How long should you feed kitten food

Kittens start life with a tiny stomach, about the size of a human thumbnail. However, their bodies develop at such a rapid rate that they require different amounts of nutrition during specific growth phases. In this article, Whiskas answers some common questions kitten owners have around how often they should feed their kittens and how much wet or dry food to give them. 

Can you overfeed a kitten? 

From a kitten’s first few weeks of life up until they reach four months, their metabolism is at its all-time high as they are constantly growing and using larger amounts of nutrients. It’s almost impossible to overfeed your kitten during this time. However, keep in mind that feeding kittens should be done frequently but in small amounts throughout the day, in order not to overload their tiny stomachs. 

How often should I feed my kitten? 

• Newborn to seven weeks old
  From the time that they are born, up until they are seven weeks old, kittens should be getting plenty of nutrition from their mothers’ milk. As long as their mother is eating a healthy diet, cat milk is the best kitten food over this period. In the case that your kitten’s mother is not able to feed their kittens during this time, you should feed the kittens about eight times a day at regular intervals, using cat milk from a small bottle. Take care not to substitute cat milk with cow’s milk because cats have difficulty digesting lactose. 

  At two weeks old your kitten’s baby teeth should start coming in, then by three to four weeks they may want to try bites of solid food, which is a good time to get them familiarised with a food bowl. If you’re unsure about weaning your kitten off cat milk, ask a vet for advice.

• Two to four months old
  By eight weeks old your kitten should have all their baby teeth and be weaned off cat’s milk. Wet kitten food is best to start out with while their stomach and teeth are still tender. 

  When your kitten is over three months old, you should add one and a half pouches of kitten wet food to their daily diet of four to five meals. If your kitten is ready for a mixture of wet and dry food, reduce the amount of wet food to between half a pouch and one pouch (one pouch = 100 grams). Then feed fifteen to twenty grams of kitten dry food accordingly. 

• Four months to six months old
  At four months old a kitten is growing rapidly and requires more energy from their food. Increase the kitten wet food pouches to two and a half to three times a day, and reduce the number of meals in a day to four or five. 

  When feeding kittens a mixed diet at this age, reduce the amount of wet food to two pouches and give fifteen to twenty grams of kitten dry food.

• Six months to twelve months old 
  From six months, your kitten’s growth rate will slow down, meaning their nutritional requirements change. The number of meals per day can be decreased to two to four. Feed your kitten three pouches of kitten wet food per day or in a mixed diet, only two pouches and twenty to twenty-five grams of kitten dry food. 

Can kittens eat dry food only?

Considering kittens’ baby teeth are small and tender, it can be difficult for your young kitten to eat dry food only. Kittens have two sets of teeth: baby teeth and adult teeth. Their baby teeth start showing at two weeks old and fully come in at eight weeks old. At four months old, kittens’ adult teeth start coming in and should be fully grown in by around six months old. 

While dry food has advantages such as being more convenient to serve, not spoiling as fast as wet food and helping to remove plaque on adult teeth, it also has disadvantages. For example, cats often become dehydrated because they do not think about drinking as often as they should. All cats have different food preferences including texture and favourite flavours, so if your kitten prefers dry food then you can feed them a dry food diet, as long as you make sure they are getting the right amount of nutrition their body needs. 

For two months and upwards, Whiskas recommends that kittens get two-thirds of their daily calories from kitten wet food and one-third from kitten dry food. However, if you prefer to feed your kitten dry food only, always provide fresh drinking water for your kitten. To make dry food easier and more appealing to eat, mix it with a little fresh water and warm it up slightly to make it mushier and bring out the aromas. It’s also good to mix in a little fresh water if your kitten is not drinking enough from their water bowl. For further advice on achieving the best kitten food diet, contact a vet. 

Can kittens eat cat food?

Before your kitten reaches adult age, you should not feed them cat food, as the nutritional balance won’t be right. However, at one year old, your feline friend no longer needs kitten food. You should wean them onto adult cat food to ensure they get nutritionally balanced meals every day. Learn more about when kittens can eat cat food at WHISKAS® Kat Institute of Technology.

Most kittens get adopted at about 6 to 8 weeks old. They are typically already weaned from their mother and eating solid food. It is important to feed kittens a nutritionally complete diet that contains high quality vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.

This article will explain everything you need to know about what to feed kittens, how much to feed them, and how often and when they need to be transitioned to an adult cat food.

What to Feed Kittens

Your kitten’s dietary requirements are going to be different from an adult cat’s dietary requirements. To help a kitten grow healthy and strong, their food typically requires:

• Higher protein levels

• More calories per cup

• Higher amounts of certain nutrients (like calcium)

Margie Scherk, DVM, DABVP of the Cats Only Veterinary Clinic in Ottawa, ON, Canada, described this in detail at the Central Veterinary Conference 2013 in Kansas City: “Young cats have growth requirements, which include an increased proportion of animal-based protein and more calcium and phosphorus.”1

Your new kitten will likely have tons of energy and engage in rowdy play, so their food needs to support their body as they burn calories exercising as well as expend energy for growth.

Feeding Kittens Wet Versus Dry Food

Wet and dry cat food are commonly available in kitten formulations, and there are pros and cons to feeding each. To decide which option best suits your kitten’s needs, talk with your veterinarian and get their recommendation. Here are some pros and cons of each:

• Wet cat food is higher in moisture, so it can be beneficial in keeping kittens hydrated, flushing out the urinary tract, and helping kidneys stay healthy. However, wet food tends to stick to the teeth more, which can be associated with dental disease and painful cavity-type problems for cats.

