# My kitten is always hungry, is this normal?



## ejrogers

My kitten is almost 6 months old now and shes permanently hungry! I feed her 5 times a day and each time she has about half to 3/4 of a wet food pouch so shes probably eating about 3 pouches a day.
Shes a BSH and I just wondered if a) this is normal and b) am I feeding her enough?

Also does anybody have any tips for keeping her away from my other cat's food which she eats given half a chance. My other cat won't eat the kittens food as shes very fussy but the kitten will eat all of the other cats food leaving her with no food left.
I have been putting the other cats food up higher but once Inca is bigger she will be able to get up there!

Thanks


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## lymorelynn

It's quite normal for kittens to eat a lot - think of all the growing they need to do  Feed as much as she will eat.
By the time Inca is big enough to reach your other cat's food she should have slowed down her own eating rate so it may not be a problem


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## Iheartcats

Can I ask what you are feeding? I found that before I switched to better quality food (Bozita, Armonda Carny, Smilla) my cats were eating morning noon and night but now they eat little and often.

Has your kitten always done this or is it just a recent thing because it could also be a growth spurt.


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## ejrogers

At the moment I'm feeding a combination of Royal Canin Sensitivity Control, Hills Science Plan and a tiny bit of Felix.
She had been very poorly since we got her with various parasite infections so was very underweight, but she has been clear of them for about a month to 6 wks or so now so I guess shes just making up for lost time.
I am concerned about feeding her too much of the Sensitivity Control as the vets tells me its a high fat content so feeding her that long term will mean she puts on too much weight.

How much should a kitten be eating in one sitting? I feed her small and often because no matter how much I put down she eats it all.
If its ok to put down a whole pouch in one go I can do...


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## Iheartcats

A kitten will eat as much as they want. Its very difficult to over-feed a kitten. My 2 kittens are roughly the same age as yours. They have food down for them to graze on throughout the day. If I put down a Felix pouch (which is only when I don't get my order to Zooplus in time) I find that they are hungry a short time later. They are real greedy guts and its amazing just how much they will eat  Don't worry about over-feeding. I'm sure your kitten will burn it all off through play.

I'm sorry to hear she's been sick but with a good diet she'll soon be on the mend.


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## raggs

DO they have access to dried food 24/7 ?... we found its much better to leave dried food out along with water for them as they can then graze when they want...........raggs


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## Iheartcats

raggs said:


> DO they have access to dried food 24/7 ?... we found its much better to leave dried food out along with water for them as they can then graze when they want...........raggs


That's what we do too!


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## carly87

I always strongly advise people not to ration a kitten's food, and I follow this practice myself. There's always a bowl of dry down for them, and as soon as the wet bowl is empty, I fill it up again. I find that cats will only gorge on every drop of food that gets put down when they aren't given the chance to free feed, i.e, eat when they want it. By letting them free feed you make food a staple rather than a treat that has to be eaten really quickly before it disappears again. I'm of the opinion that it helps with obesity too, because food is no longer a huge point in their day. Cats usually self-regulate very well. Kittens should be allowed to eat as much as they like as they'll use it all in growing and play.

If you can, I'd switch her onto something with a higher meat quality. You might try TopLife for now, as it claims to be like the Sensitivity. i switched my lot onto that after a bout of the runs, and they had no trouble at all. It's got a good meat content and is available in Asda. When you're ready to order from Zooplus, Animonda, Bozita and Grau are really good foods that you should try. The cats will actually eat less of this as there's a better meat content, hence they need less of it.


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## notsure

My two are fed as much as they want - that being said, they recently went through a growth spurt, one day they were eating 1-1/2 packs of bozita a day, the next they had had a whole pack of bozita by 11am - this has settled down to about 2-2 1/2 packs a day others on here have kittens who eat more - it's all down to the kittens themselves. Mine normally get fed 4-5 times a day - that being said, if I walk past their bowl and it's empty it gets more added except during thier afternoon nap (they like to sleep for a minimum of 4-6 hours after lunch so I don't bother refilling during this time). I did have dry down 24/7 which was only being refilled last thing at night - but I ran out of Orijen about 3 weeks back and so stopped doing that - and they don't seem to have missed it. Oslo is also very quick to tell me when the bowls are empty and he's hungry so all in all we have a system that works for us.


