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Growth Rate in Kittens

ginamarie1221

Savannah Super Cat
This is probably a dumb question, but do the growth rates differ from kitten to kitten/gerneration to generation?

Can a kitten start off smaller and then just TAKE OFF on a growth spurt after a few months or start out growing like a weed and then slow down?

I want to make sure my liitle guy (3 monhs), is getting the proper nutrition he needs. He is not at all interested in dry food. At the moment, he's getting ground chicken thighs with Mazuri supplement and Merrick canned food. I do freeze the ground chicken after adding the Mazuri and have read somewhere that nutrients can be lost this way. Is that true?

As far as canned, he will eat a whole can (large) of wet food a day with chicken feedings in between.

He's an F3 Male, 13 weeks old, and 3lbs.
 

Glamouresque

Savannah Super Cat
With my last savannah litter F6SBT I had 3 different sizes. Pretty much similar size at birth, but around 7 weeks, I had 2 boys at 1,5 pounds, 1 boy and a girl around 2,5 pounds and a boy at 3 pounds. So the biggest one is twice the size of his smaller brothers. He was around 4 pounds at 11 weeks, but still young, I don't know if he will stop growing sooner or later.

Size vary a lot, even for later gen.
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
The loss of nutrients is nominal unless food is frozen for a long time, in excess of 90 days. Certainly there is some loss in nutrients but very small and not something to be concerned with.

As for growth rate it can be all over the board and shouldn't be a point of concern unless you are seeing something shy a half pound per month through the first 6 month. It sounds like your boy is getting great food in front of him and I'd just keep an eye on his stools being well formed to make sure he's utilizing well the food placed in front of him.

Your kitten can certainly hit a growth spurt at any time and as late as when they are well in advance of a year old. Our F3 boy seemed to have his biggest growth spurt from 6-9 months, but still puts on weight every month at a year old. With generations, F1s and F2s are the largest and then it tails off from there. Just the same there is lots of overlap between generations and amongst members here there are adult F3s that are 3x larger than others.

Hope that helps!
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
Chongo is 15lbs, around 15" at the shoulder and 20" long from chest to rear. He's not particularly leggy, but really long and skinny. He put on most of his weight when he was crated for 2 months after an injury at 6 months old. With his lowered activity, he put on more than 5lbs and it was really the first time he would slow down to eat.

He just had his first birthday a week ago and has finally started to care just a little about eating.
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
Wow, Chongo is a year old already??? Time flies!!!

Oh my, what a first year that was. He's been an absolute joy and his broken hip was one of the hardest things I have ever had to deal with. Those two months sleeping on the floor, two hours at a time, with claws in my scalp seemed like it would never end and I'll forever be thankful for the words of encouragement here that got me through.
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
Thanks Paige and Jacq! We are blessed to share our home with him. Then as Trish often reminds me, he is exactly the monkey I had hoped for.
 
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