• Dry cat food is easier to feed in mutli-cat homes and can help scrape tartar from the teeth. However, some cats can overeat with dry food and gain excessive weight, which can be associated with arthritis, heart problems, blood pressure problems, respiratory problems, or diabetes mellitus—just to name a few.

How to Select a High-Quality Kitten Food

It may take some initial time and energy in determining which food is right for your kitten, but your efforts will be rewarded in a healthy, happy, beautiful kitten.

The best way to find the healthiest kitten food is to compare foods, choose a few possible options, and then talk with your veterinarian about which of those is best for your kitten. Consider the protein source in the food and pick a diet that does not contain a lot of filler ingredients. 

How Much to Feed a Kitten

Kittens are growing rapidly at this young age and eat a lot of food compared to adult cats. We want to provide their bodies with everything necessary for growth, but we also want to develop healthy long-term eating habits.

Feeding guidelines are variable by kitten. However, most often, using the feeding directions on the bag or can of food is a good starting place, and then you can adjust as needed for your kitten. Your veterinarian can use  metabolic formulas to calculate the number of calories required per day based on your kitten’s current weight.

We want kittens to come hungry for their meal, but we also don’t want them to be feeling so hungry that they devour the entire meal in a few seconds. Often, young kittens may eat ¼ to ½ cup of food at a time.

If your kitten is thin, we may need to increase the caloric requirement per day. If your kitten is gaining too much weight too quickly, we may need to cut back. Your veterinarian will use a tool called a body condition score to assess your kitten’s weight.

Healthy Kitten Growth Rate

A general rule of thumb in kittens is that they typically gain about 1 pound per month.

Often, a kitten’s weight is about 1 pound at 1 month (4 weeks), 2 pounds at 2 months (8 weeks), and so on until about 4-5 months.

Kittens do most of their growing (both height and weight) within the first year and then stabilize from there. Many of the growth plates of the bones in the kitten skeleton close by about one year old.

At this time, after much of the growth is finished, your vet will typically switch your kitten to an adult diet.

Feeding Methods for Kittens

There are two main ways to feed kittens. Each of these ways have pros and cons, so consider the details and talk with your veterinarian about free-feeding versus portioned meal feeding.

Free-Feeding Method

Free-feeding kittens is usually done with dry food, leaving a bowl out all the time so the food is readily available. This is convenient for pet parents, especially if they have busy schedules.

The benefit to this type of feeding is that your kitten can eat when they want and ideally self-regulate how much they need. 

One disadvantage to this is that some kittens will overeat and gain excessive weight. Another disadvantage is that in a multiple-cat household, the older cats have access to and may be eating the kitten food.

This is not always healthy for the older cat’s needs, and more dominant cats may control the kitten’s access to the food bowl. In these cases, the kitten may not be getting enough to eat. It can be hard to track an individual cat’s eating habits when they share a free-feeding bowl.

One way to deal with this is by using a microchip-activated feeder that only opens when it scans your kitten’s microchip. Just make sure another cat is not guarding this feeder and keeping the kitten from eating.

Meal-Feeding Method

Meal-feeding kittens is the second option for feeding. This works well with wet food that can’t be left out all day. Feeding specific portions at certain times is also helpful for monitoring exactly how much and what kind of food each cat is eating in a multiple-cat home.

Meal-feeding is more time-intensive for pet parents and tends to require a more routine schedule. You need to make sure you are able to feed your kitten often enough with this type of feeding. There are some cat food bowls that work on timers to automatically release a measured amount of dry food at specified times.

Kittens can also learn to use their instinctual hunting behavior to work for part of their daily food. This helps keep your kitten healthy mentally and physically.

There are many interactive bowls, balls that disperse dry food slowly, and other options available to keep your kitten occupied so his/her meal is not gone in a few seconds.

How Often to Feed Kittens

Younger kittens (6-16 weeks) need to be fed several meals per day, if you are not free-feeding.

As they are growing and burning calories, we want to keep their bodies supplied with energy. Feed meals every 6-8 hours.

Your veterinarian will figure out the total daily calories that your kitten needs, and you can divide that between the number of meals per day. Typically, by the time kittens get to 4-5 months, they can be transitioned to two meals per day, still feeding the total number of daily calories, but in less frequent, larger meals.  

Reasons Your Kitten May Not Be Eating

If your new kitten is not eating well or has diarrhea, call your vet and schedule another checkup.

Sometimes intestinal parasites can cause gastrointestinal upset in kittens. It is common for kittens to come home already infected with parasites. They can get some parasites through the placenta before birth as well as in the milk from the mother cat.

Some of these parasites can also be transmitted to people, so good hygiene and preventive care are important. 

Bottle Feeding/Orphaned Kittens

Sometimes a mama cat is no longer able to care for her kittens, and we need to help them. This is a big but rewarding task to take on.

These kittens are often days to a week old (they may still even have their eyes closed). They must be bottle fed, every few hours, initially, with kitten milk replacer formulas.

You also need to use a washcloth to gently wipe their genitals after eating to stimulate urination and defecation, as they are unable to do this themselves in the first few weeks.

These bottle-fed kittens are very loyal and loving, but they do require extra attention regarding socialization since the mother cat is unavailable to teach them acceptable play and biting behaviors.

A good reminder comes from Ed Carlson, CVT, VTS (Nutrition). “Kittens that are abandoned by their mothers should be carefully examined for visible birth defects such as a cleft palate and medical attention provided by a veterinarian if necessary. Supplementation with a milk replacement formula or a surrogate mother will be necessary 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:

1. Margie Scherk, DVM, DABVP: Feeding Cats with Different Nutritional Needs: A Dilemma in the Multicat Household, Central Veterinary Conference 2013 - Kansas City.

2. 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