Lemon my 8 week old little boy kitty...

We feed all of the kittens at work 1/4 c dry twice a day (sometimes with some wet food)and they all stay pretty slim on that amount

I'm confused -- You say you feed him every couple of hours, then you say you're away all day??

IMO an eight-week old kitten shouldn't go more than two or three hours w/o access to food.  At that age I'd be more concerned about feeding him enough than about over-feeding.  Most young kittens are so active, and use so much energy on growing, that there's little worry about them becoming overweight.  Canned food shouldn't be left out at room temperature for more than thirty minutes or so.  So if I were gone all day and had a very young kitten, I'd leave out some dry food during the day and feed a bit of canned food in the morning and/or evening.  But don't feed canned food as soon as you get up, or you may create a monster who won't let you sleep.

 Let me clarify. When I work during the week, he gets a half tsp. of wet before I leave, no food for 8 hours. Then on the weekends, when I'm home we do the dry thing as I explained. When he gets the canned food he eats it all in one sitting. The canned is never just left out, I do know it needs to be refridgerated. I'm just gonna do like Aesops mom says and feed him a 1/4 cup, 2x daily of the dry. He'll still get canned too.

I really don't think it's a good idea to let such a young kitten go for eight hours with no food.

This site recommends at least five feedings per day for kittens under twelve weeks.

This site recommends four or more feedings per day for kittens from six to twelve weeks old.

I have to agree with Myra. If there is a safe place to put the dry food were Tootsie does not have access I would just leave a full bowl of dry out 24/7.

My cats split a single can of wet food every morning and then have access to dry all day and night. My older cat is a Russian blue mix and less active, smaller build, he eats less than my younger cat which is a Manx Persian mix, larger build and much more active. Neither are considered overweight.

Most cats self regulate to get their nutrition and have their needs met. On average I go through a 16lb bag of cat food and 30 cans of food between the 2 of them over a month.

tiffy

I'm just gonna do like Aesops mom says and feed him a 1/4 cup, 2x daily of the dry. He'll still get canned too.

One thing you might want to consider is the amount of activity/exercise your kitten can get during the day comared to the kittens at Aesop's mom's work. If those kittens have restricted activity for some or all of the day, their food needs might be different because their exercise/energy use is different. If Lemon has freedom to run around and play while you're gone, you might reconsider free feeding the dry food just because he may be using a lot more energy. I don't think I understood how the am feeding would work--will you serve the 1/2 cup and then pick it up before you leave for work? 1/2 might be a lot to eat all at once for a little kitten. Or, will you put it out and he can eat when he wants during the day?

Does Tootsie like Lemon? Do they play together yet?

tiffy

tiffy

I'm just gonna do like Aesops mom says and feed him a 1/4 cup, 2x daily of the dry. He'll still get canned too.

Maybe we're suffering from some wording confusion here.  Are you saying that you're going to give him 1/4 cup of food twice a day and leave it out, so he can nibble throughout the day?  I hope that's correct, although I'm not convinced that's an adequate amount of food.  Like Kate said, I believe Aesop's mom is referring to kittens in a vet's office, probably kept in cages.  So they likely get much less physical activity than a kitten in a home environment.

Myra

Maybe we're suffering from some wording confusion here.  Are you saying that you're going to give him 1/4 cup of food twice a day and leave it out, so he can nibble throughout the day

Yes. Tootsie can't get to it because shes so low. Peaches and Lemon play all day. So hes always moving aka running. Tootsie plays with him like hes a baby puppy, gently.

Our vet recently had us go from free feeding to 1/2 cup 2x's a day and some wet once a day-usually at night.  He had even said you could divide the portions so they get more whenever they are most active-which for ours is at night. 

 Yep, our work kittens are caged. Unless it's a weekend, they don't get much running around time, unfortunately.  

With Kitten (whose name is actually Corraline, but who only knows "Kitten"...it is what it is..), who was the last and probably only kitten we'll have at home (we're adult cat people), we free fed to an extent. We put a specific measured amount for the day in a bowl, as that's what we do for our adult cats. If there was a rare time all bowls were empty, we'd add extra. This did not happen very often though. (I think there may have only been two or so times..she was an evil kitten though, and probably had more on her mind than eating constantly..climbing our legs, for example) 

Kittens are nibblers much of the time..they like to graze