Hello,

I wonder if anyone in this group would be so kind as to give me some
advice with regard to increasing muscle and fat in one of my kittens.  I
have four of them and they are all about five months old (same mother).
The last one to be born remains clearly "boney" and "skinny" in
comparison to the other three.  (I hate to say it but he IS the "runt"
of the four.)  I monitor the feeding so that he gets exactly what all
the others consume.  I feed them on quality tinned kitten food, as
directed by the manufacturers.  This food works very well for the other
three, who are full of energy, muscley, not boney, and not fat either.
I have been sneaking the problem kitten some kitten biscuits - since
these are mainly carbohydrate and I have been hoping they might fatten
him up a bit.  But he remains the most ferocious eater of the four (he
just can't get enough of either the main tinned food or the biscuits I
sneak him, he couldn't eat more quickly if he tried).  His faeces are
healthy, solid, and "sweet-smelling" - so no problem there, and he poos
regularly.  He drinks water regularly.  From an amateur point of view, I
would say his body just isn't metabolising the food in the same way that
the other cats' bodies are, i.e., the food is passing through him
without doing as much good as it is doing for the other kittens.  They
are getting slightly less (because I don't give them biscuits), they
aren't constantly "desperate" for food, but they are converting the food
better.  Somehow, the runt always wants MORE and, I think, he may
require DIFFERENT food which will muscle him up more, and fatten him up
more - not that he's deplorably boney.  He's just not as "meaty" as the
other three.  (Maybe I should just accept him for what he is?  Hee, hee.
A skinny cat?)

But can anybody recommend the kind of things I could supplement this
kitten's diet with - foods that won't hurt him, hurt is organs, or give
him diarrhoea?

Thanks.  Nell.