How much food?

[em1209]

That's a good idea about the ball, I knew you could use them for dogs, but to be honest didn't even think of using them for cats.

They learn them very quickly 

Em is your garden secured?

Yup nobody panic!!! Should have said, we're in a new build so there's fences around the garden and the side of the garage. We' haven't done much to the garden apart from lay turf and left some areas round the edge. I've made sure there are no gaps under the fences. The gap between the garage and the house onto the driveway we had a large piece of cardboard up, propped up with heavy stones. And most importantly, me and OH were sat out with them the whole time, they are so funny to watch, I'll get some pictures up now. But every time they jumped at the fence at a bug or something we both lept up thinking they were going to try and climb to the top. So yes they are safe and secure. The only hard part was trying to catch them when it was time to go in!!!

[Millys Mum]

That's a good idea about the ball, I knew you could use them for dogs, but to be honest didn't even think of using them for cats.

They learn them very quickly 

Em is your garden secured?

[em1209]

Thanks guys, I think I'm just worrying for nothing about giving them too much. I might try and give them more than half a pouch each for breakfast though, it just looks like a lot in the bowl. At this age when they are growing and going crazy using the sitting room as an assault course, climbing curtains etc, they must be getting hungry and I suppose they know when they've got hungry tummies.

That's a good idea about the ball, I knew you could use them for dogs, but to be honest didn't even think of using them for cats.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I don't leave any food when I'm out as I feed mainly wet food, and if I left anything out Jaffa would just scoff it straight off, including anything left in treat balls.  If I'm going to be late home from work I leave their tea in auto feeders.  Jaffa has a pouch of food in the morning, another at tea time and a third before bed.  Mosi has the same routine but he has half a pouch with a little dry sprinkled on top.  They seem ok on that, and if I'm home during the day they don't start mithering me for food until about 3.30pm- 4pm as they are used to being fed at certain times of day.

edited to add - at 14 weeks of age I'd let Fergus and Polly eat as much as they want.  Some wet morning and evening then leave dry out during the day.  If they're eating all the dry too quickly then you could consider putting half in an automatic feeder so that it opens in the afternoon - that way they can't scoff it all the minute you're out the door.  When Mosi was little I didn't leave him anything down during the day, although he was 16 weeks by the time I went back to work, but let him eat his meals over several sittings when I was home (by putting his food on top of the fridge where Jaffa couldn't get it then putting it back on the floor when he asked for some more).

[blackcat]

In response to the question about how to get the food to last longer through the day, have you tried using a treat ball? You fill them up with the quantity of dry food you want the kitty to have available to them and they have to roll it around for the food to drop out. This way the food is dispensed slowly, they have a great game and they only get the same as you would otherwise give them. I used this for Shadow when he was a puppy and now he is obsessed with balls of any shape or size 

There are also delayed release feeding stations but they are a bit more expensive ...

[Ela]

How about giving them a pouch each for breakfast and tea?  I believe a full pouch is a meal for 1 cat,am I right or am I wrong

For  a cat I think you are right, however, kittens do need feeding more often

[Gwen]

How about giving them a pouch each for breakfast and tea?  I believe a full pouch is a meal for 1 cat,am I right or am I wrong?

[Tiggy's Mum]

That's exactly what I fed the boys when they were little: 1/2 a pouch each for breakfast, biscuits for during the day while I'm at work, 1/2 a pouch each for tea and then biscuits overnight.  I wouldn't worry about overfeeding a kitten, they are growing so quickly that they need all the nutrients they can get.

Now that my two are bigger they get more wet than dry as that is what they seem to prefer, although they are still having four meals:  Pouch each for breakfast, biccies for lunch, pouch each for tea and biccies as a bedtime snack.

[em1209]

Morning,

I was wanting a bit of reassurrance on the amount of food Fergus and Polly are currently eating. They have half a pouch each at 7am ish, some Purina wet biscuits just before I leave, I leave some more Purina out for them for the day (although they eat them before I even leave for work, that's my second question below .....). When I get in from work they have another half a pouch each, and then some more Purina biscuits at 9pm ish. Yesterday they spent most of the evening going nuts in the garden so they had an extra pouch between them as they seemed to be screaming at me as though they hadn't been fed in weeks! I asked when I was at the vets and they said to just give them as much as they want. At this age (14 weeks) as they're so active and growing lots, it should be ok. It just seems to me quite a lot though, they must get very full little tummys.

So also I was wondering what you all do with food when you go to work? I leave a bowl of Purina wet bsicuits out, which worked fine for the first week or so as they didn't really realise I was putting it down. But now they know that before I leave I put their bowls down, so they scoot straight into the kitchen and are happily scoffing it before I even get out the house  . I've now started giving them a few bits about 10 mins before I leave to try and fill them up and trick them into thinking that's it, but they gulp that down and still know that when I pick up my bag and keys that their bowls will be down again complete with what's supposedly their lunch!!! Any tips? If I left more biscuity things out, do you think they would scoff the lot at 8am, or are they likely to stop eating when they are full and be able to go back when they want more later? I just worry they get hungry in the day when I'm not there.

Thanks
Emma x