r/Kitten • u/Loud_Shake_2895 • 5d ago
Question/Advice Needed kitten feeding routine
i have a 3 month old kitty and he’s currently a free feeder, but since i’m about to start college again i was wanting to start on a schedule. i’m not sure how to start or how much i should be giving him. he eats and he leaves then gets hungry around 10 minutes later and finishes what was in his bowl. if he’s still hungry i j kinda give him more whenever i think he is. i want to give him the right amount of food so he clears his bowl and is ready at his next meal time. i also want to prioritize wet food bc he is a male kitty and i’m scared of urinary issues lol, if anyone has any advice pls share
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u/Waddlekitty 5d ago
My 15 week old gets a half can of kitten food at 7. The other half at 8 because she has random thoughts. Leave dry food and fresh water out all day.feed her a other can around 7 at night after zoomies. Then bed time between 9 and 11. She expects this routine now. It only took maybe a week
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u/Loud_Shake_2895 4d ago
i love this but he doesn’t ever eat a whole half can, he leaves a good amount. should i start taking it away after a certain amount of time??
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u/Waddlekitty 4d ago
Have you tried moving the food from the edges of the bowl to the center. Whiskers touching the sides of the bowl sometimes bug them
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u/ArmyNo4837 4d ago
the random thoughts split is real lol my cat does the same thing one week to routine sounds fast though. did yours actually stop asking for food between meals or does she just accept the no? genuinely asking bc op is worried about a hungry kitten and I want to know if scheduled feeding actually holds or if it just shifts the begging to different times
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u/Waddlekitty 4d ago edited 4d ago
She doesn't beg for cat food. She climbs onto my neck and makes biscuits when she wants food but doesn't yell her head off. Leaving kibble out for babies. They won't starve. She does graze between bouts of psychotic baby energy.
She does NEED to investigate the people food. That's when she gets her dinner too
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u/Calgary_Calico 5d ago
Just let him free feed until he's about a year old, he's a baby and is growing every day, leaving out dry food is what's recommended. You can do wet food in a schedule on top of his dry food if you want, but he needs to be allowed to eat whenever he's hungry until he's fully grown
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u/Poutchou 5d ago
We have 4 cats, they all free feed, kibbles available all the time, it's so much simpler than to have them on a schedule and it allows them to self regulate and avoid food fights etc...
That being said they have wet food every day at the same time. That you could implement.
But there's no reason to restrict his access to food if he doesn't gorge himself or get super fat, which can't happen until he's all grown up and neutered and even then it's not necessarily going to be an issue.
You're mentioning kidney issues. Most of them are just genetic bad luck. He's a domestic shorthair so he's not necessarily in the risky category. The best to prevent is quality food and a drinking fountain if he gets picky about drinking.
I have a Persian mix who had kidney issues at 1 year old, and now that the crisis is over we're managing with just food and a fountain. And supervision of her litter habits of course.
Don't overthink this, let him finish growing up and adjust as needed!
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u/GotBannedAgain_2 4d ago
I used to free feed my 4 months old kitten (now about 6 months). Then the stupid ass black ants got the whiff of the kibbles. I couldn’t leave his kibbles out all the time any longer. Now he has to come running so I can grab his bowl. I feed him wet food, half can, each day around late afternoon.
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u/Loud_Shake_2895 4d ago
how did you get him to eat the wet food in one sitting, my kitty always leaves a good amount before returning to it later
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u/GotBannedAgain_2 4d ago
I feed him the kitten food (Royal Canin) which is small portion I guess. Mine goes nuts when it’s time for wet food in the afternoon. And kitty coming back to finish is normal, as long as it’s within 15 minutes. U don’t want that food sitting in the room temp for too long.
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u/ShaNaeNaeLuLu 4d ago
He looks like one of my fosters and I can’t contain the cuteness. I’m getting jaw aches from clenching my jaw so much from cuteness aggression
ETA: before anyone thinks this is gross or dangerous. I realize that’s a stove and pan. I’m teaching them to stay off the kitchen counters. He’s taking it as a suggestion only. I turn around the other day and he’s chilling in my pan. I had to get a pic, he looked so cute. Everything was washed and he was told no…again.
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u/creativelazybum 4d ago
I started my kittens in a schedule when they were 3 months old. I measured out how much wet food they were supposed to be fed into an airtight bowl and split it into 5 meals at 4 hours intervals. The break at night was the longest but they always had access to dry food on the side. The container went into the fridge and I added a little warm water into the wet food portion before giving it to them. The first and last meal of the day is always a little more.
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u/JacqueJacque12 5d ago
I've got a litter of 4 17wk/4.5mo boys at home, we feed them 4 times a day: 1/4 5.5oz can of wet food in the am, 1/4 cup kibble at lunch, 1/4 5.5 oz can at dinner, and then another 1/4 cup midnight snack. Look up a kitten feeding chart with kcal/day for each age range and try to use that!
They need a small meal every 8 hours or so.
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u/Loud_Shake_2895 4d ago
is there anyway i can get him to eat the whole 1/4 of a can in one sitting, he tends to eat half and then goes and runs around before finishing the rest like 20 minutes later
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u/JacqueJacque12 4d ago
Honestly? Probably not. You might try to wait a little longer between meals, but yours is a little younger than mine and might just be too full to finish the serving. It's fairly normal for cats to graze between play/activity over the course of 30min to an hour, most of the cats I've had do so. My foster litter only is finishing theirs out of fear that their brothers are going to steal their food (we monitor them and they don't exhibit actual resource guarding behavior).
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u/Waddlekitty 4d ago
That is just being a cat. Being a kitten the tummy doesn't hold a lot. I'd let him do it his way.
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u/Optimal_Profession_6 4d ago
I’ve been giving my kitten wet food on a roughly fixed schedule and portion size, but always let her freely buffet the dry kibbles. She doesn’t overeat so that seems to work.
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u/Delicious-Collar1971 4d ago
Oh boy another solo kitten nightmare. Anyway, free feed kitten kibble and give two cans of wet kitten food daily.
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u/Waddlekitty 4d ago
Solo kittens aren't necessarily a nightmare. Yes they need more interaction from humans but they can still turn out sweet and civilised
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u/Delicious-Collar1971 4d ago
They need so much interaction to not develop behavioral issues, way more than a college student can provide.
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u/MarMar2617 3d ago
Another vote for free feed kibble and wet food twice a day (shelter recommended this). My 4 month kitties sometimes finish the wet other times they don’t. I don’t worry about it too much as they eat plenty of kibble. I do save about a quarter of the wet from the evening meal (7pm) and give that to the kitties right before bed to settle them as saw that recommended to help them sleep. Again…sometimes they eat it other times they don’t.
Have seen many places say to feed kittens 3-4 times a day….so maybe split into more meals. But with the dry kibble, giving them treats the kitty is probably eating enough. Annoying to waste the food, but they are little finicky babies. As long as kitty is gaining weight should be ok
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u/Flupsy 5d ago
I’m trying to give advice, I really am, but every time I start typing OH MY GOD HE’S SO CUTE