Kitten Feeding Schedule by Age: How Often and How Much to Feed, From Newborn to 12 Months

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Kittens grow faster than at any other time in their lives, and their feeding schedule has to keep up. A one-week-old needs a bottle every couple of hours around the clock. A six-month-old does well on three meals a day, and by its first birthday your cat is close to an adult routine. What do kittens eat at each age? has the full food-by-age chart.

Most feeding guides give you one of those stages and skip the rest. This guide covers the whole first year in one place:

• a chart of how often and how much to feed at every age
• bottle-feeding amounts in millilitres
• a week-by-week weaning plan
• sample daily timetables with real clock times
• how to turn calories into portions
• the warning signs that mean a kitten needs a vet

Every figure comes from veterinary or shelter sources, listed at the end. Where the experts disagree, we say so and explain which advice we follow. If you already know your kitten’s age and weight, our free Kitten Plan builder will do the portion maths for you.

Kitten feeding schedule chart by age

Kittens need frequent, small feeds when they are tiny. The gaps between meals get longer as their stomachs grow. Here is the full first year at a glance, with sources for every stage.

Sources: bottle-feeding frequency and amounts from Best Friends, VCA and the San Bernardino County foster manual. Weaning from Best Friends and Kitten Coalition. Meals after weaning from Cornell.

How to bottle-feed a newborn kitten (0–4 weeks)

A kitten without its mother needs kitten milk replacer from a bottle every 2–3 hours, around the clock, for the first week or two. Getting the routine right matters as much as the amount.

1. Warm the kitten first. Never feed a cold kitten. A chilled kitten can’t digest properly and won’t suckle. Best Friends gives a normal body temperature of 100–102°F (Best Friends). Warm a cold kitten slowly, because warming too fast can cause shock (Maddie’s Fund).
2. Warm the formula, not the kitten’s bottle in a microwave. Mix powdered formula as the label says (Best Friends uses 1 part powder to 2 parts water). Warm it in a mug of hot water to about 98–102°F, so it feels warm, not hot, on your inner wrist (Best Friends, VCA). Throw away mixed formula after 24 hours (ASPCA).
3. Feed belly-down. Lay the kitten on its stomach, never on its back like a human baby, and hold the bottle at about a 45-degree angle (Best Friends, ASPCA).
4. Let the kitten set the pace. Let it suckle until it slows down or turns away. Burp it gently a couple of times during the feed.
5. Stimulate it to pee and poop. Kittens can’t go on their own until about 3 weeks old. After each feed, gently rub the genital area with a warm, damp cotton ball (VCA). Expect urine at every feeding and a stool about once a day (ASPCA).

How much formula does a newborn kitten need?

Best Friends suggests about 8 mL of formula per ounce of body weight per day. Maddie’s Fund puts a kitten’s comfortable stomach capacity at about 4 mL per 100 g of body weight per feed (Best Friends, Maddie’s Fund). The two rules agree: at 100 g, both work out to roughly 28 mL a day.

These are guides, not targets to force. Overfeeding can cause bloating, diarrhea, regurgitation and formula getting into the lungs. VCA says slight underfeeding is safer than overfeeding, and if diarrhea develops, cut back the volume (VCA). Smaller or weaker kittens may take less per feed and need feeding more often (Best Friends).

Track weight every day

A kitchen scale that weighs in grams is your best tool. Newborns usually weigh 80–120 g (VCA) and should gain roughly 10–15 g a day, about half an ounce. The ASPCA’s chart gives a normal range of 7–15 g a day (ASPCA), and Best Friends says about ½ oz a day or 3–4 oz a week (Best Friends). VCA recommends weighing daily for the first 4 weeks, then weekly (VCA).

For the full newborn care routine, including keeping kittens warm, see our newborn kitten guide.

Kitten weaning schedule (4–8 weeks)

Weaning is the move from milk to solid food. For orphaned kittens it usually starts at 3–4 weeks old and takes several weeks. Most healthy kittens are fully weaned by 8 weeks (VCA, Best Friends, Kitten Coalition).

Mother cats often wean later. Kitten Coalition says queens usually start at 6–9 weeks (Kitten Coalition). PetMD gives a later start of 5–6 weeks (PetMD). If a kitten is with its mother, follow her lead.

Sources: Best Friends, Best Friends bottle-feeding guide, San Bernardino County foster manual.

Our step-by-step weaning guide covers equipment, recipes and moving onto kibble.

How often should you feed a kitten after weaning?

Once weaned, a kitten does best on several small meals a day. That’s about 4 a day at 8–12 weeks, then 3 a day until 6 months, then 2 a day from 6 to 12 months. Cornell’s Feline Health Center says kittens “usually do best when fed three meals a day” until 6 months, and that twice-daily feeding is generally best between 6 months and one year (Cornell).

Sources: Cornell, PetMD, Blue Buffalo, Chewy.

