4 Month Old Kitten - How much to feed

[Khari]

Hi

We took Libby home at roughly 3 months old. She came to us eating soft and dry food. We now have her off dry completely and started to introduce raw into her diet along side the soft.

My question is how much should I be feeding her? Is there some sort of calculation? or rule of thumb for kittens? We feed her between 4-6 times a day. And she is getting roughly 7 to 7.5oz total a day. But she is seeming to us like she is still really hungry.

Any input would be greatly appreciated

[Reg]

Hello Khari:

Glad to hear that you are transitioning your kitty to raw food. You have picked the best time in her life - this is the time that they learn what's good for them.

Are you making your own food or buying it? There is a rule of thumb on how much to feed per day. This is strictly for species appropriate food. One to four per cent of the body weight is recommended for daily feeding. This number is divided by the number of feedings per day.

Are you mixing the wet food with the raw food, and if so, the "rule of thumb" will not apply. The rule of thumb is strictly for raw food.

Basically how the rule of thumb works is: it's a guide on how much food to put down per meal. It's governed by the weight of the cat and by the cat's activity.This works for both kittens and full grown cats.

A senior cat will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2 percent of it's body weight for daily allowance. And a kitten will be somewhere between 3 and maybe 4 percent of it's body weight.

Example: our cat weighed 10 1/4 pounds. and she wasn't overly active. I converted the weight into kilos - 4.649 - times 2.25 % which gave me
104 gms of food per day, which I divided by the number of feedings for the day. This was 5 years ago when she was 6 years. Now she's 11 years and her consumption rate per meal has dropped to 37 to 39 gms per meal and she's fed twice a day. And that takes into consideration that she receives treats ------- when I started this, she was not getting the treats.

This might be of interest to you when you transition her completely to raw. This basically gives you an idea of where to start. You'll have to tweek it to suit the individual but it makes it handy to have some idea of freezing rations of food.

For instance, I try to freeze 2 days rations at a time.

Any further questions just let us know, and keep us informed of your progress.............by the way, what is kitty's name?

[growler~GateKeeper]

I agree with Reg on the raw food calculations.

How much does Libby currently weigh?

Has she had a fecal exam or been dewormed?

The amount to feed is somewhat subjective, if she's still hungry and not gaining weight personally I would increase the food per serving in small increments. The volume can always be adjusted up or down once she gets to an ideal body weight for her age, activity level and current weight.

Several pictures are in order

[stanley21]

It is best to give the cat food or milk, give it water so that it has enough to drink and let it outside if you live in the city.