How much to feed THESE beasts ?

To paraphrase an earlier thread...

I now have my three high energy furballs, 13 weeks old and the cutest, loveliest, flufffiest etc. boys anyone could want.

The breeder informs me they've grown up on RC Kitten, Whiskas kitten pouches and some Sainsbury's own brand kitten pouches, plus occasional cooked chicken and white fish.

They have unlimited RC Kitten in a feeder. The shared a pouch of Whiskas kitten when they first arrived which they nibbled at a little while they settled in and then they ate a whole pouch in a few moments while we humans had our dinner. This morning the one pouch I put down vanished in seconds.

Now, the question: As the house will be empty of humans for the normal working days I don't want to get them used to wet meals for lunch or through the day in general just at weekends etc. as they can't tell what's a weekday and what's a weekend. I don't want to set them up for disappointment. So, "special" meals are going to be breakfast and dinner. Maybe lunch as weekend as I don't this my heart will be able to resist if we have lunch and they don't. Must be strong :smile:

Given they have dry food and water at all times how much wet food, of various types, should I give them ? I so want to just feed them until they stop eating (it's the soppy git in me), but I would rather they got used to a mostly dry diet for a variety of reasons (not just my convenience!). Is one pouch between 3 enough for now ? Should it be more for now and should I consider even more as they grow ? This is again based on dry food always being there.

(Note: I want to move them gradually to James Wellbeloved (starting in a coupld of weeks and over a few weeks)

PS It's very sweet to see 3 brothers all trying to get their heads into one large food bowl, but I had to move some food to a second bowl as I don't want them getting competitive over food - other stuff, yes but food I want them to play nice with each other. :rofl:

Hi Peter, glad to see you have your boys and they are settling in.
As we are out at work all day we feed our 4 wet food in the morning and evening with RC dried food down through the day.
The 3 eldest have one pouch of food each morning and night with the kitten (20 weeks old) having just over a pouch of whiskers kitten a day at the moment. She would eat more than this but we dont want her putting on weight!
The weekends are a bit different and we tend to "treat" them mid-day with some wet food!
Hope that helps.

Hi Peter,kittens very rarely get "fat"they are too busy playing & growing at a very rapid rate to put on extra inches around the waist so if they have biscuits down all the while they are going to top up on those anyway & not starve,because I have one who has weight problems I had to get my latest babes used to a signal to go into a room on their own for top ups during the day,biscuits are the thing though that is most likely to cause a weight problem at a later date than wet food especially if left down to eat ad lib.but the chances are you will have no worries.
This is another topic like neutering age,some people do it one way,some do it another but the right way again is what suits you & your furries,as long as they are growing, look fit & healthy,luv to play,you are doing it right & as you have already pointed out in your post any changes to your chosen brands introduce over a period of time.Whatever there is one thing certain you will end up a very poor person because their weekly food bill will be higher than yours...!
Would love to be a fly on the wall in your household at the moment,is the ratio one kit to one human or are the odds better ..... ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jckkerrison

Would love to be a fly on the wall in your household at the moment,is the ratio one kit to one human or are the odds better ..... ?

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The ratio is 3 to 2 - my friend/lodger is very much a cat person and "her" cat is still with her mum and dad. In fact she ended up as my lodger after being cat sitter for my old George lad when I went away on holiday a few years ago. Quite a few visitors, only a couple at a time, lined up for the next week's "caternity" leave.

They have now open access to most of the house and it's very new to them, obviously. Right now they are all snoozing around me - one up the cat tree, another in the tunnel and the third on the cat mat on the floor. Sigh, tooooooo cute.

More pics and video soon!

Looking forward to seeing more pictures of them,love caternity leave,did you walk out of work with your head held high....I don't know what it is about these cats but even none feline lovers like me seem to fall under their spell,it will be interesting to see how their individual personalities develop.With our two Welly is hubbies & he was a little hellion when we went to see him at the breeders,his best mate Shimba,mine,was an innocent looking little chap,butter wouldn't melt & I always bragged at work that hubby was going to have fun with his,I knew which one would always be in trouble,mine was perfect,ha ha,famous last words,after the first weekend with them went into work & said "Don't ask",I am sure they had character changes before leaving,Shimba was the little sod & Welly was perfect,now Welly is the brightest button who likes his cuddles when he demands them,Shimba is the luv bug who just has to be with you or on you all the time.Going to be very interesting to see how three develop at the same time as each other,will two pair off etc.I just envy you sooo much,will you stay at three I wonder,I feel really lost now our number has dropped to five,didn't think loosing one would make such a difference the place feels empty but still pondering as to wether we should stay at that,it is surprising how less litter is scattered about & the drinks fountain doesn't have to be taken apart so often because of litter in the filter so we now know who was the messy one,Cheeky China RIP bless her...
Nice to have a ready built in cat sitter too,no one different for them to get used too.Will be interesting to know if any of your visitors get won over as well,they do seem to have a habit of being able to do it !

