Anyone else have a hard time getting your kitten to eat?

My boy loves his food. He gets excited when there's food coming and almost always digs right in. Problem with him seems to be that he gets distracted and after eating just a bit, goes back to playing. He's kind of skinny and his sides look sunken in. He's full of energy otherwise, goes to the bathroom just fine. He's probably eating about half of a 5.5 ounce can of wet food and 1/4 cup of dry kitten food per day. (I feel like he should be at least eating 1/2 cup of the dry food considering the guidelines for his weight on dry food alone say 1 cup.) 

Has anybody else experienced this with their kittens?

How old is he? 

For my kittens I feed them wet food twice a day and keep dry out all day long, for the ones that can. Kittens are nibblers, at least mine are. They eat a little go play and come back to eat more. I think its funny how they will just eat dry food and act like they are starving when I put wet food out. 

How often are you feeding him? Kittens only have little tummies, and need smaller, more frequent meals than older cats. I'd be aiming for at least four mini meals a day, with dry food available for grazing.

His weight does sound concerning though. It sound like a vet visit is in order - kittens can deteriorate worryingly quickly. Better safe than sorry.

My kitten is 3 months. I read that for 3 months and older, 4 meals per day is good, so I've been trying to get him on a meal schedule. Maybe he's just not ready for a meal schedule quite yet...

Remember cats don't always go by the book!

Regarding number of feeds, I think the main reason people aim for two meals a day for adults is convenience (not that there's anything wrong with that). Naturally, cats would eat little and often even as adults - I like to think of it as mouse sized meals :lol3: I've always fed little and often - currently my two get around 6 mini meals a day. They do great like that.

The point I'm making is don't get too fixated on schedules at this point. The most important thing is that he's eating enough to grow up healthy

Don't forget that kittens can't afford to lose too much weight.  If he doesn't pick up soon, a trip to the vet for a check won't hurt anything but the bank account.  And if it comes down to it, the vet can give you an appetite enhancer for him.  It is oral, comes in a syringe, and you just squirt it in his bitty mouth.  I had to give Hekitty one when she recovered from pancreatitis, and withing 30 minutes she had eaten everything in the house short of the hardware on the doors and the electronics.  Works like a charm.  They gave me three doses, but it only took one to get her going.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

His sides are still kind of sunken in, but he's gotten bigger since I first posted, so he's obviously getting adequate nutrition. Maybe he just runs on the slimmer side I suppose. He goes in to get his FeLV booster soon, so I'll point it out to them, even if he just sees the vet tech, she can probably tell me if it's something to worry about or not.

I've been feeding them wet food in the morning and evening and leaving dry food out for them all night and most of the day too. He seems to eat more at night time now, and we also have a foster kitten who eats next to him, so he seems to be eating a little more cause of the social setting. He's so young... like a toddler who gets distracted by a tv when you want them to eat! lol!

Thought I would post another update. Vet said it's common for male cats to be lankier than females. He said male cats tend to be bigger than females, so all the nutrients go to their bones as opposed to females, where they put on "padding" and tend to be a bit more petite. He was 3.6 lbs when he was at the vet beginning of November and was 5.1 lbs when he went in for his booster. I can visually tell he's gotten bigger as well, even since his booster. So he's healthy and doing just fine.

He's still eating two wet food meals a day and I leave dry food out for him to graze on. I figure until he stops officially growing (probably around 1 year?), free grazing will be best for him. Gotta make sure he's getting in as much nutrients as possible. He's also on a different kitten food - Simply Nourish, one that specifies for his weight he eat 5/8 cup as opposed to Iams Kitten food, which specified he eat 1 cup. I feel he's getting more nutrients per bit this way as it has higher protein and fat content than Iams can provide.