Feeding your kitten
A kitten’s dietary requirements are different to those of an adult cat. To help them grow healthy and strong, their diet usually includes:
Margie Scherk, DVM, DABVP, of Cats Only Veterinary Clinic in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, elaborated on this at the 2013 Central Veterinary Conference in Kansas City: “Young cats have growth requirements, which include an increased percentage of animal protein, as well as increased calcium and phosphorus.”1
Newly born kittens have lots of energy and are very active and playful, so their food needs to support their bodies as they burn calories through exercise and use energy for growth.
Feed your kitten wet and dry food
Wet and dry kitten food is commonly sold on the market, but each has its own pros and cons. To decide which option best suits your kitten’s needs, consult with your veterinarian for recommendations. Here are some pros and cons of each:
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Wet Cat Food Wet food has a high moisture content, which helps keep your kitten hydrated, cleans the urinary tract and keeps their kidneys healthy. However, wet food tends to stick to your cat’s teeth, which can lead to painful problems like dental disease and tooth decay.
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Dry Cat Food Dry food is easy to feed to multiple cats and helps remove plaque from their teeth, but some cats can eat too much dry food and become overweight, which can lead to arthritis, heart disease, blood pressure problems, respiratory problems and diabetes.
How to choose a quality kitten food
Determining which food is right for your kitten may take some time and effort at first, but the effort will be rewarded in the form of a healthy, happy, beautiful kitten.
The best way to find the healthiest kitten food is to compare foods, choose a few options and speak to your vet about which is best for your kitten. Consider the protein source of the food and choose a diet that doesn’t contain many unnecessary ingredients.
How much should you feed your kitten?
Kittens grow rapidly from a young age and eat a lot more food than adult cats. You want to give their bodies everything they need to grow, but you also want to help them develop healthy eating habits for the long term.
Feeding guidelines will vary depending on the kitten, but in most cases, following the feeding instructions on the bag or tin of food is a good starting point and can then be adjusted based on your kitten’s needs. Your vet can use metabolic formulas to calculate how many calories your kitten needs per day based on their current weight.
You want your kitten to be hungry when they come to their meal, but not so hungry that they eat the entire meal within seconds. Young kittens will often only eat ¼ to ½ cup of food at a time.
Your kitten’s daily calorie requirements may need to be increased if they are underweight. They may need to be reduced if they are gaining weight too quickly. Your vet will assess your kitten’s weight using a tool called a body condition score.
Healthy kitten growth rates
Kittens typically gain about one pound per month.
In most cases, kittens will weigh about 1 pound at 1 month (4 weeks), 2 pounds at 2 months (8 weeks), and so on until they are around 4 to 5 months of age.
A kitten completes most of its growth (in both height and weight) during the first year and then stabilizes. Many of the growth plates in the bones of a kitten’s skeleton close at about the age of one year.
Once the majority of growth has been completed, your vet will usually switch your kitten’s diet to an adult cat food.
How to feed your kitten
There are two main ways to feed your kitten: Each method has its pros and cons, so consider the details and speak to your vet about whether you should free-feed or limit your meals.
Ad libitum feeding method
If you free-feed your kitten, you would typically give them dry food and keep a bowl available at all times so food is always available, which can be convenient, especially for busy owners.
The advantage of this type of feeding is that your kitten can eat when they want and, ideally, regulate the amount they need.
The downside to this is that kittens may overeat and become overweight, and in multi-cat households, older cats may have access to and eat the kitten food.
This doesn’t always meet the needs of the older cat, and the dominant cat may control access to the kitten’s food bowl, which may result in the kitten not eating enough. If multiple cats share an ad libitum food bowl, it can be difficult to track each individual cat’s eating habits.
One way to deal with this is to use a microchip-activated feeder that only opens when your kitten’s microchip is scanned – just be careful not to let other cats guard this feeder and stop your kitten from eating.
Feeding method
Feeding kittens is the second method of feeding. It works well for wet food, which cannot be left out all day. Feeding specific amounts at specific times can also be useful in multi-cat households to monitor exactly how much and what type of food each cat is eating.
Feeding tends to be a more time-consuming task for owners and requires a more regular schedule. With this type of feeding, you need to make sure you can feed your kitty often enough. There are also cat food bowls that operate on a timer and automatically release a measured amount of dry food at a specified time.
Kittens can also learn to use their instinctive hunting behavior to obtain part of their daily meals, which helps maintain their mental and physical health.
There are plenty of interactive bowls, balls that slowly scatter dry food, and other options to ensure your kitty doesn’t run out of food within seconds.
How often to feed your kitten
Young kittens (6-16 weeks) should be fed several times a day if they are not allowed to feed ad libitum.
As they grow and burn calories, their bodies need to be kept fueled. Feed them every 6-8 hours.
Your vet can calculate your kitten’s total daily calorie needs and divide them up into multiple meals per day. By the time your kitten is 4 to 5 months old, you can usually transition to two fewer, larger meals per day, while keeping the total daily calories the same.
Why your kitten won’t eat
If your new kitten isn’t eating well or has diarrhea, call your vet to schedule another appointment.
Intestinal parasites can cause gastrointestinal problems in kittens, and it is common for kittens to come home already infected with worms. Kittens can pick up worms through the placenta before birth, and through their mother’s milk.
Some of these parasites can also be transmitted to humans, so good hygiene and preventive care are important.
Bottle Feeding/Orphaned Kitten
Sometimes mother cats can no longer care for their kittens and we need to rescue them – it’s hard work but it’s worth it.
These kittens are often just a few days to a week old (they may still have their eyes closed) and should initially be bottle-fed with kitten milk replacer every few hours.
Also, since your baby cannot urinate or defecate on his own in the first few weeks, you will need to gently wipe his genitals with a towel after meals to encourage him to urinate and defecate.
Bottle-fed kittens are very loyal and affectionate, but they require special care when it comes to socialization because their mother is not around to teach them how to play and bite properly.
Ed Carlson, CVT, VTS (Nutritionist) has some good advice: “Kittens that have been abandoned by their mothers should be carefully examined for visible birth defects, such as cleft palate, and medically treated by a veterinarian if necessary. Milk replacer supplementation and/or surrogate mothers may be needed to raise abandoned or orphaned kittens.” 2
To learn more about cat pregnancy and kitten care, check out PetMD’s complete cat pregnancy and kitten guide.
References
References:
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Margie Scherk, DVM, DABVP: “Feeding Cats with Different Nutritional Needs: A Dilemma for Multi-Cat Families,” Central Veterinary Medical Congress 2013 – Kansas City.
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Ed Carlson, CVT, VTS (Nutrition): “Neonatal Nutrition: Feeding Puppies and Kittens from Birth to Weaning,” 41st Annual OAVT Conference & Trade Show.
Featured Image: iStock.com/chendongshan
