Expert: Norman Auspitz - 7/15/2011

Question
Hello Norman,

I have a Birman girl who is turning 4 month. Her passion to food is amazing. She eat almost everything (although I don't allow her, caught her "stealing" those from dinner table), lettuce, rice, orange, tea, you name it. I feed her half can of cat food (around 80gram) per day, in three meals, mixed with about same amount of dry food. She will finish each meal in 15 seconds (yeah, I timed). Since she eat so fast and cry so hard when I prepare her meal, I'm really wondering if I've feed her enough? I know people say let the kittens eat as much as they want, but it won't work for my girl. With that enthusiasm she will eat herself into a balloon in no time. She is not skinny, actually a bit chubby, and she looks satisfied after each meal. However considering she is still a kitten and need extra nutrition to develop, I don't know if I should increase her daily food amount? I don't want her to grow into a fat cat but I definitely don't want her to be malnutritioned either.

BTW, her activity level is average. When she play she play like there is no tomorrow, but when she sleep (she sleep a lot) she sleep so deeply like she is in another dimension.

Thank you for your help!

Answer
Yingying,

We tend to feed kittens all they will eat unless they start getting overly fat.  At about 8 months of age we start to restrict their diet so they can grow into their weight. It sounds as if you want to give your kitten two good meals a day when she turns 8 months.  You can tell if you are feeding too much if she gets fatter and fatter. For kittens carrying a little bit of extra weight is OK, but you still need to watch what she eats.

It is hard to answer what appears to be a simple question about how much to feed because it depends on size, metabolism, and age just as in people.  The Birman should have a stocky body, so they tend to need a bit more food than skinnier breeds, as a rule.

Activity levels for kittens is all out or not at all! Cats require much more sleep then people, so it sounds as if her activity level is good.  You do not want to get her over tired. As far as cats are concerned the way they sleep is different than the way we sleep. They seem to wake up very quickly compare to other mammals with almost no sign of grogginess.

Best regards... Norm.