Pet knowledge: feeding your kitten

A kitten is not a small cat. Between eight weeks and a year it builds a skeleton, an immune system and most of its adult muscle, and it does that on roughly three times the calories per kilogram an adult cat needs. Underfeeding at this stage is not something the animal grows out of. Feed a food labelled for growth or for all life stages, not adult maintenance. The label matters more than the brand: growth formulas carry more protein, more fat, and the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio a developing skeleton needs. Portions and frequency Eight to sixteen weeks: four small meals a day. Four to six months: three meals. Six months to a year: two meals, moving to the adult portion on the bag. Weigh the kitten weekly on a kitchen scale; steady gain is the only measure that matters, and it beats any table on a package. Wet, dry, or both Both, in practice. Dry food is convenient and keeps well in a UAE kitchen; wet food carries water, and cats are famously poor at drinking enough on their own. A common pattern is dry food available through the day with one or two wet pouches at fixed times. Fresh water should be somewhere other than next to the food bowl, which cats prefer for reasons nobody has fully explained. Three things to keep away entirely Cow's milk. Most cats lose the ability to digest lactose after weaning, and the result is diarrhoea in an animal that cannot afford it. Onion and garlic, in any amount, including inside leftovers. Dog food, which lacks taurine — a cat deprived of taurine goes blind, and the damage does not reverse. When to ask a vet A kitten that refuses two consecutive meals, loses weight, or has diarrhoea for more than a day needs a clinic, not a change of food. At that size, dehydration moves quickly.