Kitten Feeding

Which can are you using?

Her numbers

Current weight (lb)

Age (months)

Growth multiplier

Meals per day

Wet / dry calorie split —

Reality check: published charts assume an average kitten. Real needs vary up to 50% in either direction. Steer by body condition — ribs easy to feel but not see, visible waist from above — and by your vet.

Weight log & growth

Date

Weight (lb)

Weight log table

Date	Weight (lb)	Daily target	Change

Food library

Colour	Flavor / can	kcal per can	kcal per kg	Can oz fallback	kcal/g	Net g

Colour

New flavor

kcal / can

kcal / kg

Can oz

Dry food	kcal per cup	kcal per kg	g per cup override

New dry food

kcal / cup

kcal / kg

g / cup

Dry food in use

Where to find kcal: the “Calorie Content – Metabolizable Energy” statement, printed as kcal per kg and per can or cup. Always enter kcal/kg when it’s printed — it’s the label’s own density, so grams come from fact rather than an assumption about net can weight. When kcal/kg is present the can-size field is ignored.

Label reference read off the cans 12 Aug 2026

Food	kcal/can or cup	kcal/kg	Protein	Fat	Fiber	Moisture	AAFCO
Brown — Turkey Select	204	1,305	10.0%	5.5%	1.0%	not legible	All life stages
Maroon — Cat & Kitten Chicken & Rice	184	1,175	9.5%	6.0%	1.0%	78.0%	All life stages
Light Blue — Chicken, Turkey, Lamb & Fish	182	1,162	9.5%	6.0%	1.0%	78.0%	All life stages
Dry — Cat & Kitten Chicken Meal, Salmon & Liver	497/cup	4,105	not photographed				Cat & Kitten

All three cans: NutriSource, 5.5 oz, taurine min 0.05%.

Dry food is 121 g per level cup. 497 kcal/cup ÷ 4,105 kcal/kg gives 121.1 g/cup; “4 lbs – 15 cups | 12 lbs – 45 cups” independently gives 120.96. Two methods within 0.1% — a derivation, not a guess. Dry portions are weight-exact.

Check the brown can. It’s Turkey Select Cat Food — NutriSource’s general cat line, not the Cat & Kitten line. Its visible AAFCO statement reads “all life stages,” which includes growth, so it’s adequate for a kitten, but the sentence is partly obscured in the photo — confirm the full wording before relying on it as a staple. It’s also the outlier: highest protein (10.0%), lowest fat (5.5%), highest calorie density, meaning less water. Moisture wasn’t legible; the density gap implies roughly 75% vs the others’ 78% — inference, not read.

Why this differs from the feeding chart

The math, in full

RER = 70 × (weight kg)^0.75 · Daily target = RER × growth multiplier

Every kcal figure in the published kitten chart is this formula — verified against all rows from 2–10 lb, agreement within ±2.2%. Because it’s continuous, this works at 2.4 lb instead of rounding to the nearest whole pound (a ~15% jump at her size).

Wet grams = kcal ÷ (label kcal/kg ÷ 1000). Net can weight works out to 156.3–156.6 g, slightly over the nominal 155.9 g of 5.5 oz — normal overfill.
Dry = kcal ÷ kcal per cup for volume; grams via 121 g/cup.

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Not veterinary advice. Growth rate, body condition, and health conditions change what a kitten needs. Weigh weekly during growth and bring these numbers to your vet rather than treating them as final. Opened wet food: refrigerate covered and use within about 3 days; discard food left at room temperature more than about 1 hour.