Well, as of last night they are getting - in addition to unlimited RC Kitten - one 85g pouch of PAH "Purely" kitten each in the morning and same in the evening. They are still cleaning the bowl. While MCs are very obviously bigger, is there a limit I should be careful of ?

I am a little concerned that there may be overly fast feeding going on as they may be competing with each other. They don't scrap or push when feeding from the one big dog bowl, but is there anything I should watch for or even try going back to individual bowls ?

I think I would try individual bowls,less competition as they get older,for sure at some point one of them is going to become top cat over the other two & there would be no worries in the food department,could still have extra bowl of crunchies left down.I luv watching mine all going to their feeding stations in or out. A friend occasionaly comes into feed if we are going out for a long day & the first time she worried who had what where,told her just to open door & wait,then put appropriate dish in front of each cat,she couldn't believe how they all peeled off to respective spots,we have a staggered three tiered wooden beds,Bruce top,Pansy middle & Merlyn when he was fed in there bottom bunk,China RIP one side of the bunks nearest the water fountain,Welly under window other side of fountain & Shimba further round to the left of him,has always worked well,if any of them walked away then it is classed as fair game if one of the others wants it but until that point they all respect one anothers space.
At the moment I don't think there is need to worry about them getting too much they do grow so quickly in these first few months ,plus they seem to have hollow legs
at this age,that is why mine were put over onto tinned Felix quite early on,not so expensive as sachets,with Bruce & Merl it was straight onto it within a couple of weeks of having them,last babes did go a couple of months before going over & with them I did add vitamin supplement for a couple of years but only use that now if they are off colour to give them a boost & it certainly hasn't stumped their growth in any way,ask hubby when he is struggling to hold Shimba out at shows....!
They obviously enjoy their wet food,could you perhaps add a bit of adult dry food to their dish with that,might hold them a bit better ?

I agree that it's probably a little bit of competition, although my babies will happily have a bowl of biccie down and graze on it all day but the minute the wet food goes down, it's gone in a flash!

I have checked the requirements for the age and weight of my kittens and it states they need 55g per kitten per day of dry food. So, I put down 55g in the morning, 55g at lunchtime and then 55g in the evening and this seems to last the three of them pretty well. They don't get fed overnight and don't seem overly hungry when their breakfast comes out.

I was giving them the purely wet kitten food but it didn't seem to agree with them so I am now trying to find another wet food that they all like as well as giving them a bit of cooked chicken and raw steak too.

If they are growing and happy and haven't got the squits with the amount of food they are having then I wouldn't worry.

I was reading some of the older threads so I got interested in the Bozita food too. The descriptions of ther ingredients and the "ethics" sounds good. Price not too bad either. Just ordered a variety to gently test on the monsters from zooplus. We shall see :)

I was getting bored of seeing how much these kitties can whine about soft food so this morning they shared a whole 410g tin of Bozita. Vanished. Remember these guys have dried food all day. Hmm. Little petals.

I've been having issues with Coco the moggie hogging all the kibbles.

Elvis is still really skinny at 22 months. His bones seem to still be growing faster than he
can add meat, and I can feel his ribs and backbone so I leave the RC MC 31 out for him 24/7.

Coco is a problem, though. Even though she's about 1/3 his size she gobbles the dry stuff
as if it's the last that she'll ever see and she's getting a bit on the plump side, to be polite.

One thing the vet recommended ( besides electronic cat doors ) was the Tiger Diner.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

Amazon.com: Smartcat Tiger Diner Portion Control Cat Bowl - BLUE: Kitchen & Dining


It seems to entertain them at meals and is supposed to slow down the gobbling.

I'm confused though.

Elvis is my third MC and neither of the first two would stand for being out-gluttoned by a tiny little thing like Coco... :rofl:

Hmm. New record yesterday. Two 410g tins of Bozita (one morning and one evening) and three 85g pouches of HiLife Kitten. All gone.

Leo appears to be teething and he is also the bottom of the feeding order, even if he is the biggest. So I made sure he ate as much soft as he wanted. Again, playing me like a prize violin.

Bertie is the greedy guts, literally, and has a pot belly after gorging.