How Much Do You Feed Your Cats?

I have two cats--a 7.5 lb tabby with a long, skinny
build and a pointed face shape (suggesting she has the
genes for a long, slight build, and may not be "programmed" to get too big)
and a very fat
18 lb tuxedo with a frame the vet says should
carry maybe eight pounds.

The skinny cat gets 3 oz of canned food a day plus all the
dry food she wants. (The problem has always been keeping weight on her, so
although I know canned food is
better for her, she wants dry and maintains a better weight on it, so she
will get it.) If I had to estimate I would say she eats about 3/4 cup of dry
a day.

The fat cat gets only 3 oz of wet food a day--and has since last Spring--and
yet stays fat. A sage and gentle-natured contributor of this group (!) has
suggested that
I am putting her in danger of starvation or hepatic lipidosis or any number
of other things. I agree that this is just a little bit of food, but it is
hard to see this huge cat as starving. And, she is playful and energetic,
the picture of
a happy, if very fat cat. (It should be noted that she has had endocrine
problems, e.g. is being treated for an overactive thryoid.)

So-- a poll--how much do you feed your cats? What do you feed them? And
maybe tell us about any health
conditions they may have.

I have two cats, one weighs about 4.4kg and a smaller kitten (5months) no
idea how much he weighs but about half the size. They get 3 or 4 sachets of
high end cat food per day, (between them, not each!)and dry food is always
left out for them to nibble on. The have (and love) a water fountain, so I
know they drink plenty of water. They are both to the best of my knowledge
healthy, with shiny soft coats and are gaining weight as they should at
their ages. They have been visited at my request by the breeder, partly
because she has been so good, giving advice and help when needed and partly
so we can let her see how well they are doing and how happy they are in
their new home. She is such a nice lady it is a pleasure to keep in touch,
and I send photos regularly too!

--
Sandra

On 2005-01-17, Mary penned:

So-- a poll--how much do you feed your cats? What do you feed them? And
maybe tell us about any health conditions they may have.

Oscar is a four year old DLH. She weighs between 9 and 10 pounds. Until
early December, she has always eaten as much dry food as she'd like, and I
have no idea how much she actually ate. She also received snacks of a few
forkfuls of tuna when I cracked a can for myself, and very occasional packaged
treats. She has no known health problems. Oh, the dry food was always Nutro.

After reading a bit on feline nutrition and talking to my vet, I decided to
switch Oscar to canned food. I wasn't impressed with Nutro's canned
ingredients and quickly settled on Wellness. Because Oscar much prefers dry
to wet, giving her dry to nibble on won't work; she'll eat the dry and ignore
the wet. I started her on a 5.5oz can a day, split into two meals. She never
came close to finishing her meals, so I switched to feeding her 1/3 of the
5.5oz can twice a day. I really wish I had an idea of her former eating
habits (other than observing that she never ate much at a time, a kibble here
or there), because her eating right now seems ... streaky. She'll empty her
bowl a few meals in a row; then for a few meals it seems like she's barely
touched the food. She's losing weight slowly, but she was slightly, er,
padded before this diet change, so I'm keeping a careful eye on her. If it
seems she hasn't eaten in a while, I feed her some treats, but not enough to
constitute a meal.

Since changing to canned food, Oscar seems to have become more alert and
playful. This is a subjective observation, but it does seem that she is more
energetic and doesn't loll around the house as much as she used to. She's
acting a lot like I feel when I've forced myself onto a healthier diet.

Oscar has never been one to chow down. Any time I put food down for her, she
will sniff at it, walk away, and repeat the process a few times before
deciding (if at all) to eat it.

--
monique, roommate of Oscar the (female) grouch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eros was adopted! Eros has a home now! *cheer!*

"Sandra" wrote in message
...
I have two cats, one weighs about 4.4kg and a smaller kitten (5months) no
idea how much he weighs but about half the size. They get 3 or 4 sachets
of
high end cat food per day, (between them, not each!)and dry food is always
left out for them to nibble on. The have (and love) a water fountain, so I
know they drink plenty of water. They are both to the best of my knowledge
healthy, with shiny soft coats and are gaining weight as they should at
their ages. They have been visited at my request by the breeder, partly
because she has been so good, giving advice and help when needed and
partly
so we can let her see how well they are doing and how happy they are in
their new home. She is such a nice lady it is a pleasure to keep in touch,
and I send photos regularly too!

--

You sound like a good cat mom. :') Before I get to work on the
conversion from metric, how much is in a sachet? Oh--and we'd
love to see photos of your cats!

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
...
On 2005-01-17, Mary penned:

So-- a poll--how much do you feed your cats? What do you feed them? And
maybe tell us about any health conditions they may have.

Oscar is a four year old DLH. She weighs between 9 and 10 pounds. Until
early December, she has always eaten as much dry food as she'd like, and I
have no idea how much she actually ate. She also received snacks of a few
forkfuls of tuna when I cracked a can for myself, and very occasional
packaged
treats. She has no known health problems. Oh, the dry food was always
Nutro.

