Cat question re: hand raised kitten...

[Red State Rebel]

Hi! Scooter is now 8 weeks old and has finally been weaned to canned cat food.

My question is how often do I feed him now? When I weaned him he was at 4 bottles a day - one every 6 hours. He is eating a good sized portion of canned food at each feeding, about 1/2 can, do I now cut back to 2 feedings?

I have been taking him with me to work every day to give him his noon feeding, it would be nice to be able to leave him home.

Another factor in this is we have 3 dogs and I cannot leave out Scooters food or they will eat it! I am in the process of fixing this.

Thanks!!

[Booster]

1. Wow, that's a lot of food for a kitty 8 wks old.

Cat's are extremely resilient and if you leave him alone in a room with water/kitty litter box he will be just fine. The dog problem is another thing. ANYTHING on the floor belongs to the dog; a rule the dog established right off the bat, so the cat's dry food has to be on a counter. I brought a stray home, left him in a bedroom alone for a couple of days when I was gone, and guess who he became best friends with - the dog. Taking the cat to work is probably more dangerous than leaving him in a room alone because if he sneaks off (& they will), you may have a hard time finding him. Take care & good luck.

[truthspeaker]

2. I don't know about a kitten that young,

but usually with cats you can just leave food out and they will eat as much as they need. They are very different than dogs in that respect; most dogs will keep eating until there is no more food, and still have room for some delicious horse manure or whatever else they find in the yard.

[demnan]

3. Feed him some kitten chow in the morning

Put the bowl on the counter where he can get it but the dog can't. Get your cat used to dry food early. Some wet canned cat foods aren't consistent in quality and a cat will eat too much (they usually throw up). The dry food is good for the teeth and keeps the feces from being too runny. Two meals should be sufficient now if one is dry food. Cats like to nibble and come back to the bowl. Your little cat shouldn't eat too much at one time. I really think half the can is too much for him right now. By the time he's twelve to 14 weeks he'll be just fine.

[Red State Rebel]

6. The problem is our biggest dog is 124 lbs.

Golden Retriever and he can reach almost anything. Right now we put the other cats food on top of the refrigerator so he can get to it but Bailey can't. The kitten is too little to get up there so we are working on an alternative.

[SoCalDem]

4. Just give him water in the bottle until you see him drinking water

if he is eating, he will not "need" the bottle..BUT some kittens have a hard time with water.. ..

I bottle fed two litters from birth , so I have some experience :)

When yuou leave for work, put him and his food in a bathroom (with a litter box)..he will get used to being fed in there and the dogs willl leave him alone..


Once he's older, you might let the dogs outside while he eats, or put his food where only he can get to it..

They could easily share a water dish :)

[Red State Rebel]

5. You should have seen him "discover" water today...

After he ate I put a little bowl of water down in front of him. At first he kept sticking his nose down in it then jerking it back up like he couldn't figure out what was getting on his whiskers or in his nose. Then he pawed at it and sat back and shook his paw out. It was hilarious! The bowl looked empty but there was something weird going on in there~!

[SoCalDem]

7. Marvin practically submerged his head the first few times..

I gave him water in the bottle a few times a day and kept watching him try.. He finally figured it out a few days later.. I offered the bottle to his 4 siblings, and they refused it, so I knew they were getting enough water..

The 2nd litter (4 kittens) all figured out the water in a few tries on the same day :)