How Much Should I be Feeding

[akashasmom]

Ok guys- probably a silly question, but I have transitioned to wet food now. I am used to the dry feedings and knowing how much to feed my cats, but with wet, I am not sure. I have been splitting a can in the morning 3 ways and one at night. I am worried that they aren't getting enough to eat because they seem to be begging for food all the time. Blue weighs 19 pounds (yes, we are working on this, but he is actually a really large framed cat and tall.), Akasha weighs 12 pounds, and Mortimur weighs in at a whopping 9 pounds lol. Can anyone tell me how much I am actually supposed to be feeding them? Should I feed 3 times instead of 2 a day? I was going to call and ask my vet, but she had to leave early today.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

3 times might be better. The small ones likely need about a 5.5 can each a day while the big on maybe 1 1/2 cans or maybe more per day.
The key is to frequently weight them and adjust the amount based on weight. If not regulated y need to feed more.

 

[Hillary & Maui (GA)]

3 times a day is fine if your schedule permits, if not, then 2 times works too - I have 2 cats, and put out 1 can of ff per cat (water added). this seems to work for my girls, you may want to try same.

 

[Deb & Wink]

My little 7.5 pound girl Delta gets 4.5 - 5 ounces a day. Less if I see her gaining weight, a little more if losing weight.

My sugarcat 10.2 pound Wink Wink gets 8-9 ounces a day. He is OTJ and even on this much food his weight is steady, maybe losing a little bit.

My big boy, 12 pound Monet gets 7-8 ounces of wet food a day. His weight is steady on this amount of food. He was 16 pounds 8 ounces this time 1 year ago. He has been on a slow and steady diet to gradually and safely loose weight, 1-2% per week. At his vet checkup in March this year, the vet said she was very happy with his weight. He looks skinny to me, with his new defined waist just before his hips, you can easily feel his ribs, still muscled around the shoulders but the vet says this is what a cat should look like. Getting used to the new normal.

One formula for calculating calorie intake needs for a cat is (13.6 times ideal weight) +70.

Unregulated diabetic kitties could need up to 50% more than this calculation

Dr Lisa Pierson has a good article on obesity in cats and weight loss. Look here in this link: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity

This is the vet that put together the food chart we all use. Lots of other good articles on her website at catinfo.org

 

[KPassa]

Depending on whether or not your kitties are bingers-and-purgers, you can try free-feeding them instead. I've noticed with my cats as well as a few of my friends' cats that they seem to regulate their caloric intake a lot better when on low carb food and a few of my friends have even thanked me for helping their kitties lose some much needed weight simply by changing their food from dry to wet! If you haven't seen this thread yet, it's worth a read about feeding cats as much as they want (within reason).

What I do with Mikey and Henry is I leave out enough food to hold them over till their next feeding. I also weigh them frequently to make sure they're gaining weight at a good rate (they're kittens so they're supposed to get bigger :lol: ). There is a formula on the catinfo.org Feline Obesity page that Deb linked to and shared above:

Required calories per day = [13.6 X optimal lean body weight in pounds] + 70

Mikey is about 11 pounds with a bit larger appetite (he's still growing, but not as fast as when he was younger) and Henry is still in kitten mode at about 7 pounds with a 14-pound appetite. This means that Michelangelo should be getting ~220 to ~275 calories and Henry (doubling the formula for a kitten) should be getting ~330 calories per day.

Some days, they eat a lot more; other days, they seem to hardly eat at all, but it averages out to approximately three 5.5oz cans of Friskies Special Diet Turkey & Giblets (166 calories) and one 2.8oz can of Tiki Cat's Koolina Luau (136 calories) a day. This equates out to roughly 300 calories per day for each (including wasted food they didn't finish). And since Henry eats more than Mikey, it really does even out in the end.