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## Ingrid25

yeah,
leave dry food down, so when she does get hungry but there is no wet food she can eat.
and as a treat sometimes give her some cheese, they loooove it! (well at least leo does)
i give leo WET food 3 times a day but dry food always is out.:thumbup1:


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## Chewie39

I _don't_ leave food out all the time for my lot. Yes, I believe in feeding the kittens as much as they will eat but I prefer to give as little dry food as possible and I dont like leaving wet food out for a long time.

My kittens have four wet meals a day, they don't eat it all straightaway but tend to come back to eat a bit more for an hour or so (so they kind of eat about 8 small meals a day). After that I chuck it if there's any left - often there isn't but sometimes there is, most often last thing at night. If they eat it all I often try a bit more, usually they can't seem to eat much more than I give them. Yes, they go about 8 hours overnight with no food - but I don't find them "starving" in the morning. Indeed, if I feed them immediately they aren't that interested, they like their breakfast after I've been up for a while!

I only give dry food as part of a "throw and catch" type game or in a treat ball when I go to work (I dont know why I do that as my son comes to feed them at their regular time - guilt about leaving them, I guess ) and I only give cereal free dry like Orijen.

They generally eat between 250g and 300g of wet each (Bozita/Hi Life/Top Life etc) plus a small handful of dry a day.


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## Decima

My kitten has just turned 7 months old and eats about a tin and a half (600g in total) of Animonda Carny a day, as well as snacking on dry food. It's much more than is recommended on the tin for his size, but he seems to want it and he is clearly not overweight, so I let him have it. Just going by my kitten, it doesn't seem to me that you are feeding your kitten a lot. (Bear in mind that I know very little about cat nutrition beyond some bits and pieces I've picked up on these forums). If my cat was having 100g pouches, he'd be having six a day. 

Unfortunately, I have to go to work some days, so I leave a big portion of food for my kitten. He can eat a surprising amount in one go. I do leave some wet food out for him when I'm at work. When I've been able to pop back at lunchtime it has been gone. I put down more than half a 400g tin for a meal. He will usually eat about 2/3 to 3/4 of that in one sitting and have the rest a little later. 

I followed the advice on Hobbs thread about what food to buy. I have been pleased with the food I have ordered (Grau, etc.). It smells good, my kitten loves it, and there isn't a lot of poo, which I like to think means it's being absorbed rather than coming out the other end!


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## Chewie39

Decima said:


> I followed the advice on Hobbs thread about what food to buy. I have been pleased with the food I have ordered (Grau, etc.). It smells good, my kitten loves it, and there isn't a lot of poo, which I like to think means it's being absorbed rather than coming out the other end!


I find the same re the poo and like to think it's for the same reason. I have been trying to convince my dry feeding friend that her cats' poops will not be horrendous if she switches to high meat/cereal free wet but she believes the Iams hype


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## ruby21

Ingrid25 said:


> yeah,
> leave dry food down, so when she does get hungry but there is no wet food she can eat.
> and as a treat sometimes give her some cheese, they loooove it! (well at least leo does)
> i give leo WET food 3 times a day but dry food always is out.:thumbup1:


as the person who wrote the thread my kitty seems to eat a lot.. i only feed him food from zooplus (animonda carny, bonzita, simila, all these high meat content food). I tend to leave wet food also for him during night but most of the time when I wake up in the morning I find sick where hes been ill from overeating/eating too much too fast.. 
How much is in 1 portion you give your Leo - this seems to be my main problem.. I think my portions are a little bit too much.. Should it be more that 70g? 
what dry food do you feed him?


