how to organize kitten feeding?

[purr machine]

I have a little over a week until I go back to work, and my kitten's feeding is not very organized at this moment.. He is a 10 weeks old ragdoll, and my plan was to have 3-4 set meals a day, with at least one of them being a dry food.
At this moment he only eats dry food when it mixed with his wet chicken food. He also appears to hate all wet food flavors except chicken.

I give him wet food as much as he wants per meal, and give him solid 20 minutes to eat (he comes back and forth to and from his plate). However, in 2 hours he is asking for food again.... Should I give it to him, or ignore his hunger meous? each day his wet food intake is a bit less than a tuna sized can, I read the labels and he is taking as much as his body requires... However how do I switch him to having larger and less frequent meals?

And will he ever be ok with having dry food? He eats it mixed in with wet food, but never without it..

[scottd]

At 10 weeks old, he should really eat as much as he wants within reason.

My 16 week old kitten eats about 8oz a day of wet food. She was eating 10 but she had diarrhea so I reduced the amount and now it's all good. We feed her 4x a day. After we wake up, about noon, in the evening, and then before bed.

In my opinion, if he doesn't like dry food, that's a good thing. I certainly wouldn't encourage it. Wet food is so much healthier. Dry food can be addictive and if you ever have to switch to wet, he may not accept it.

[Arianwen]

They are naturally hungry at that age. And can usually cope with large amounts!!

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by purr machine

...how do I switch him to having larger and less frequent meals?..

purr machine..........you CAN NOT........unless you want to try and undo what nature and evolution have given you!

Our LITTLE cats (and, by that I do not mean kittens - but, rather small cats as opposed to large cats: lions, etc) come "designed" to do exactly what your little one is doing: they eat frequent, small meals. Period.

Some people (not understanding the above, or, perhaps not wanting to understand) do "arrange" scheduled meal/feeding times.

However - with kittens up to one year, the rule of thumb is to allow free access to a high protein, moderate fat diet 24/7

[purr machine]

Stryker, thank you!
I read a lot about people having feeding schedules, and that got me wondering if I was doing something wrong by feeding my kitten whenever he asks.
He has some dry food available to him all the time, but he prefers his wet food.
What worries me is going to work and leaving him alone for 8 hours a few days a week when nobody will be there to feed him his wet food.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by purr machine

...What worries me is going to work and leaving him alone for 8 hours a few days a week when nobody will be there to feed him his wet food.

No worry:

Many people who are at work all day worry that their cat will suffer without access to food continuously. A healthy cat will not perish if she does not have food available at all times. However, I routinely left canned food out for up to 12 hours at a time for my foster cats and kittens when I was involved in rescue work. Keep in mind that a cat's gastrointestinal tract is much different from ours.

If you are worried about leaving canned food out, you can always leave part of the food out at a normal (‘mouse body’) temperature and part of it frozen. The frozen portion will thaw within a few hours and will add some time to the 'freshness' of the food. This is also a great trick if you need to be gone for 24 hours or if your pet sitter can only come every 24 hours when you go on vacation. Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition :: healthy cat diet, making cat food, litter box, cat food, cat nutrition, cat urinary tract health

[Venusworld21]

I feed my fosters twice a day with wet food (how much they eat varies day to day, but generally about 1/3 can per kitten, per meal), but they have free access to dry food and I keep that bowl full so they can eat whenever/however much they want.

Also, one of the ladies I house-sat for had an automatic feeder. Program it and it'll automatically dispense whether you're home or not. Her cat was overweight and she was using that as a way to give him small frequent meals in a controlled way. Not exactly the problem you have, but might be worth looking into.