Kitten raising advice

[DaveC426913]

Kitten is now on half wet food and half kibble, three times a day. Eats it all up.

Donning my Googles, I see "...young kittens (under 3 months) should have free access to dry food and several meals of wet food per day."

I'm little worried about giving it free access to dried food.

It currently spends some of its time in a (very large multi-level) cage. I am concerned, if I put a dish of dried food in there it will just keep eating.

I know supposedly cats don't tend to gorge themselves, but I'm not sure with this cat.

I guess what I should do is put a bowl of kibble in its cage and monitor how much it's eating.

According to this, a 2lb. kitten should get about 160kCal/day. I can do the math on the wet and dry foods and see what I come up with.

 

[DaveC426913]

TEN SECONDS!
TEN SECONDS!

For seven weeks, this kitten has been supervised every second of the day when she is outside her cage.
Today, I stepped out of the room. I even said to "Stay out of trouble!"

I wasn't gone ten seconds!

CRASH!

I ran back in to find her sitting, innocently in my spot. She had found the most expensive, most fragile thing in the entire house and managed to knock it onto the floor. My laptop.

 

[berkeman]

 

[DaveC426913]

What do my laptop's outer cases have that so fascinates my kitten?

I have two laptops, both with brushed grey cases; one PC, one Mac. My kitten seems to have a thing for "making biscuits" on them. Doesn't seem to be about heat. One is off and cold.

She doesn't do this anywhere else.

 

[Bystander]

What do my laptop's outer cases have that so fascinates my kitten?

I have two laptops, both with brushed grey cases; one PC, one Mac. My kitten seems to have a thing for "making biscuits" on them. Doesn't seem to be about heat. One is off and cold.

She doesn't do this anywhere else.

By all means encourage the behaviour---save yourself a fortune in upholstery; it's probably an idiosyncratic preference built into his/her nervous system.

 

[Rive]

What do my laptop's outer cases have that so fascinates my kitten?

Likely there is some scent on them she likes.

 

[DennisN]

What do my laptop's outer cases have that so fascinates my kitten?

I have two laptops, both with brushed grey cases; one PC, one Mac. My kitten seems to have a thing for "making biscuits" on them. Doesn't seem to be about heat. One is off and cold.

She doesn't do this anywhere else.

Could be some scent, as @Rive said.

Or maybe she has noticed you are using them often and is interested in them and/or wants your attention.

My cat has a habit of lying in front of the tablet to get maximal attention (photo here).
It's hilarious .

It's even more hilarious when she straddles the tablet with her front legs in front of it and back legs behind it, while I am lying and reading on the tablet. Hmmm, I should try to get a photo of it, I laugh whenever she does this .

My first cat (who sadly is not alive anymore*) sometimes laid down on open books I was reading in bed.

* Though he got a long and good life; he became 18 years old.

 

[berkeman]

Maybe you should get her a gravity feeder...

 

[DaveC426913]

Man, I hate being micro-managed...

 

[DaveC426913]

Sprinkles is now 20 weeks old (at the time of this posting).

She needs exercise. Being an indoor kitten, this falls to us.

I am looking at treadmills, but I want to make sure I get the right thing and I have little idea what to look for. Some factors:

Size: obviously but what is the deterimining factor?
Weight: some have a weight limit, which means it will only last us until she's part grown.
Material: Plastic or wood - some complaints about plastic ones warping and not assembling correctly.
Speeds?: Some seem to have speeds? does that mean they have motors?
Sound: I'll want one that's quiet.

I figure I'll spend between $100 and $150. Can't seem to find them in stores, so I'll have to buy from Amazon.

What is your experience / recommendation?

I figure I will get her interested in it with the laser pointer.

(Oh my God, she loves the laser.pointer. Will chase it back and forth till she drops. She immediately figured out what makes it go, so now she is jumping on the couch and pawing at the laser to get it to go.)