After reading a bit on feline nutrition and talking to my vet, I decided
to
switch Oscar to canned food. I wasn't impressed with Nutro's canned
ingredients and quickly settled on Wellness. Because Oscar much prefers
dry
to wet, giving her dry to nibble on won't work; she'll eat the dry and
ignore
the wet. I started her on a 5.5oz can a day, split into two meals. She
never
came close to finishing her meals, so I switched to feeding her 1/3 of the
5.5oz can twice a day.

Okay, so you are feeding Oscar, a 9-10 lb cat two thirds of a 5.5 oz can
of wet food per day. Two thirds of 5.5 oz equals 3.6 oz of food a day.
So you are feeding her .6 oz more food than I feed Buddha who weighs
18 lbs but should weigh about 8 lbs according to the vet.

If it
seems she hasn't eaten in a while, I feed her some treats, but not enough
to
constitute a meal.

Aha! So she gets more than just the canned food. You made me realize
that I forgot to include the soft Pounce treats I give Boo after every
pilling. She gets four per day.



Since changing to canned food, Oscar seems to have become more alert and
playful. This is a subjective observation, but it does seem that she is
more
energetic and doesn't loll around the house as much as she used to. She's
acting a lot like I feel when I've forced myself onto a healthier diet.

Monique, this is exactly what I noticed when I added canned food to
my cats' diet. Originially they both ate only dry.

"Mary" wrote in message
. com...
snip

So-- a poll--how much do you feed your cats? What do you feed them? And
maybe tell us about any health
conditions they may have.


Hi,
My kitten gets Iams dry kitten food, about 1 cup per day, depending on his
appetite.
He is 4 months old, and is very active and playful, and looks healthy to me.

I am thinking about giving him the canned type food. Is it really better for
them? Why is that?

Can anyone suggest good brands?
Should I wait until he is a year old before switching him?

Justin

On 2005-01-17, Justin L penned:

I am thinking about giving him the canned type food. Is it really better for
them? Why is that?

At the risk of starting another flamewar ...

The major argument for dry food is that it keeps cats' teeth cleaner. After
many years, my vet has come to believe that this is determined more by
genetics than by food. Also, you can always give dry treats to crunch on.

There are a few arguments for wet food. One, cats are notorious for not
drinking enough to keep themselves hydrated. Wet food helps prevent kidney
and urinary problems that range from painful and expensive to fatal and
expensive. Two, cat physiology isn't designed to handle carbs, and dry food
consists mostly of carbs. This somewhat relates to three, which is that
(some?) cats will eat too much dry food because their stomachs respond to how
much fat and protein they've eaten, not the volume of food. They need less
wet food to feel full, so they're not as likely to overeat.

My vet has been able to take some diabetic cats off of insulin after switching
them to wet food from dry. I also believe that my cat has been more energetic
since switching to wet food.


Can anyone suggest good brands? Should I wait until he is a year old before
switching him?

There are a number of good brands. Oscar's currently eating Wellness. I have
no idea about baby cat nutrition; you might talk to your vet about it.

--
monique, roommate of Oscar the (female) grouch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eros was adopted! Eros has a home now! *cheer!*

On 2005-01-17, Mary penned:

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
...

Okay, so you are feeding Oscar, a 9-10 lb cat two thirds of a 5.5 oz can of
wet food per day. Two thirds of 5.5 oz equals 3.6 oz of food a day. So you
are feeding her .6 oz more food than I feed Buddha who weighs 18 lbs but
should weigh about 8 lbs according to the vet.

Well, I don't want to get into the debate of whether or not Buddha is eating
too little, just enough, or too much. I know very little about feline health.

I have done a fair amount of research into *human* nutrition, which may or may
not relate to feline nutrition. People aren't supposed to radically reduce
their own calorie intake without doctor's supervision, because it's hard to
eat a restricted-calorie diet and still get the right mix of nutrients. Also,
I know that a human's metabolism will often drastically slow if you
drastically cut their calorie intake, so that slash and burn diets tend to
accomplish nothing. On the other hand, people so obese that they are likely
to cause themselves damage are sometimes put on extremely restrictive diets,
again under doctor's supervision. If Buddha is an 8 pound cat in an 18 pound
body, I'd definitely consider her fat dangerous. Assuming it's fat, that is,
and that she's not hugely muscled.

All of which makes me wonder if feeding Buddha what you'd feed a 17 pound cat,
rather than an 18, would make her metabolism speed up and actually help with
weight loss. But again, I don't have any idea. And as I said, my cat
sometimes doesn't eat much at all for a day or so, so on average I'd say she
eats considerably less than 2/3 of a 5.5oz can every day. She does not seem
to be suffering for it, but I am keeping an eye on her and feeling her ribs
and backbone every day.

Aha! So she gets more than just the canned food. You made me realize that I
forgot to include the soft Pounce treats I give Boo after every pilling. She
gets four per day.

I notice that some treat packages do a good job of cautioning that other food
servings should take the treats into account. But four treats of those treats
really isn't much, IMO.


