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Old June 23rd, 2011, 03:21 PM
bluequeen bluequeen is offline
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How much should kittens eat??

My fiance and I recently got a new addition to our family after putting his 19 year old cat down 2 months ago. We are LOVING the little girl that we got I'm just worried about the amount of food she's eating. We've been giving her little amounts of cat milk with water, so it helps to ween her off it to just water eventually (she does have a water bowl as well). I have Purina dry kitten food and advantage kitten wet food. When I look at her bowl at the end of the day it looks like she's taken a couple kibbles of the dry food but she's not too interested in the wet food. She is FULL of energy so maybe I'm just use to how much food our CRF cat was consuming before we put him down but I'm just worried that maybe she's not eating enough but I don't know how to make her eat?!
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Old June 23rd, 2011, 03:46 PM
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sugarcatmom sugarcatmom is offline
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Sorry about the loss of your elderly cat, but congrats on the new kitten! How old is she?

My semi-feral momma had a litter of 5 kittens, and they ate huge amounts. The 2 that I kept still do! Do you know what your girl was eating before you got her? Perhaps she'd prefer some more variety. I actually think the best idea is to offer as many different types, textures and flavours of food as possible when they're young so they don't become addicted to one specific thing. Try some fresh raw meat as a treat, and mix up the brands of canned that you feed her. There are also lots of decent frozen pre-made diets available, making more frequent raw feeding easy, or you could make your own (as long as it's appropriately balanced).

I'm sure you know my opinion of feeding kibble, but at the very least, can you find a better quality one than Purina? If you want to avoid future health problems and minimize vet bills, the absolutely best thing would be wet food only.
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Old June 23rd, 2011, 03:58 PM
bluequeen bluequeen is offline
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We were told she's 6 weeks. I believe that they were just feeding her crappy Walmart Special Kitty food before so I can't imagine that she would prefer that over what she's getting. Then again my other cat won't eat the expensive nice natural Wellness stuff I bought her, will only eat Friskies wet food.
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Old June 23rd, 2011, 06:16 PM
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sugarcatmom sugarcatmom is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bluequeen View Post
We were told she's 6 weeks.
Oh wow, she's just a wee one. Told by who? That's awfully young to be taken away from her mom and siblings.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bluequeen View Post
I believe that they were just feeding her crappy Walmart Special Kitty food before so I can't imagine that she would prefer that over what she's getting.
The cheaper the crap, the more flavour additives they have to get cats to eat it. Can you pick up some canned Wellness kitten? Seems that most cats find it pretty tasty. You could try top-dressing it with pulverized Temptations treats if she doesn't like it at first.
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