Terabith Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 So, obviously, Nugget should have kitten food. I've been feeding him canned food in the evenings. I was feeding him in the mornings as well, but it wasn't getting eaten. The big kitties share a can of big wet cat food every night at 9 pm. Everyone can graze on dry food throughout the day. When Nugget was locked in a separate room, this was relatively easy, with him getting kitten kibble and Inky (who I am kinda mad at right now because she nipped me today and left a nasty bruise) and Aslan eating Purina Cat Chow. But...Nugget has been released from his confinement. And is doing very well with the big kitties. But this raises issues with feeding. The big kitties LOVE kitten food. They have stopped eating their own food. I lock Nugget in his room when I feed him, but he is a grazer and only eats a tiny bit of it. Then he stands at the door and screams and cries piteously until we release him, at which point Inky and Aslan run in and eat his food. Nugget wants to eat the big cat food. The big cats want to eat Nugget's food. I'm worried Inky is going to get fat with all of this. She is especially fond of the kitten kibble. I'm leaning towards just mixing the dry food in the free feeding container so it contains a mixture of kitten and adult cat food and feeding everyone wet food together and just accepting that Nugget isn't going to get as much kitten food as he needs and the big kitties will get more calories than they need. I know some people do RFID feeders with tags, but Nugget isn't chipped yet, and my big cats are REALLY good at removing collars, so I'm just not sure it would work. Anyone have any brilliant suggestions? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraidycat Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 I would just go with your idea of mixing the two kinds for the free feeding. There's ideal, then there's reality. Ya gotta go with the one that works. One thing that you might try first if it makes you feel better to try another approach first is to try mixing wet, dry, and water for Nugget at meal times. This is the combination our 13 (2 mommas, 11 kittens) current fosters get. We mash the wet food about 50/50 with water so it's very liquidy, then add dry kibble to make a "cereal w/milk" consistency to start. If they don't finish it right away it will puff into more of a mashed potato consistency, but they still clean it all up before the next meal. The point being that Nugget might eat more with more soft/hard "texture" before they want out of kitty jail. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 We had this exact situation. We just mixed foods for a while. We probably switched baby to adult food a little early. If your cats are otherwise healthy i wouldn’t sweat it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSera Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 My solution would be to just cut out the free feeding and do scheduled meals, but that’s how we feed cats here anyway. We don’t feed dry and do just scheduled meals of wet food— twice a day for our adult cats. I can’t remember how old the kitten is, but I’m guessing still young enough he would need his daily calories split into three meals a day. Then each cat can get the kind of food they’re meant to be eating because you can separate them for feeding. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 7 hours ago, Terabith said: Aslan eating Purina Cat Chow I'm pretty sure Purina Cat Chow Complete is an all life stages food. So it's fine for kittens to seniors. I believe several of Purina's foods are all life stages. Or I think mixing the dry food and making sure Nugget gets a good meal of canned kitten food is fine. You could also give him a few nuggets of kitten food throughout the day as treats. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted July 18 Author Share Posted July 18 He’s the least interested in food cat I’ve ever encountered. Like he eats, but if he’s not hungry, he doesn’t even want churru treats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanin Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 5 hours ago, Terabith said: He’s the least interested in food cat I’ve ever encountered. Like he eats, but if he’s not hungry, he doesn’t even want churru treats! Totally the opposite of my two! They're chow hounds. When my younger one was a kitten, I would feed him an extra meal just for him, in a closed room. He did like wet kitten food. That won't help if your baby isn't hungry, though. He loved the Baby Thrive packets. It's a small amount of concentrated calories in a little packet. https://www.chewy.com/tiki-cat-baby-thrive-chicken-chicken/dp/819902 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHP Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 We do not free feed. Adults are fed once a day. Kittens are fed more times based on age. We currently have 3 different foods. Everyone is trained to go to a specific room at feeding time. The doors are closed and they are fed the suggested serving size of their required food. Kittens that are old enough to roam the house but while still needing additonal feeding know to go to their room at the appropriate time and the older cats know they cannot join. Cats are very easy to train. Humans are harder. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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