well...I'm not an expert in kittens by any stretch of the imagination, but I DO think as long as you're there to monitor them you should be ok, as long as they eat when meals are served.  That's the key when transitioning.  If you decide to wait another month, where's the harm?  This article talks about transitioning kibble eaters to timed meals.  It's not exactly appropriate, but you still might find it helpful:  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals

mrsgreenjeens said:

OH!  I see someone else has posted while I have been typing, and our replies are somewhat different.   Well...I'm not an expert in kittens by any stretch of the imagination, but I DO think as long as you're there to monitor them you should be ok, as long as they eat when meals are serve.  That's the key when transitioning.  If you decide to wait another month, where's the harm?  This article talks about transitioning kibble eaters to timed meals.  It's not exactly appropriate, but you still might find it helpful:  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals

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In all honesty, I am not positive either- I definitely am not a nutrition expert.  I do know a lot about kittens, but that is through foster experience and when all goes well they leave me at around 12 weeks so I am talking about kittens at an age where my knowledge gets spottier. I do hope others will also chime in too 

Hi Tulosi and MrsGreenJeans - thanks for your replies!

A little more information about my kittens: I received them from a foster mother at one of the local rescue groups, and knew from her that they would eat roughly half of a 13.2 oz can of wet food together per day. They seem to have scarfed a bunch since I originally posted, and have now probably eaten about 4.5 or maybe 5 oz? So we're getting close, and I'm hopeful that they'll be eating more now that they're more comfortable They're eating the exact same wet food they had at their foster, but I hope to transition them to raw if they take to it and like it.

I'm asking the foster now if she took food from the kittens at night or left it out. I think both of you are right, and the long night time period would be difficult for them. My main reason for wanting them to eat separately and at monitored times is because I worry Artemis, my girl, isn't eating enough, since Apollo, my boy, is more mischievous and will often want to play with her while she's eating so she doesn't get much time to eat. She's also distinctly smaller. Granted, she's a baby girl, but I'm also a worrywart   I'm hoping that having timed meals in separate bowls will ensure that she can eat as much as she wants, without her baby/big/I-don't-know brother bugging her all the time

It sounds like the most important theme, which both of you highlight, is making sure they eat enough for growing kittens - which, if I tried to transition them to timed meals, would take a lot more vigilance and monitoring. The monitoring might be too difficult right now so that I decide to continue free-feeding until they're older and I can be a little more lenient about making sure they eat as much as they want (but not starving them, of course!), or I might be able to just read my study guides while having one bowl on either side of me I'd love to hear others chime in as well!

EDIT: Just received word from the foster mom! She normally left kibble out at night for them. Maybe I can mix the free-feeding with the (1 hour on, 2 hours off) meal time by leaving their last meal out for the whole night? Would that mess up their appetite for their morning meal, and does that matter for transition purposes if I decide to go that route?

UPDATE: I ended up starting them on an easy meal-time-ish regimen yesterday, with 1 hour of food, 1.5 to 2 hours without food, and food left out at night (leading to about seven meals). I think it took them a meal or so to figure out that food was not always available (I've been tracking how much each eats per meal, and they definitely started off that morning on the lower end - although both ended up eating more that day than the first day they came back.) Since then, though, it's been surprising how quickly they learn! They'll come almost immediately once I announce the food, and eat in (more or less) one sitting. I've been trying to make sure they eat as much as they want - even with scheduled times - so if they finish the portion I've spooned out, I give them more during the meal time and give them their full hour to get around to eating it. I've been trying to make sure they eat until there's a little bit leftover, and have been tracking how much they eat so that later on I can portion off as much as they'd like from the get-go.

Also, I've started putting down two bowls. Adding scheduled meal times led to each cat intuitively each going to a bowl - my guess is that they actually prefer having their own bowl as compared to sharing one. Sometimes, if one's finished eating, the second one will bounce in between the two, but I've decided not to police bowl-ownership too heavily yet - with a long meal time, it's not something I could consistently enforce. Even more surprising, Artemis - who I was worried ate too little - has been completely ravenous! She definitely eats more than her brother, and I'm glad I've started giving separate bowls so that she always has an opportunity to eat while her brother is eating (as opposed to before, when he'd nudge her out of the way.)

Hooray, kittens and food!!

Hey!  This is a great update    (I just love their names, BTW )  So happy to hear that Artemis is getting her fill.  I'm also THRILLED to read you want to put these two on raw.  I, personally, don't think it's too soon to start.  The sooner the better, IMHO.  I didn't learn about good nutrition for cats until mine were all adults, and the transition to raw (from kibble no less  )  was NOT an easy one for my picky eaters.  But if they learn young, normally they take to it like a duck takes to water

In case you aren't aware, we have an entire sub-forum dedicated to raw and home-cooked food.  Going raw does take knowledge, because it MUST, MUST, MUST be nutritionally balanced.  But it's not really difficult once you learn what to do.  You just can't toss them a piece of meat and think that's it (I'm sure you already realize that).  Anyway, when you're ready, here's a link to learn all about raw.:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources

 Hi Mrsgreenjeans (that almost came out in all caps because my kitten apparently hit the capslock button on her way across my keyboard)!

Thanks for the resources! I've been scouring the forum for a while, but I might start an update thread to help catalogue what I'm doing and get feedback - I still haven't quite figured out what to do between "try a chicken thigh, less than 15% of weekly nutritional intake" and "order 20 lbs from Hare-Today/buy a grinder" but I'll keep poking around and see what options there are

In the meantime - Saturday, tiny bit of chicken time!

If you order from Hare-Today, you don't need a grinder...you can get it already ground!  That's what I used to do until  FINALLY we were able to progress to strips of meat

Mildlyironic, I forgot to  mention, there are commercially made raw products out there that are 100% nutritionally complete that you could try too.  Many Natural Pet Supply stores sell them.  They are already frozen and usually come in patties that thaw pretty quickly.  Primal, Nature's Variety, Stella and Chewy's are the brands that immediately come to mind that are the most commonly found.  Radcat is probably the best, but isn't as readily available.