Hey guys, first time poster so I hope I'm not in the wrong part of the forum!
My family recently got a darling white bengal girl Romilly, we've had her a few days and she was just over seven and a half weeks old when we got her (we wanted her to settle in at the same time as Liara, our tortie moggie) They're settling in well together, but Romilly is only eating chicken. We tried to give her science plan but she isn't interested, despite the breeder saying she liked that particular dry food. Thing is, Liara is starting to munch the chicken now and we wanted our cats on dry food.
Anyone got any advice to try and convince Romilly to eat the dry food?
Also how much should we feed them? Liara is a little hoover and we don't want them getting fat!

~ Cami

Hey Cami.
At under 13 weeks, Romilly should really still be at home with her Mummy! She will only just have started being weaned properly, so her diet is going to be tricky to settle. DON'T PANIC though - There are lots of options on the market, depending where you live.

You need to get her kitten food, and ensure she is is getting all the nutrients she will need to ensure strong bones and system for adulthood. Speak to your vet (she will need a check up ASAP) and see if they have any over the counter recommendations. There are so many Hills varieties under the Science Plan banner, you will need the specific type if you want to try getting her onto that. She is too young to be on raw food at the moment, so if she will eat the chicken, then make sure it is poached, and add some of the cooking juice to her bowl to help ensure water intake! It's a sneaky insurance policy - especially if you want to feed her on mainly dry when she's a bit older!

It was a bit soon really to introduce her to Liara, as they could cross-contaminate if either had any bugs from their breeder, but that is done, now, so put that aside. Try to feed Romilly little and often, away from Liara, that way you can ensure she gets what she needs, and help stop Liara from pigging out too much!

You have her now, and the introduction sounds like it worked. Enjoy watching them grow, and remember to give both lots of luvs and cuddles!

BY THE WAY - PICTURES ARE NOW REQUIRED!

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The little monsters 3

Oh no!! My mum and I did think it was a bit too early but the internet said most kittens could be taken at eight weeks and we didn't want someone else to snap her up! She seems to be settling in very well, she loves Liara now and they play together very happily. Liara also cleans her ears and cuddles her at night, and she doesn't seem to miss her home. The breeder said she was fully weaned, I'm guessing this was done to her too young? If so, I'm really angry, you trust the breeder to make the right choices when the kitten is young. Will Romilly suffer any ill effects from being taken so young? She seems to be quite happy
Oh, here's a picture of them snoozing together


As for food, Liara is actually very good and lets Romilly eat without disturbing her, at the moment she's eating cooked chicken which we're mixing with some soaked science plan biscuits so they're easier for her to chew. How much should we give her? We don't want to feed her too much!

She can end up with a lot of different behaivoural problems as she grows. Things such as licking, sucking, biting and scratching too hard during play, insecurity, agression and the such. I'm not sayin she WILL have these problems, but they can appear in kittens taken earlier than 12w.

Between the time that kittens stop feedin from their mums to they are 12-13 weeks they get all the socalization they lean on for the rest of their lives. I think it's entierly possible that she has transitioned to cat food at her age, I think that happens from 5w and forwards?

Puppies are mostly taken at 8weeks. In Sweden there's a law stating that kittens must not be younger than 12w when they leave their mums, though I'm not sure how it's done anywhere else.

A kitten should eat often. Try feeding her at least 4 times a day. Let her eat her fill, but not too much. She might not realize she's setting her self up for a tummy ache.

They are very adorable!

Oh dear, she is rather bitey actually, but in a playful way, not a spiteful way. She likes chewing on my fingers, which is alright but she has sharp teeth and bites quite hard. Liara (my tortie) bites quite gently in comparison! Hopefully she'll learn some socialisation from Liara. She purrs when she's cuddled so I'm cuddling her a lot so she doesn't feel lonely.
Oh also she makes littling mewing noises while she eats, is that normal? They're not noises of distress, just little 'miaowmiaow' noises. It's quite cute <3

Most kittens are bitey at that age, not biting to hard is what mummy cat will teach them ^^ I hope your other cat will manage to teach her some! And that you don't get frustrated with little Romililly if she develope some of the stereotypical problems. She will just not understand that it's wrong. Hopefully she'll turn out alright :)

I really have no experience at all with 7.5 week old cats They probably have very special needs, so hopefully one of the breeders in the forum can answer that question more specifically than I can. It is a really nice bonus that your older cat has embraced the idea of having an understudy so completely

A couple of things though, and to answer your original question: you are not going to have to worry about over-feeding for some time with her. Many people say feed all they can eat for the first year, then start to carefully measure out portions. Personally I think it may be a good idea to do that a bit sooner, but in any case that's quite a ways off for you now. The bigger danger right now is underfeeding rather than overfeeding. Also, kittens should be eating 4-5 times a day (minimum), so you either need to prepare that many meals, of leave food out (that she will eat!) so that she can "graze" on it. And if you do leave food out for grazing, you need to leave out food that doesn't spoil (so dry food that isn't soaked with liquids).

Another thing... it may take some experimentation to find a food that she likes, and it is important to find a complete food that she shows enthusiasm for. If you have an accommodating pet food store around you, you might want to visit there, explain that you are trying to determine a food that your cat likes, and many of them will give you a bunch of different samples to try.

One other thing: why only dry food? Particularly if you are having trouble finding a dry food she is interested in? In general dry food, for (older) kittens is nice because you can leave it out and they can graze on it, but supplementing that with canned or wet food can be really nice for them, and has certain nutritional advantages over just dry food.

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The little monsters 3

With the dry food - Try to avoid wetting it as this will encourage the bacteria growth and could cause tummy upsets for the little one!
Re her age - What@s done is done, so don't worry about that now. Just keep loving her and enjoy nurturing her into a beautiful cat. They do look absolutely gorgeous together!

Thanks guys this has been really helpful! We wanted both our kitties on dry food as we often have the back door open in summer and we used to have a problem with flies trying to land in our cat's food, so we had to keep it covered. It's simply far easier to have cats on dry food, mum is especially keen on it. Right now, we're soaking the biscuits in hot water to soften them up and mixing them with some chicken, and they both seem to be munching away happily. <3