Kitten feeding from birth to 12 months: weaning and meals

A newborn kitten weighs about 80 to 120 grams and should double that weight in its first 7 to 10 days. Growth stays fast for months, and a kitten can only build bone, muscle and organs from what it eats, so the first year is when feeding mistakes do the most lasting harm. The practical rules are short: colostrum in the first hours, milk or a proper replacer for about a month, a gradual weaning, then a food labeled complete for growth, fed in several measured meals.

Birth to four weeks

Kittens are born with almost no antibodies of their own. They get them from colostrum, the first milk the mother produces over roughly two days after birth. The window is short. A review of canine and feline colostrum notes that the gut stops absorbing these antibodies 12 to 16 hours after birth, so early and steady suckling is the first thing to check in a new litter. A kitten that is not nursing in its first hours needs a vet's attention.

After that, the mother's milk is the whole diet for about the first month. Weigh each kitten daily at the same time. Steady daily gain is the best sign that nursing is going well, and a kitten that stops gaining or loses weight should be seen.

Orphaned kittens

Kittens without a mother need a commercial kitten milk replacer. Cow's and goat's milk are not substitutes. Queen's milk contains more than twice the protein of cow's milk, and cow's milk is also lower in calories, fat and taurine and higher in lactose, according to VCA's guide to feeding orphaned kittens. Homemade formulas do not match a commercial replacer either.

International Cat Care suggests a schedule along these lines:

Warm the formula to about 35 to 38°C (95 to 100°F) and test it on the back of the hand. Feed the kitten with all four paws on a surface, standing or lying on its front, and never on its back, because milk is more easily inhaled in that position. The nipple hole should release no more than a drop at a time. Too fast a flow, cold formula or overfeeding can lead to regurgitation, aspiration pneumonia, bloating and diarrhea, and it is safer to underfeed slightly than to overfeed.

Kittens cannot pass urine or feces on their own until about three weeks old. After each feed, stroke the area under the tail with a warm, damp cotton ball or soft cloth, as the mother would by licking. International Cat Care's hand-rearing guide also covers keeping the nest warm, since very young kittens cannot shiver or regulate their temperature.

Weaning, three to eight weeks

Weaning starts at three to four weeks. Begin by offering milk, or milk replacer, in a flat, shallow dish. Then mix wet kitten food, or dry kitten food soaked soft, with a little milk into a paste and put it on a saucer at ground level. Kittens walk through it and wear it before they eat it. That is normal.

Over the next few weeks, thicken the mixture gradually until the kittens eat plain solid food. Never force food into a kitten's mouth, as it can be inhaled. Most kittens are eating solid food by about eight weeks, although some mothers let them suckle occasionally for longer. A slow, gradual weaning matters for hand-reared kittens too. Abrupt weaning has been linked with digestive upsets, weight loss and more aggressive behavior.

Two to six months, the fastest growth

Choosing the food

Pick a food whose label states it is complete and balanced for growth or for all life stages. The nutritional statement on the pack, based on AAFCO profiles in the US, says which life stage a food meets. An adult maintenance food is not formulated for a growing kitten. Complete commercial kitten foods also contain enough taurine, an amino acid cats must get from their diet. Taurine deficiency can cause heart muscle failure, a link first reported in cats in 1987. Home-made diets for kittens should be formulated by a veterinary nutritionist.

Meals per day

• 8 to 12 weeks: four meals a day.
• 3 to 6 months: three meals a day.
• 6 to 12 months: two or three meals a day.

Follow the feeding guide on the label as a starting point, split across the meals, and adjust by body condition and weight gain. A kitten should look lean with a visible waist, not round.

Wet or dry

Wet food adds water to the diet and is easy for small teeth to manage. Dry food is convenient and cheaper per calorie. Either works if it is complete for growth, and many owners feed both. Fresh water should always be available, especially for kittens on mostly dry food.

Six to twelve months

Growth slows through the second half of the first year, and the risk shifts from underfeeding to overfeeding. Many kittens are neutered during the first year, and it affects growth. In records from thousands of domestic shorthair kittens, growth curves bent upwards after neutering, more so in females. Check body condition every few weeks after the operation and trim portions if the waist starts to disappear. The guide to weight gain after neutering covers this in more detail.

Most cats can move to an adult food at around 12 months, changing over gradually across a week or so. Large, slow-maturing breeds such as the Maine Coon may do better on a growth food for longer, which is worth discussing with the vet.

Common feeding mistakes

• Cow's milk as a drink or treat. Many cats are lactose-intolerant after weaning, and milk can cause diarrhea without adding anything a complete food lacks.
• An all-meat or mostly fish diet. Meat alone is very low in calcium. A six-month-old kitten fed almost entirely on a complementary pet food and tuna developed low blood calcium, thin bones and a deformed nose, a condition called nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism. Its calcium and hormone levels returned to normal within two months on a complete wet food for growth.
• Unmeasured free-feeding. A bowl kept topped up makes it hard to notice overeating. Measured meals make weight changes visible early.
• Adding supplements to a complete diet. Cornell's Feline Health Center advises that supplements are usually unnecessary with a complete and balanced food, that more of a vitamin or mineral is not better, and that supplements should not be given without a vet's approval.
• Switching to adult food early to save money. Adult food is not designed to support growth.

Sources

1. Canine and feline colostrum. Reproduction in Domestic Animals, 2017.
2. Feeding orphaned kittens. VCA Animal Hospitals.
3. Hand-rearing kittens. International Cat Care.
4. Feeding your cat. Cornell Feline Health Center.
5. Myocardial failure in cats associated with low plasma taurine: a reversible cardiomyopathy. Science, 1987.
6. Comparison of growth in neutered Domestic Shorthair kittens with growth in sexually-intact cats. PLoS One, 2023.
7. Nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism in a kitten, supported by immunoenzymatic measurement of feline intact parathyroid hormone. Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation, 2023.