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- Feb 21, 2015
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Hi all,
I have questions about raw feeding kittens, mostly concerning amount. Some backstory -- I have two kittens, Mouse is 5 months old and weighs 6.5 lbs., and Linus is 3 months old and weighs 3 lbs. They are amazing and healthy and energetic, loving their raw (prey model) diet, are gaining steadily, and they look really good -- particularly Mouse, who is very muscular, Linus is still kind of a pipsqueak (vet thinks he was possibly the runt -- so I have a holistic vet that I use and love, but I needed to bring them to a conventional vet for FeLV/FIV testing, and she was slightly skeptical, or just not particularly knowledgable about raw feeding and nutrition -- mostly wanted to make sure that appropriate nutrition was being achieved with the home-preparation aspect -- but she gushed about how good they look).
I understand that raw fed kittens can be fed as much as they want / should self-regulate, however, mine seem insatiable. I recently cut them off at about 10% of body weight, as it seems that there is no limit to how much they'll eat. I am wondering if cutting them off is okay, or if I should really just feed them unlimited. I feed meals 4x / day, approx every 6 hours, with some additional snacks of eggs and sardines and pinkie mice and such. There is basically nothing they don't eat immediately, and if I were to feed them their next meal immediately, they'd gobble that up right away, too. I do suspect that some of this may be social / competition between them (they are in mad crazy love, but do exhibit competition around food and toys). Before Linus came along, there was a point that Mouse would have enough and walk away. Linus is super grabby about food, and I feed them in separate rooms so that Linus can't try to steal from Mouse once he finishes. I've tried increasing Linus's food but it doesn't seem to change anything. It could be that Linus is insatiable, and Mouse is just concerned that resources are scarce / will go to the pipsqueak if he doesn't snatch them up.
Also, if I go on feeding 8-10% of body weight up until about 1 year-old, before cutting back to closer to 4%, then as I understand it, they will be steadily increasing how much they eat until they're a year old (assuming they won't / don't stop growing earlier, which I suppose is possible). I want to make sure this is the correct understanding (I may just be in some kind of denial about the cost of feeding them this way increasing steadily for the next 7-9 months or so :/).
Thanks
I have questions about raw feeding kittens, mostly concerning amount. Some backstory -- I have two kittens, Mouse is 5 months old and weighs 6.5 lbs., and Linus is 3 months old and weighs 3 lbs. They are amazing and healthy and energetic, loving their raw (prey model) diet, are gaining steadily, and they look really good -- particularly Mouse, who is very muscular, Linus is still kind of a pipsqueak (vet thinks he was possibly the runt -- so I have a holistic vet that I use and love, but I needed to bring them to a conventional vet for FeLV/FIV testing, and she was slightly skeptical, or just not particularly knowledgable about raw feeding and nutrition -- mostly wanted to make sure that appropriate nutrition was being achieved with the home-preparation aspect -- but she gushed about how good they look).
I understand that raw fed kittens can be fed as much as they want / should self-regulate, however, mine seem insatiable. I recently cut them off at about 10% of body weight, as it seems that there is no limit to how much they'll eat. I am wondering if cutting them off is okay, or if I should really just feed them unlimited. I feed meals 4x / day, approx every 6 hours, with some additional snacks of eggs and sardines and pinkie mice and such. There is basically nothing they don't eat immediately, and if I were to feed them their next meal immediately, they'd gobble that up right away, too. I do suspect that some of this may be social / competition between them (they are in mad crazy love, but do exhibit competition around food and toys). Before Linus came along, there was a point that Mouse would have enough and walk away. Linus is super grabby about food, and I feed them in separate rooms so that Linus can't try to steal from Mouse once he finishes. I've tried increasing Linus's food but it doesn't seem to change anything. It could be that Linus is insatiable, and Mouse is just concerned that resources are scarce / will go to the pipsqueak if he doesn't snatch them up.
Also, if I go on feeding 8-10% of body weight up until about 1 year-old, before cutting back to closer to 4%, then as I understand it, they will be steadily increasing how much they eat until they're a year old (assuming they won't / don't stop growing earlier, which I suppose is possible). I want to make sure this is the correct understanding (I may just be in some kind of denial about the cost of feeding them this way increasing steadily for the next 7-9 months or so :/).
Thanks