Is it time to start feeding my kitten less?

[whisperedthing]

Hey cat servants,

I have two kittens who are approximately 8 months old. Since they are kittens, I've been feeding them breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Up until they were about 5 months old, I fed them each half a 3oz can for all meals. I then began feeding them half a 5.5 or 6oz can for dinner and at a little over 6 months, I began feeding them half a 5.5oz can for breakfast too. So they've currently been getting about 7oz of wet food a day. They occasionally get dry food, like if we're going to be out for a while and they'll get a meal much later, or if we're running low on wet food I may compliment it with a topper as a meal, or if they're going through what seems like a growth spurt and begging a lot and seem hungrier.

However, recently our little girl, Luma, has not been finishing her dinner. She will occasionally not finish her breakfast either or will take a long time to eat, lose interest, and her brother will end up stealing the food. She always finishes her lunch, though, and her behavior is the same except for ignoring food or not finishing the food. She's still very playful and still very social with us. She's a skittish, fraidy cat - but overall, seems very normal. Her bathroom behavior is normal and she weighs approximately 7.3lbs (her brother, Bojji is about 8.5)

I know as kittens age and after they get fixed, they start to need less food. Is it time to start phasing out lunch and just feeding breakfast and dinner, with some treats or appetizers here and there?

(Cat tax)

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi
Kittens don't start to need less food until they have finished growing and maturing, which won't occur until after they're a year old, or for some big breeds not until they're two or older.

Please don't decrease the quantity of food or frequency of meals especially not for her brother. She could possibly start eating everything again, but even if not, don't drop one of the daily meals.

 

[whisperedthing]

Hi
Kittens don't start to need less food until they have finished growing and maturing, which won't occur until after they're a year old, or for some big breeds not until they're two or older.

Please don't decrease the quantity of food or frequency of meals especially not for her brother. She could possibly start eating everything again, but even if not, don't drop one of the daily meals.

So if she doesn't need less food, why do you think she may have stopped finishing it? Is it too much in one sitting, maybe? Because she only does it with breakfast and dinner - which is when she gets approximately 2.8oz of food, never with lunch which is 1.5oz. Should we add another meal time after dinner?

 

[Furballsmom]

Should we add another meal time after dinner?

You could definitely try this

 

[whisperedthing]

You could definitely try this

She started begging for food (sitting at her food mat and meowing) about five minutes ago, so yeah - I'm thinking of breaking up their dinner and adding this as a regular meal time for them. (that way I won't feel bad for her brother, who's currently away while she finishes her dinner)

 

[Furballsmom]

She started begging for food (sitting at her food mat and meowing) about five minutes ago

Aww, that brought such a sweet image to my mind

 

[tabbytom]

Is it time to start phasing out lunch and just feeding breakfast and dinner, with some treats or appetizers here and there?

Kittens are eating machines. Kittens eats lots and sleeps and pee and poo much. As kittens are of a growing age, they needs lots of proteins and minerals from wet food and wet food keeps them hydrated as these ingredients aids their growth.

Feed them as much as they can eat at one sitting and feed them 4 - 5 times day. You can roughly gauge the amount they eat at each sitting. If there's not enough food, they'll either sit and wait for more or start calling you sooner after the recent meal. They'll walk away when they are full.
Best is to give them timed meals so that they follow the routine.

Normal breeds like yours takes a year to reach maturity and when they reached 7 months, they go through a phase call growth spurt and they tend to eat more during this time till they are around a year + and the food intake will slowly taper off. After that, they'll eat less and less times per day but they have to meet the daily calorie intake of about 200 - 250 calories depending on how active they are. Very active cats usually needs around 300 calories.
Sao lets say if your cats eat more times than usual spread throughout the day, it means that they have not reached the required calorie count. That's why some cats eat more times than others. My boy does that, he eats several times a day and I counted what he has eaten, whether he finishes all the food or not, at the end of the day, he takes in around 250 calories.

Also, female cats are smaller in size as compared to males and therefore the amount of food intake is not the same and they are also lighter than the males.

Side track, by 7 months old, your cats will have all their adult teeth in place.

