Only eating a little?

[JBalways2000]

well the kittens are being fed the Nutro kitten food(dry and wet) i did start them on it straight away as i hadnt had chance to get the arthurs food in, but wanted to get them straight onto some good stuff anyway. their tummys have been absolutely fine! no runs or sickness etc.

the thing is-they dont eat very much. i was under the impression that i should be getting through 2-3 pouches of wet food for EACH of them a day, plus dry food. since ive got them, the most ive been getting through is 2 pouches BETWEEN them a day, plus some dry food-and they dont even eat all of that!!

its strange though, because they will eat the dry food if we pick pieces out and feed it to them, but their not too keen on eating it otherwise-you do hear them munching at it but not much is ever gone. with their wet food-il put a pouch out for them and they come running for it, gulp down the juice off it and eat a good few chunks of it! they seem to enjoy it, and at first were emptying the dish, but now il feed them of a morning, and by the afternoon half the wet food is still sitting in their dish!!

i decided to try them with a little bit of whiskas wet and dry kitten food mixed in with their nutro, and again they enjoyed the dry food when hand fed and seemed to really like the wet food when first given-then i ended up throwing half of it away!!

whats going on-why are they eating so little? they seem 100% healthy to me otherwise-they have been wormed and deflead and when they are not sleeping they are driving us crazy tearing around the house after each other they are going the toilet regularly and well, so i dont know what it is please let me know if im doing anything wrong, or if theres anything i should be doing that im not!

PS. got some extremely cute piccies today-will try and upload them tonight!

[dinahsmum]

Beware the manufacturers feeding guides! They would have you giving waaaay too much. If your boys are happy, their digestion is fine, and they are growing, then they are doing fine. 2 pouches plus dry sounds fine for tinies. as they grow and become more active they will need more and you will be able to gauge when to increase and by how much (don't do it in big leaps - that could upset their tums)
My boys are 6 months now, and pretty much fully grown - they don't eat quite as much as 3 pouches a day plus dry now.
PS - if you offer less they will eat the wet food (which is the obective after all) rather than just lick off the gravy/jelly.
Good luck - they will be fine. You've only had them a few days and they are still settling in.

[alexgirl73]

De-stress JB, lol! I have an adult cat who only eats 1 pouch per day plus dry and he never eats all of his wet at one sitting (and its only half a pouch morning and night). The kitties are only on wet just now and 1 of them doesn't always eat his at one go, mind you the other one always polishes the remainder off for him). My advice would just be to put a little wet down for them and see how quickly they eat it, if its gone in a flash then you know you need to put some more down and vice versa if some is left. Good luck!

[Elaine]

I wouldnt worry too much, sounds like they are eating a fair bit to me, considering they are only babies really. I would say though not to leave the wet food down too long as it goes off quite quickly once exposed to the air. I give mine a little wet in the morning and evening but I only leave the bowls down for half an hour to an hour. I leave a little dried food out before I go to work so they can graze a little and the same before I go to bed.
You are doing very well with the young 'uns xxx

[Kim]

Sounds okay to me too! They are only little and have little tums that can't take too much at one time. I only give mine about half a pouch at a time (they are all adults) they won't eat leftovers later after it has been exposed to the air. Mine also tend to lick off the jelly or gravy. As long as they are eating, try not to worry!!

[JBalways2000]

sorry for taking so long to get back to this thread-i did read all of your replies and followed your advice(especially to de-stress )

the boys are actually eating more now-i have been giving them smaller meals of half a pouch at a time and this is working well. they are now getting through about 3 pouches a day between them, plus dry nutro. they are on whiskas at the moment as they didnt enjoy the nutro wet food i got them-i got a few pouches of a different flavour nutro for them to try which i will give them soon. ive also got my local pet shop to order in some natures menu pouches for the boys to try-id much prefer them to eat something like this then whiskas!

so all is going well with my little fellas now! oh-and they went absolutely craxy over a tin of sardines in tomato sauce last night they didnt even let me get it out the tin before they were eating it!

[dinahsmum]

That all sounds great!
So glad you are enjoying them
(PS - there's not a cat born who doesn't love sardines or pilchards in tomato sauce!)





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[dandysmom]

Originally Posted by dinahsmum

That all sounds great!
So glad you are enjoying them
(PS - there's not a cat born who doesn't love sardines or pilchards in tomato sauce!




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DM, you've never met Leia!! She hates sardines, scrapes all around her plate trying to bury them.........

[dinahsmum]

Originally Posted by dandysmom

DM, you've never met Leia!! She hates sardines, scrapes all around her plate trying to bury them.........

Cats!
They'll always make a fool of you.

[dandysmom]

[quote=dinahsmum;311597]Cats!
They'll always make a fool of you. [/qote]
Oh yes! I remember saying in another post that Leia wouldn't eat ham...well, when I was fixing ham and cabbage a while back, who do you suppose came mooching into the kitchen announcing loudly that she wanted some! And gobbled it! Cats!!