how much is too much to let your kitty eat?

[Patty & Champ]

I always used to have dry food set out for Champ so if he wanted anything at night it would be there. Now, since I only feed him wet Wellness, I don't know how much food is too much. I set out about 1.5 oz for him to snack on last night after I went to bed and after 6 hours he was hollering at me to get up and feed him. His sugars are still high so I don't know if that is what is making him want so much food. He actually ate approx. 13-14 oz. of wet Wellness in the previous 24 hours and I don't know if that's too much food. He's a large cat and should weigh about 13-14 pounds. At his largest (pre-diabetes), he was 21 pounds. He lost down to 16 pounds which is how I knew he was sick. I don't care about him losing weight right now, but I certainly don't want him to gain any either. I would like to set out some Wellness Core dry food for him to snack on instead of me giving him spoonfuls of the wet food throughout the day as snacks, especially since I can't be home every minute and I would like to get a little more sleep if possible. What is everyone's opinion about the Wellness Core dry food?

 

[Blue]

If your cat is not regulated, it is likely that the body is not capable of extracting the nutrients from the foods, so just let the cat eat.

Before mine were regulated, they were eating 24oz and 30+oz per day. Now they are well regulated and eating maybe 5oz and 12oz per day.

Let the cat eat if hungry and not a cat that will gulp to explosion. Just like with the thirst and urination, the appetite will also drop off with regulation.

ETA: there is nothing good about dry food, so remove it unless you have a very sick cat that will not eat. Even the dry treats are not good for your cat.
You can use a timed feeder to spread out the food in your absence.
Petsafe 5-meal Auto Feeder

 

[Mindy & Max]

Everything I've been told here is that any dry food can be bad and it's best to not give it at all.

And until you achieve regulation with your cat's numbers, to feed as often and as much as they want w/o them getting sick. We went through a LOT of canned food at the beginning while getting Max's numbers under control. It's been a while, so I don't really remember just how much we were feeding, but it's decreased significantly since he's been OTJ. Max is about 14lbs, and Truman is about 9lbs, and they get one 13oz can total per day between the two of them--half in the morning and half in the evening. I'd say we probably were going through about 50% more in the early days while waiting for his insulin to kick in. They do bug us for food if we sleep in too late in the morning (doesn't happen much with the kids running around, but occasionally it does!), but they are at healthy weights for their size with that amount of food. They also get freeze-dried chicken for treats and snacks a couple times a day.

 

[BJM]

Canned food will be fine for 8-12 hours, especially if you freeze some of it before putting it down.

If you cat is pulling a scarf & barf routine, the timed pet feeders really help with that, doling out part of the ration at a time.

 

[Jen & Squeak]

Actually...

it is possible that if you feed too much that it can be counter productive to trying to bring down blood glucose levels. That said, as long as you feed within reason, there shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Melanie and Smokey]

Can you afford a timed feeder? While Smokey was on insulin we used a 5 slotted timed feeder that turned every 4 hours. There was food available frequently, yet it was controlled and the feeder always turned to an empty slot 1 hour before test/shot time. The feeder seems to keep the slots covered enough to keep them from drying out too much.

Since we've been having feline acne problems, I've put away the feeders and we just leave the wet food out in dishes. We often leave wet out for 12+ hours. Now that we have the kittens, Mr Mittens tries to make sure than none makes it to that 12hr mark ohmygod_smile , but we've never had problems with any of the cats getting sick from food spoilage.

We target around 3oz of food per 5 pound of cat. We keep a blend of Wellness and EVO dry out for one of the kittens who won't give up the kibble, but she is also my fattiest cat at only 10 months. Smokey ate some at first and she'd bounce off a bg of 100 instead of hanging in the 80s like normal, but I don't see her touch it anymore.