Help with getting a stray gain weight!

We found an extremely emaciated female long-haired tortie outside our apartments yesterday. You can feel all her ribs and spine, as well as her whole pelvis. We took her to the vet today and she estimated the cat is 5-7, maybe even younger. It's hard to tell because she's missing so many teeth. She is 4 lbs 11 oz as of 6/15/15. I'd like to know the best way to get her to a healthy weight semi-quickly, as we can't get her vaccinated and all other things until she weighs more.

Right now she's eating a cycle of wet food in the morning and evening (blue buffalo, science diet, and by nature), and free fed dry food during the day (blue buffalo and/or friskies). I've also given her small amounts of shredded shrimp and some plain grilled chicken. She grazes all day, and does not rush when she eats. We'd like to keep her, and want her to be a healthy happy kitty.

Sounds like you're on the right path to putting some weight on her! Thank you for caring so much for her

You can also add/try kitten KMR milk, in a small dish by the food and water and see if that interests her. KMR milk is a kitten replacement milk, full of calories, which is used to add weight to cats in situations like yours. Might be worth a shot!

Kitten food can also be a good option for weight gain as it's higher energy than cat food. Just be aware that it can give some adult cats diarrhoea (simply because it's richer), so just keep an eye on her in case this happens. Asha only weighed 4lbs and some ounces when I got her. Kitten food worked well for her.

It's wonderful that this little girl has found such caring owners She's definitely lucky to have you :nod:

I bought some kitten milk replacement today while in town and tried it out. She seems to like it a lot! I'm just unsure the amount to give her over the span of a day. I started out with 1 tbsn powder and 2 tbsn water to get her started and see if she likes it, and she didn't finish it, though she almost did. but she also ate a half a small can of wet food, so that could be why. How much kitten milk would you suggest at one time, and how often during the day?