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## ruby21

Chewie39 said:


> I find the same re the poo and like to think it's for the same reason. I have been trying to convince my dry feeding friend that her cats' poops will not be horrendous if she switches to high meat/cereal free wet but she believes the Iams hype


im not sure what to think of that as my 5 months old kitty poops about 2-3 times a day. I feed him all this good quality food (recommended on this forum) and the poops are sooo smelly its unbelievable..  
I think it might have had something to do with the litter im using (I changed to OKO Plus and then the smell of his poops just seemed to be even worse). 
I dont feed him any dry, but I might start leaving it out as im thinking of changing the way I feed my kitty..


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## Chewie39

I guess it depends on your definition of "smelly"! I can't say my cats' poo doesn't smell _at all_, of course it smells, it's the nature of it. I still get rid of it as soon as they do it, I don't think leaving poo in a litter tray is an option whatever you feed/litter you use.

It's just a hell of a lot less (in both volume and smell) than when I used to feed ordinary dry and whiskas. In fact, I'd say Kitty and Oscar "do" less between them than Oscar used to do on his own


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## oliviarussian

I also think you should feed kittens as much as they want...from experience my Rosso was like a crazy thing for food, he was going through a massive growth spurt (gaining a pound a week at one point!!) but in the last few weeks as he has reached 8 months and has slowed right down and so has his frantic feeding..... they obviously eat as much as their little bodies need :biggrin:


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## notsure

Chewie39 said:


> I _don't_ leave food out all the time for my lot. Yes, I believe in feeding the kittens as much as they will eat but I prefer to give as little dry food as possible and I dont like leaving wet food out for a long time.
> 
> My kittens have four wet meals a day, they don't eat it all straightaway but tend to come back to eat a bit more for an hour or so (so they kind of eat about 8 small meals a day). After that I chuck it if there's any left - often there isn't but sometimes there is, most often last thing at night.
> 
> I only give dry food as part of a "throw and catch" type game or in a treat ball when I go to work (I dont know why I do that as my son comes to feed them at their regular time - guilt about leaving them, I guess ) and I only give cereal free dry like Orijen.
> 
> They generally eat between 250g and 300g of wet each (Bozita/Hi Life/Top Life etc) plus a small handful of dry a day.


I'm finding that with thier afternoon nap (it definitely seems a regular thing) lasting 4-6 hours, during which time there is usually no food down at all, my pair get fed every 2-3 hours from when we get up in the morning until last thing at night, which seems to suit them, and as they are grazers, there's normally food down most of the day. With only 2-3 hours between meals, I'm normally happy to leave it down that long, although it rarely lasts that long, and that will change when summer comes again and it gets slightly warm. Any left at the next "scheduled" feeding time gets thrown, before bowls get rinsed and fresh food put down.

I'm finding atm they are eating 1/2 a tetra pack of Bozita between them at each meal so we go through 2 - 2.5 cartons a day at present. They currently don't get any dry, as I ran out or Orijen about a month ago, and as they don't seem to be missing it, I haven't rushed to get more. That said, I plan on getting the boys a treatball or food puzzle thing after christmas, (waiting to see what what arrives in the christmas package from Aus - and yes I did ask my dad to pick up some things for the boys when he was sorting it out), so will need to order more Orijen when I do.


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## notsure

Decima said:


> Just going by my kitten, it doesn't seem to me that you are feeding your kitten a lot. (Bear in mind that I know very little about cat nutrition beyond some bits and pieces I've picked up on these forums). If my cat was having 100g pouches, he'd be having six a day.


It all depends on the kittens - wasn't all that long ago I posted on here concerned my pair weren't eating enough (even though they were being given as much as they wanted), as I was reading about another members two slightly older kittens who were eating about 3 times as much as mine were at the time. However in the 5 weeks between their 1st and 2nd vet visits, they had put on 750g & 850g each, so I guess they were doing just fine, and a couple of weeks back they started a growth spurt and literally doubled what they were eating overnight.


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## Decima

Yes, I realise my post could have come across as if was saying Ejrogers wasn't feeding enough, but that's not what I meant. I just meant that compared to my kitten of the same age, her kitten wasn't eating a lot. And as I said, my kitten eats more than the recommended amount for his weight. (He's quite an active kitten!).

I've found with mine that I don't need to limit how much he eats. He *will *(eventually!) stop eating.


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