- Not a substitute for professional veterinary help.
Kittens are too sweet for words. We love their little meows, their playfulness, the way their tiny little claws cling to us when we scratch their bellies. Speaking of their bellies—it’s important to feed our kittens right, and that can feel complicated to do. Especially when it comes to wet food.
How much wet food should you feed your new kitten? We set out to answer that question and give you some other important knowledge when it comes to keeping your kitty healthy.
Kittens Have Different Nutritional Needs Than Adult Cats
While kittens are already clearly different from adult cats—so much extra floof! such affection! such playfulness!—they also have super different nutritional needs than they will once they get older.
Kittens should ideally feed exclusively on the mother cat’s milk until they’re three or four weeks old, according to PetMD. Kittens can be fed a replacement milk if you don’t have access to the mother cat. Around three or four weeks, you can start introducing them to wet food. By seven weeks, they should be able to eat wet food (or even kibble) for every meals.
Adult cats are usually pretty happy with twice-daily mealtimes. Kittens, on the other hand, are used to regular, small meals. PetMD recommends feeding kittens at least twice a day. But Jennifer Larsen, DVM, PhD, nutritional consultant and assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of California, Davis told WebMD that most kittens like to have way more than that—at least four meals a day.
Kittens also need more protein than adult cats do—around 30% of their daily diet should be protein, according to the ASPCA.
How to Get Nutritious Food For Your Kitten
To make sure you’re getting food that meets all of your kittens nutritional needs, WebMD says you should be looking for a statement on the packaging that reads “Meets the nutritional requirements of kittens established by the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO).” Even better than that would be a sentence indicating the food has gone through trials, which would mean a statement like “Complete and balanced nutrition for kittens based on AAFCO feeding trials.”
Once you’ve found the right food for your kitten, you’ll want to take your early time together as an opportunity to set a feeding routine. Cats appreciate knowing when their food is coming, and it can stave off bad behavior like constantly begging for treats.
How Much Wet Food to Feed Your New Kitten
Once kittens are weaned, wet food may be more appropriate than dry food for a while, as their teeth may not be ready for kibble yet, according to WebMD. The ASPCA says you can start feeding kittens kibble as supplemental to their mother’s milk as early as five to six weeks old. Both wet food and dry food are appropriate for older kittens and adult cats.
The fact that it’s “wet food” is a giveaway, but wet food has more hydration properties than dry food. If you feed your adult cat dry food, you’ll want to make sure they have plenty of access to a regularly refreshed and refilled water bowl.
As far as how much wet food to feet your new kitten, you’ll need to read the label on your kitten food. For example, Blue Buffalo Wilderness Kitten Chicken Grain-Free Canned Cat Food advises that you feed your kitten as much as they’ll eat in three or four daily feedings until they’re 20 weeks old. After that, ½ can of food per pound of body weight every day is appropriate until 30 weeks. And from 31-52 weeks, about ¼ can of food per pound of body weight. After that, you can start looking at adult foods.
Switching different flavored foods is useful when your pet is still a kitten, so cats don’t develop an unshakeable preference for one flavor. WebMd vet suggests swapping foods regularly when your cat is still a kitten, but being careful not to mix the old food and new food. If your cat doesn’t like the new food and they’re mixed, they could end up not liking either food.
Lastly, while you can leave dry food out indefinitely should your kitten not finish their portion, don’t leave wet food out for more than 20-30 minutes, PetMD says, and throw away anything they haven’t eaten.
What to Know About Free-Feeding a Cat
Once your kitten gets older, you may wonder whether you really need to have set mealtimes for your cat—especially if you only have one who doesn’t seem to get super excited when you put their food down. Free feeding can be OK—as long as your cat doesn’t end up eating too much, according to Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.
Remember that wet food can’t be left out for very long, so if you want to free-feed your cat, you’ll need to switch to kibble. You’ll also need to keep a close eye on their weight to make sure they don’t overeat.