mother in-law over feeding felines

If it helps at all I can tell you a story that you can relay to your mother in law. Some years ago I had a real domestic crisis. I had to move home and had no option but to accept renting a room in someone elses house. They were not happy to have cats in the house but accepted me putting a small shed in the garden for my cats, to provide them with shelter and a place where i could regularly feed them. The day came to move and one of my cats went AWOL. I returned daily for several weeks to my previous address to leave food out for her and to call her in an attempt to retrieve her. In the end I developed a "cat trap" using an old wicker laundry basket with a cat flap integrated into one end of it. I knew that if I could get her to take food from inside the basket I would be able to change the catflap to one way and eventually be able to retrieve her. I was puzzled as to why she was so reluctant to come more naturally when I called her. Eventually we realised that she had actually had kittens. Believe it or not, we had no idea she was expecting kittens - she was very young and had not yet been neutered (mistake!). ANyway, to cut a long story a bit shorter, eventually cat plus 5 kittens were all retrieved. My "landlady" allowed me to initially "home" the kittens in her kitchen on the understanding that as soon as it was deemed safe they would be homed in the outside shed. The kittens were semi ferral wild cat type initially - they had developed amouflaging techniques where the skulked along the skirting boards in the kitchen as if trying to make out they were not really there at all! They hissed on human contact. But they soon began to relax and eventually all were re-homed with no problems. BUT in the interim period when they were outside in the garden shed, I had a real problem with the neighbours. They owned dogs and when I was out at work they would hear the kittens and be convinced that they needed more food. They would feed them over the fence without me knowing initially. The kittens got ill, due to over feeding and needed vetinary care. One of them was so bad that his backside was sore, protruding and bleeding. I do not know what they were feeding them but I suspect wet dog food. I was feeding them dried kitten food as from prior experience wet food had often created problems with my cats. It cost me a fortune and cost my kittens yet another hiccup in their development. The only up side was that the kitten who was most ill as a result actually developed a very close relationship with me - much more so than the others - I think because he needed such a lot of cuddling and care when he was sick. After the vet had been consulted I went and had a long chat with the neighbours and gave them a supply of the kitten food I had in stock - so that they at least had the right food to give them if they really could not resist feeding them. That seemed to work. Again, if it helps, I found that it was really easy to overfeed cats with wet food but with dried food they seem to process it better and never seem to overeat. You just have to keep a careful eye out on making sure that they ALWAYS have water to hand. I used the Go-Cat Kitten dried food which they loved and I never had any problems with it. Good luck!

Exactly how much is she feeding them? What kind? Wet or dry?