Help! Kitten lately throwing up :(

Hey everyone.

So I'm new to this forum and in general new to this whole kitten/cat world.

Ever since I got Gatsby I have been feeding him Natures Variety Instinct Raw boost Chicken formula (dry food).

He's loved it from day one and now that he's gotten a bit bigger he's now eating almost a full cup of food.

About a week or so ago I noticed that when I placed his food for breakfast he began to wolf down his food. 20 or so minutes after I heard this weird noise and when I went to the kitchen noticed that Gatsby has thrown up.

I took him immediately to the vet and the vet said that he was fine that maybe the cause of him throwing up was because he was eating too fast. I took the opportunity to also do Gatsbys vaccines.

Well fast forward to yesterday when I got home from work I noticed that again Gatsby had thrown up again. It wasn't fresh it looked dry so I can only assume that it had happened earlier in the day.

Gatsby doesn't free graze all day I usually leave a bowl of food around 8am and the food gets taken away at 10pm. Am I in the wrong for doing this?

I'm afraid that him throwing up is going to make him lose weight and then he'll become lethargic. I'm not sure but I feel like he's on the skinny side already (Doctor weighed him and he weighed in at 3.6 pounds)

At this point I'm considering maybe buying him vitamins just in case he's missing those extra calories.

He's still really active but I'm really worried.

Any help or advice is really really appreciated.

Gatsby looks very young and very cute! He does need access to dry food all the time, until he is about a year old. He should also have meals of wet food throughout the day. Kittens can eat as much as they want.

So should I leave food throughout the night?

I left his food about an hour or so later than the 10:00pm mark just because I was concerned he might be a bit hungry since he had thrown up but he would just look at the food and then just go to his water bowl and drink lots of water.

Yes, you should leave the dry food down all of the time. You should also feed wet food 3-4 times a day.

oh he's adorable!! Kittens should be able to eat as much as they want. Leave a bowl of dry down all the time & make sure you keep it full. I used to put a silver pie tin down. When you are there & it's either breakfast or dinner, I would open a can of wet food & give him that. Dry food only is not good for kitty, be sure to read this, it's very informative!  http://catinfo.org

Typically what I do right before bed is open a can of food, it usually doesn't last til morning but at least my cats aren't starved too much before breakfast time.

Thank you   I'll read the link. I'm just abit iffy on wet food. I heard that its not good. 

hellogatsby said:

Thank you :heart2:  I'll read the link. I'm just abit iffy on wet food. I heard that its not good. 

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Wet food is great! Make sure that the first ingredients are meat. The brand of dry food you're already purchasing makes great wet food.

Yeah. They actually introduced some new wet food thats like actual little chunks of meat but dont know if i should mix it in with the dry food. I dont want Gasby to become fincky eater 

If your kitten will eat the mixture up right away, then it's fine to mix canned food in with some dry food. If your kitten is the type that picks at food all day, feed dry food and canned food in separate bowls.

right now, the carb content on that dry food is about 17%. The link I gave also discusses carbs & what the right amounts are. the lower, the better. I do know about two brands that make a very good quality dry food that's low in carbs, but you're gonna pay for it. Wysong Epigen 90 & Young Again Zero carb. Those are the only ones I'll feed to my cats, as a treat of course.

Just be careful if you do start on the Instinct wet food, it's high in fat & now I have a tub gut cause she's been on it for the last 3 years. Another GREAT wet food is Weruva, non fish. The costs are comparable & Chewy has the cheapest price on Nature's Variety, especially if you go on autoship. NV makes a good product, I could feed anything within their Instinct line, freeze dried, wet, treats. The only downside is the fat.

oh & I totally forgot the point of the post - got sidetracked on the wet food. I used to have a cat that would gorge itself & then yack up all the food. Then it would eat it again which is gross but it's really not because it's undigested. So I would monitor her, when I heard her at the food dish, I would get up & take away the food after she had about a 1/4c. Then after a few hours I would set the bowl back down. I did this for awhile but it didn't help, as soon as I'd leave for work or whatever, she's gorge herself again.

If you leave food out all the time, your kitty will (hopefully) learn that he can have food anytime he wants & so he'll quit trying to suck it all down at once

 Thank you!!! I totally appreciate these type of advice since they come from experience! Yeah i mean sometimes hes not even chewing just swallowing. I literally have to distract him at times so he can slow down  

hellogatsby said:

 Thank you!!! I totally appreciate these type of advice since they come from experience! Yeah i mean sometimes hes not even chewing just swallowing. I literally have to distract him at times so he can slow down  

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Yeah, he definitely needs more. Try leaving the dry down and adding meals of wet. I think he'll be like a new cat.