We follow Cornell. It is the most authoritative independent source, and three meals a day keeps a growing kitten’s energy steady through its fastest growth. We suggest 4 small meals at 8–12 weeks simply because very young kittens have small stomachs. That is in line with the every-6-hours rhythm most foster manuals use at the end of weaning.

See our 2–6 month guide and 6–12 month guide for everything else happening at those stages.

Sample kitten feeding schedules (with times)

Exact times matter less than consistency. Pick times that fit your day and keep them roughly the same, so your kitten learns when food is coming. Here are schedules that work for most households.

8–12 weeks: 4 meals a day

3–6 months: 3 meals a day

6–12 months: 2 meals a day

If you work full time

A 4-meals-a-day kitten and a 9-to-5 job can work together. Feed breakfast before you leave and dinner when you’re home, and give a late meal before bed. A timed feeder can serve a measured midday portion. The American Association of Feline Practitioners notes that automatic feeders can be helpful, although they don’t give cats a chance to hunt or forage for food (AAFP). Wet food left out for hours isn’t ideal, so use dry food or a feeder with an ice pack for the midday slot.

How much should a kitten eat at each meal?

Work out your kitten’s daily calories, divide by the number of meals, then turn that into grams of your own food. Vets estimate calories in two steps (Merck Veterinary Manual):

• Resting energy (RER) = 70 × (body weight in kg)^0.75
• Daily energy = RER × a growth factor

The Merck Veterinary Manual uses a factor of 2.5 for growing kittens (Merck). The Pet Nutrition Alliance gives a growth range of 2–3, and says the factor starts to fall from about 4 months as growth slows (Pet Nutrition Alliance). In the table below we use 2.5 up to 4 months and 2.0 after that. Merck notes that animals of the same weight can differ by as much as 30%, so treat these numbers as starting points (Merck).

As a cross-check, AAHA’s feline life-stage guidelines say a 10-week-old needs about 200 kcal per kg of body weight per day, falling to about 80 kcal per kg by 10 months (AAHA). For a 2.5 lb (1.1 kg) 10-week-old, that’s about 225 kcal, a little more than the formula gives. That’s another reason to adjust based on your kitten’s body shape rather than any one number.

Turn calories into grams

Find the calorie statement on your food (US labels must list kcal per kg and per can or cup). Divide your kitten’s per-meal calories by the food’s kcal per gram. For example, a kibble with 4,067 kcal/kg has about 4.1 kcal per gram, so a 260 kcal day is about 64 g of food.

Weighing beats scooping. Tufts University’s veterinary nutritionists recommend weighing food with a kitchen scale (“It is nearly impossible to measure 2/5 of a cup accurately!”), and a study cited by the University of Guelph found measuring-cup errors from 18% under to more than 80% over (Tufts, University of Guelph).

Work out my kitten’s portions →

Free feeding vs. scheduled meals for kittens

Leaving food out all the time (free feeding) is acceptable for some kittens, but scheduled meals make it easier to control portions and spot appetite changes. Merck says kittens “can alternatively be fed free choice” (Merck). Cornell says free feeding suits some cats but can lead to overeating and weight gain in others, and recommends consistent meal times (Cornell).

A middle ground many owners like: scheduled wet meals morning and evening, plus a measured amount of kibble left out for grazing. After spay/neuter, the Ontario SPCA recommends switching to portioned meals rather than leaving food out (Ontario SPCA).

Feeding more than one kitten

Give each kitten its own bowl, and feed them apart if one eats faster. The AAFP’s feeding guidance puts it simply: “just because cats will eat together, does not mean they should”, and each cat should have its own food and water bowl (AAFP). Cornell also suggests feeding cats separately or in different parts of the house in multi-cat homes (Cornell).

• Bottle-feeding a litter: feed each kitten in turn until it stops nursing. Best Friends says one to three nursing turns per kitten is usually enough (Best Friends).
• A fast eater and a slow eater: feed them in separate rooms for 15–20 minutes, then pick up the bowls.
• Different diets: if an adult cat lives with your kitten, microchip feeders open only for the cat whose chip they recognize (AAFP). That stops the adult from eating rich kitten food, and the kitten from eating adult food.

Adjusting the schedule as your kitten grows

Recheck your kitten’s portions every couple of weeks, because a kitten’s weight changes fast. VCA expects about 100 g of gain a week during the first six months (VCA). Weigh your kitten weekly and compare it with our kitten weight chart, and look as well as weigh. You should be able to feel the ribs easily without seeing them, and see a waist from above.

After spay or neuter

Neutering raises the risk of weight gain. Advice on how much to cut back varies:

• Merck’s energy factors imply about 14% fewer calories for neutered adults (Merck).
• The Ontario SPCA suggests cutting calories by about 25–30% (Ontario SPCA).
• Research in male cats found the gain comes mostly from eating more, not from burning less (Wei et al., 2014).

