Hello all,

I was wondering whether we might not be feeding our kittens enough. They are 4 months old, and we provide dry food at all times, but only half a small tin of wet food in the morning and the same at night (so one can total for each cat per day). I'm not a big fan of the tinned food, but we wanted to keep their diet consistent with the breeder for now.

What's puzzling is that the larger kitten (they are littermates, but he is 1.1 pounds heavier at 6.5 pounds) is content with our regimen - in fact I think he enjoys the dry food more, while the smaller guy is constantly begging for more, often prattling on for more right after finishing his meal. He is also very aggresive when the food hits the floor, and if the bowls are to close together, he growls like I've never heard.

Any guidance is appreciated!

HunterandPeri

Hi Hunter and Peri

I have a 5 month old baby and i feed him 1 full pouch in the morning and another full pouch in the evening as well as having dry food down all the time. If i come home for lunch and hes shouting like mad, i will give him half a pouch. To be honest i think they will always have us on and tell us they are still hungry lol.

Hope this helps a bit but im sure someone with more experience will help as well.

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Tracey

Hi

Cats are all different and maybe the smaller one will always be that way but as long as he isn't small and fat then I would tend to give him more of the tinned, even separate them at feeding so that you are sure he is getting his share.

Adult cats can be fussy in their eating to an extent and do no damage, but kittens need to grow and develop and if he is not getting enough then that is not a good thing.

He probably is really hungry if in fact he is not eating the dry, hence the aggression. Some cats just don't like the dry and some are not keen on the tinned. When he has grown up then you can play around with different regimens but as a kitten he needs to be fed.

I had a kitten once who used to scoff a whole large tin of cat food a day when she was about your cats age. She wasn't a large cat and was a never a fat cat, she just needed it for her growth. I feed my young cats pouches as required, if they seem hungry they get fed, and there is always dry food available. None of them are fat.

I must admit I have never had the bad growling and aggression over food that a few forum members have mentioned in their Bengals.

Elsa

Thanks for the replies!

We started feeding a full can to the smaller one this morning, and he inhaled it in about the same time it took the other to finish half a can. It'll be interesting to see if his weight catches up to his bigger brothers.

Thanks again!

HunterandPeri

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Buddy's Mama

I'm actually feeding exactly the same way as mentioned in the first post: half a small can for each cat in the mornings and evenings for a total of one can per cat per day and dry food available at all times. My cats seem to be fine with that, but they both are adults and eat the dry food without fussing when they get hungry in between wet food feedings, often while there's still a little bit wet food left over. I could imagine that a younger cat needs more nutrients to grow (thinking of my adolescent brothers at the dinner table...), and the instructions on the label actually say to feed two cans per cat per day if it was the only food available to them.