--
monique, roommate of Oscar the (female) grouch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eros was adopted! Eros has a home now! *cheer!*

"Mary" wrote in message
. com...
So-- a poll--how much do you feed your cats? What do you feed them? And
maybe tell us about any health
conditions they may have.

At home, Tiger (14 year old female) and Otto (5 1/2 year old male) pretty
much eat only wet food. I split a 5.5oz can (Wellness or Science Diet,
sometimes we have Petguard) between them in the morning. I used to split
another in the evening, but they usually left half of it sitting in the bowl
so now I split a 3 oz. can between the two in the evening. After dinner
they get a CET chew, which they love. I recently got them a couple of
containers of Halo's freeze dried chicken treats, and it's like cat crack.
I can no longer go to the fridge without both of them instantly appearing at
my feet. Otto will sit in front of the fridge and do little meows at it.
I've posted in the past about the way Harriet at work acts about these
treats and now I've brought the problem home. These cats need a 12-step
program! Anyway, both cats at home have been doing well with this plan.
Otto was reluctant to switch to the wet at first but when he realized that
he was getting less and less dry food each day he adapted. Now he's very
excited when he sees me getting a can of food and he eats without any
problems. Every once in awhile at night they'll just seem hungry. Otto
will meow constantly when I go to the kitchen, Tiger will sit in front of
her empty bowl looking sad. I'll give them a tablespoon or so of Science
Diet dry and they both seem much happier afterward. They don't get it too
often, though.

At work we have Harriet (7 1/2 years old) and Stinky (6 years old), both
females. It's harder to manage their food, because there are a bunch of
different people taking care of them. I usually don't get to work until
noon, so someone else feeds them breakfast. Monday-Friday I'm in charge of
dinner, and various people do both meals on the weekend. Since there are so
many caretakers, they get mostly dry food. People used to just fill up
their bowls and when I got in, I'd have to empty the bowls. For the last
few years I've portioned out their morning meal into ziplock baggies with
the day written on them. They're kept in plastic containers, so whoever is
in first each morning can just grab the appropriate bag and dump it into the
bowl. There's (I think) 1/4 cup of dry food in each M-F morning bag. I
think I put a little more into Harriet's, as she's not crazy about wet food.
For dinner, Stinky gets 1/2 of a 5.5oz can of Science Diet Light and Harriet
gets 1/4 of the can. Stinky LOVES wet food and would be happy just eating
that. On the weekends, they just get dry food because the people at work
are too stupid to know how to open a can. Plus, it would mean they'd have
to wash the wet food bowls and I'm not sure any of them know what a sponge
is for. So, it's just dry for them on Saturday & Sunday. There used to be
one person who worked Saturdays who would give them wet food for dinner but
she's not working any more.

In order to encourage Harriet to eat more wet food, I sprinkle some Cat
Crack on it and it's been working. At first she'd just lick the crumbled
chicken off the surface but she's been eating more & more of the food.

--
Liz

"Mary" wrote in message
. com...
I have two cats--a 7.5 lb tabby with a long, skinny
build and a pointed face shape (suggesting she has the
genes for a long, slight build, and may not be "programmed" to get too
big)
and a very fat
18 lb tuxedo with a frame the vet says should
carry maybe eight pounds.

The skinny cat gets 3 oz of canned food a day plus all the
dry food she wants. (The problem has always been keeping weight on her, so
although I know canned food is
better for her, she wants dry and maintains a better weight on it, so she
will get it.) If I had to estimate I would say she eats about 3/4 cup of
dry
a day.

The fat cat gets only 3 oz of wet food a day--and has since last
Spring--and
yet stays fat. A sage and gentle-natured contributor of this group (!) has
suggested that
I am putting her in danger of starvation or hepatic lipidosis or any
number
of other things. I agree that this is just a little bit of food, but it is
hard to see this huge cat as starving. And, she is playful and energetic,
the picture of
a happy, if very fat cat. (It should be noted that she has had endocrine
problems, e.g. is being treated for an overactive thryoid.)

So-- a poll--how much do you feed your cats? What do you feed them? And
maybe tell us about any health
conditions they may have.



I am feeding Wellness canned food. Each cat gets 1/3 of a 5.5 oz. can twice
a day (that is, a total of 2/3 can per day for each cat). In addition, I
divide 1/2 cup of Wellness dry into 2 bowls about twice a week. That is to
give my furbabies a "treat" rather than part of their "basic" plan. Both
cats are in great condition -- active, healthy, glossy fur, etc. Duffy
weighs slightly more than 8 pounds, and Holly weigs about 9 pounds.

One problem with your question is that the answer should be based on
calories and nutrients in the food being fed. In other words, weight alone
cannot tell the whole story.

MaryL
(take out the litter to reply)

Photos of Duffy and Holly: 'o'
http://tinyurl.com/8y54 (Introducing Duffy to Holly)
http://tinyurl.com/8y56 (Duffy and Holly "settle in")