In practice, keep feeding measured meals and ask your vet how much to reduce.

Moving to adult food

Most cats reach adult size at 12–18 months, and large breeds such as Maine Coons may keep growing until about 2 years (PetMD). Most kittens switch to adult food at around 12 months. Change foods gradually over about a week (Ontario SPCA).

Choosing the food itself? See our label-by-label best kitten food comparison and kitten food guide.

Treats, water and milk

• Treats: keep them to no more than 10% of daily calories. Cornell’s limit is 10–15% and the ASPCA’s is 5–10%, so 10% satisfies both (Cornell, ASPCA). Count them in the day’s total.
• Water: fresh, clean water at all times, especially for kittens eating mostly dry food (Cornell).
• Cow’s milk: no. Many cats are lactose-intolerant (Cornell). For young kittens, VCA notes that queen’s milk has more than twice the protein of cow’s milk, and cow’s milk is lower in calories, fat, taurine and minerals but higher in lactose (VCA). Use a kitten milk replacer instead (Alley Cat Allies).
• Human food: some baby foods contain onion or garlic powder, which can poison pets (ASPCA).

Red flags: when a feeding problem needs a vet

Very young kittens have almost no reserves. A feeding problem that would be minor in an adult cat can become an emergency in hours.

Diarrhea in bottle-fed kittens is often caused by overfeeding, so check your volumes against the chart above (VCA, Maddie’s Fund). If it doesn’t settle quickly, call your vet. In a newly adopted older kitten, a small appetite for the first day or two can be stress. Still, a kitten that refuses food entirely needs prompt attention.

Tools that make a kitten feeding schedule easier

You don’t need much equipment, but a few inexpensive items make feeding more accurate and much less stressful:

• A digital kitchen scale that reads in grams. Use it for weighing food and for weighing the kitten, which matters most for bottle babies. Tufts recommends weighing food rather than scooping it (Tufts). Browse kitchen scales on Amazon.
• Kitten milk replacer and nursing bottles for kittens under 4 weeks. Alley Cat Allies recommends a kitten formula such as Breeder’s Edge or KMR, not other animals’ milk (Alley Cat Allies). See kitten milk replacers and kitten nursing bottles.
• Shallow saucers for weaning, so little faces can reach the gruel. Shallow cat dishes.
• A timed feeder for the midday meal if you’re out (AAFP). Timed cat feeders.
• A food puzzle to slow down fast eaters and add play. AAHA suggests puzzles the cat has to extract food from, and research supports food puzzles for cats’ physical and emotional wellbeing (AAHA, Dantas et al., 2016). Cat food puzzles.

For the full list of what a new kitten needs, see our new kitten checklist.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Best Friends Animal Society: How to Care for Orphaned Kittens (feeding and weaning)
2. Best Friends Animal Society: Bottle-Feeding Kittens, a Comprehensive Guide
3. VCA Animal Hospitals: Orphaned Kittens
4. ASPCA: Kitten Bottle Feeding Guide (PDF)
5. ASPCA: Kitten Weight and Age Chart (PDF)
6. Maddie’s Fund (via San Diego Humane): Kitten Stomach Capacity Chart
7. Maddie’s Fund: Emergencies in Kittens and Puppies 0–4 Weeks (PDF)
8. San Bernardino County Animal Care: Kitten Foster Care Manual (PDF)
9. Kitten Coalition: Weaning Kittens
10. Cornell Feline Health Center: How Often Should You Feed Your Cat?
11. Cornell Feline Health Center: Feeding Your Cat
12. Cornell Feline Health Center: Anorexia
13. Merck Veterinary Manual: Nutritional Requirements of Small Animals
14. Merck Veterinary Manual: Daily Maintenance Energy Requirements for Dogs and Cats
15. Pet Nutrition Alliance: RER and MER Factors (PDF)
16. AAHA/AAFP 2021 Feline Life Stage Guidelines: Kittens
17. AAFP: How to Feed Your Cat (client brochure, PDF)
18. Tufts Petfoodology: Should You Be Weighing Your Pet’s Food?
19. University of Guelph OVC Pet Nutrition: #BanTheCup
20. Ontario SPCA: Spayed, Neutered and Thriving: Kitten Nutrition Essentials
21. Wei et al. (2014), PLoS ONE: Food intake and energy expenditure after neutering in cats
22. PetMD: Fading Kitten Syndrome
23. PetMD: What Age Are Cats Fully Grown?
24. PetMD: Feeding Kittens 101
25. Chewy: How Much to Feed a Kitten
26. Blue Buffalo: Set Up a Healthy Feeding Schedule for Your Kitten
27. ASPCA: General Cat Care
28. Alley Cat Allies: Tips for Kitten Care
29. Humane Colorado: The 3-3-3 Rule
30. Humane Society of Sonoma County: Welcoming Your New Cat
31. Dantas et al. (2016), J Feline Med Surg: Food Puzzles for Cats