How to free feed kitten who only eats wet food?

I have an 8 week old rescue kitten who just got over a bad bout of coccidia.  She's underweight so the vet wanted me to free feed so she can eat all she wants.  Unfortunately she won't eat anything but wet food, which I can't leave out all day.  I've been feeding her about 4 times a day and leaving he dry food out, just in case she'll eat it.  She's still meowing for food all day as if she's starving.  Any advice or ideas for a dry food that might be extra tempting?  The only thing I've found she'll eat is Fancy Feast shrimp and salmon.  I know it's junk, but the vet said to give her anything she'll eat for now.

Hello nellecv, welcome to TCS

Your kitten is still very young at 8 weeks old. Kittens need lots of proteins to grow and proteins comes from wet food and not from dry food. And kittens also need to eat often during their growing age.
As you mentioned that you feed your kitten 4 times a day and she is still meowing. That is because she did not have enough to eat even though she is fed 4 times a day. What's the amount given each time? You have to experiment a little with the amount while feeding her. For example if you give xxx amount of food 4 times a day and she is still hungry, then adjust the amount to xxxx. Or if you can feed her like 5 or 6 times a day, then the amount don't have to be so much. So less food, more times. More food, less times. Give her as much as she can eat at one sitting and from there you can gauge the amount to feed her each time.
Kittens eat a lot as they are growing. Dry food is full of carbohydrates and that is no good.

Buy a programmable timed feeder so your kitten has access to several canned food meals during the day in addition to the bwl of dry food. I like the Petsafe 5 compartment feeder. There are other brands of feeders like Catmate. It's fine to leave canned food out in a feeder all day. Canned food is already cooked so it won't go bad. It may get dry but most cats are ok with that. You can freeze portion sizes of canned food and pop the frozen food into the feeder to keep it fresher longer. Since it takes a bit of time for a frozen chunk to defrost, the first available meal should be canned food straight from the can.

You should feed the kitten as much food as she wants to eat. Four meals may not be enough so you may need to add more in addition to the dry food. She won't get fat at all because she needs all that food to grow. Try to add meat based canned foods into your kitten's diet. Seafood isn't great to give all the time but keep feeding it for now until you fnd other foods she will eat. You don't necessarily need a kitten specific canned food. It's fine to feed "adult" canned foods since most are formulated for all life stages. You just need to feed more of the food to a kitten.

What dry food are you feeding? Does your kitten eat it? An all canned food diet is preferrred by many TCS members but kittens should have both types available.

You can ask the vet about supplementing your kitten with a high calorie supplement like NutriCal or a prescription high calorie canned food to gain some weight.

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely get a timed feeder, because I can't get home to feed 6 tines a day! I'm currently supplementing the wet food with Purina Pro Kitten, but she won't touch it anyway. Once the poor little thing is stabilized I plan to switch to a higher quality food like Blue Buffalo wet and dry. Out of curiousity, why isn't seafood okay all the time?

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/can-i-feed-my-cat-a-fish-based-or-fish-flavored-diet

Cats can get addicted to eating fish and will not eat anything else. Some cats may develop urinary issues from a fish based diet. Fish / seafood once in awhile is ok as a treat or meal but should not be fed all the time.  Maybe you can try adding a little fish canned food or crushed up fish freeze dried treats on top of meat canned food to entice your kitten to eat.

You're lucky she loves wet food, most people have the opposite problem. No issues leaving wet food out all day. It's already cooked, the worst thing that happens is it dries out. You can do a couple of things to fix that. Adding some extra water mixed in the food will help it not dry out, and as other said you could also look into an auto feeder. I leave wet food out all day sometimes. No problems. And if you aren't already consider mixing some KMR into her wet food meals to give her extra calories. 

If your plan is to feed your cat dry food you start by mixing the dry and wet food little by little until all is dry food.

nellecv said:

 
I have an 8 week old rescue kitten who just got over a bad bout of coccidia.  She's underweight so the vet wanted me to free feed so she can eat all she wants.  Unfortunately she won't eat anything but wet food, which I can't leave out all day.  I've been feeding her about 4 times a day and leaving he dry food out, just in case she'll eat it.  She's still meowing for food all day as if she's starving.  Any advice or ideas for a dry food that might be extra tempting?  The only thing I've found she'll eat is Fancy Feast shrimp and salmon.  I know it's junk, but the vet said to give her anything she'll eat for now.

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First, as others mentioned, switch the fish for another protein. And try the Fancy Feast Classics line which is pure protein, no fillers. It isn't a bad choice overall.  It comes in several flavors - we buy boxes of 30 that has a chicken, beef, liver and turkey.

Not all kibble is "awful".  There are some which are pretty high in protein such as Orijens.  The Cat and Kitten formula is the highest in protein at 90% if I'm remembering correctly.  There is a small amount of seafood in it but it is mostly other proteins.  

I would not try to transition to a whole kibble diet as someone else mentioned, perhaps they just misunderstood you.  You're lucky that your kitten prefers wet food. Ours do also, we only use the kibble in small amounts usually overnight or, as a snack - not more than a couple of tablespoons.  But a kitten, as you know, does need more nutrition.  The feeder is a good idea. I'm not a fan of leaving out wet food regardless that it is cooked but so many people have mentioned it's ok to do so I'll go with the majority on that!

I also currently have an 8 week old rescue and I leave wet food out for her round the clock. I put about one ounce out first thing in the morning and she finishes about half of it in the morning then the rest of it by the afternoon. Then in the late afternoon/early evening, I put another ounce of wet food out which she'll nibble on for dinner then by the time I go to feed her in the early morning, the food is either almost all gone or gone. She always has a little bit of kibble to supplement if she gets hungry, but my plan is to discourage her from eating dry food. So far so good. She's only eating a little bit of the kibble as a snack if she gets a little hungry between the wet foods.