 

[Alldara]

Mone have always had growth spurts of eating more or less. I feed as much as they want for the first year.

Rather than removing a meal time completely, I remove an amount from the food I'm providing. When we didn't work from home we did breakfast, after work and before bed. Now they do get a lunch too. But it's something we can leave out if we leave in the AM. (Magnus needed smaller meals more frequently)

 

[ailish]

So if she doesn't need less food, why do you think she may have stopped finishing it? Is it too much in one sitting, maybe? Because she only does it with breakfast and dinner - which is when she gets approximately 2.8oz of food, never with lunch which is 1.5oz. Should we add another meal time after dinner?

2.8 ounces of food at once is a lot of most foods, especially if they are getting several meals a day. Aside from that, some cats are more grazers, which can be a problem if you have more than one cat. My cat averages about 1.5oz a meal 4 times a day. About 50% of the time she doesn't finish that all at once, she will come back to the dish one of two times and generally finish it by the next meal. My sister has a cat who gulps the same amount of food down in about 10 seconds. That cat was fostered in a garage with a bunch of other cats and is probably afraid she'll lose what she doesn't eat. My cat will also decide at times she doesn't want her food, and then come back in an hour and finish it all. Cats gonna cat.

 

[maggie101]

Hey cat servants,

I have two kittens who are approximately 8 months old. Since they are kittens, I've been feeding them breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Up until they were about 5 months old, I fed them each half a 3oz can for all meals. I then began feeding them half a 5.5 or 6oz can for dinner and at a little over 6 months, I began feeding them half a 5.5oz can for breakfast too. So they've currently been getting about 7oz of wet food a day. They occasionally get dry food, like if we're going to be out for a while and they'll get a meal much later, or if we're running low on wet food I may compliment it with a topper as a meal, or if they're going through what seems like a growth spurt and begging a lot and seem hungrier.

However, recently our little girl, Luma, has not been finishing her dinner. She will occasionally not finish her breakfast either or will take a long time to eat, lose interest, and her brother will end up stealing the food. She always finishes her lunch, though, and her behavior is the same except for ignoring food or not finishing the food. She's still very playful and still very social with us. She's a skittish, fraidy cat - but overall, seems very normal. Her bathroom behavior is normal and she weighs approximately 7.3lbs (her brother, Bojji is about 8.5)

I know as kittens age and after they get fixed, they start to need less food. Is it time to start phasing out lunch and just feeding breakfast and dinner, with some treats or appetizers here and there?

(Cat tax)
View attachment 441289

I have a very skittish cat that will only eat on the counter away from my cat Maggie. Maggie is a very slow eater and comes back a d forth 3 more times.peaches will steal her food when she leaves. To prevent that, Maggie eats in my living room on furniture with blockers around so peaches can't jump up

 

[maggie101]

Around 8 months kittens are teenagers so it is possible she is starting to eat less. My cat peaches,now 10,7 pds, would eat 3/4 5.5 oz. Now 4.5 oz sometimes less. Mornings she doesn't always feel well.

 

[whisperedthing]

I figured I'd give everyone an update since it's been nearly two weeks. I think I've found the issue and it has little to do with the amount of food, but what the food is. I've always offered my kittens a variety of proteins and brands to help curb picky eating, keep them interested in food, prevent allergies, and in the off-chance a food gets recalled, or reformulated, or turns out to be crap, it'd be easy to switch them to another.

Anyway - all that to say...little Luma has decided chicken is for peasants. Especially chicken pates. She has eaten some chicken tiki cat (shreds and mousse), and combinations of food (chicken & shrimp, turkey and chicken liver), but doesn't seem to like an excess of chicken - although her dry food is chicken, I account that to being like veggie straws. Very far from the real thing lol!

I realized that she never had a problem with lunch. Well - the Fancy Feast variety pack we were buying didn't have chicken in it! Whereas breakfast and dinner had a chance for chicken. We noticed she had very little hesitance eating when rabbit, beef, lamb, etc was offered so I'm thinking she either doesn't like the taste much anymore, doesn't like too much of it in a week, or it doesn't settle well with her tummy. I'll mention it to their vet!