My kitten's being a twit!

[emmabelle]

I have been feeding my 3 1/2 month old kitten three times a day since we got her, a heaping spoonful of wet with 1/4 cup of kitten kibble mixed in. I was hoping that I might be able to start her on a more grazing pattern of eating now that she's getting a bit bigger. Three times a day can be difficult if I have somewhere to go during the day, so today I tried giving her twice her normal lunch amount hoping that she would eat half at lunch and save the rest for dinner time. Well now that it's dinner time she'll have nothing to do with what is still a considerable amount of food in her dish, she just turns her nose up at it! Now it's a battle of the wills, do I give in and throw away the old food and make up fresh food and keep the three times a day feedings? I worry what we'll do when we go away, I certainly can't ask someone to feed her three times a day. Yikes!

 

[bbangel]

Leave it. Like kids, cats will eventually eat when they are hungry. It won't hurt to go without dinner just once!
If it's still there in the morning, then I would replace it.
You might want to feed her the regular amount and then just add dry food for her to nibble on until dinner.

 

[mssocks]

I agree. Leave it out one more meal. My kids are not eating one particular flavor in the case of Friskies canned food. I leave it for the meal, then if not eaten no new food until the next meal. They have dry food all the time in a separate bowl. I think twice a day is fine for 3 months old. Mine are 3 years and I would love to change to once a day but the staring gets to me.
When I am away for 4 days I feed them the morning I leave, someone comes over ONCE in the middle and I am home to give them dinner the 4th night. They are still alive.....

Of course there are 3 pans of dry food and 2 pans of water as well.

 

[emmabelle]

Ok, I gave in and dumped the old food and just put out kibble alone. Maybe I'll do the wet with kibble in the morning then leave out kibble dry for the rest of the day and see how that goes. Thanks for the replies.

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Personally from experience I would say dump the wet food altogether and get her on a healthy eating pattern right off the bat. I have two very FAT 6 year old cats and I got some very interesting advice from my vet. He said that they are fat because I leave the food out for them all day and fill it up when it gets low. It's not good for them to be "grazing." That's the word the doctor used and I noticed you used it as well. So he said to give them 1/3 cup of food for breakfast and 1/3 cup of food for dinner and that it!! He also said, whenever they walk away, take the food away so they know that's all they get and they'd better eat all their breakfast or they'll be hungry the rest of the day. It took a while for them to get used to it but they love when I call "SUUUUPPPPERRRR" just like Snow White! They come running and eat every last drop!

Just my thinking on the situation!