Amount of food to feed our cat

Lilith1980

Hi all,

Well our boy Charlie seems to have lost a few pounds and is now down to 5kg - he's looking trimmer

However he is moaning an awful lot (think I posted on this before) and even though we now feed him a wet food with a higher meat content, he is still moaning. He is an indoor cat and spends most of his time sleeping (I'm sure this is the same for the majority of cats but he seems to have it down to a fine art!).

We only feed him two pouches but I think I should up this to three as it does say on the packet that for an average cat, weighing 4kg, they should be having 3-4 pouches per day :eek:

Charlie is by no means underweight but I don't want him dropping anymore as I think he looks healthy as he is now.

I guess I could try him on three and if his weight creeps up again maybe reduce it to 2.5 pouches per day. What do people think?

missindecisive

we feed our 2yr old biscuits in the morning and one pouch at night..she looks ok on it.

I noticed though over winter she had put on a bit of weight, although not as porky as some of my friends cats! so now the weather has improved, ive started locking her out during the day-hopeing to encourage her to be a bit more active! it seems to be working...lots of running about in the garden and she seems to look a little trimmer! ive absolutely no idea what she weighs tho !

Lilith1980

I went out and bought a set of scales today specifically to weigh Charlie lol!

I could feel his shoulder blades for the first time and was worried that he was underweight but maybe he had more 'bulk' on him than I thought.

I might increase the pouches and see how things go, I can always reduce the portions and now I have some scales I can keep an eye on his weight

McKneff

Hello Lilith

My cat get fed 4 times a day half pouch each time and supper is a handful of
biscuits. She would eat for England and yes she moans all the time and she has always done so. I think its more habit, The trick is just to ignore them and stick to it. She soon goes away and sulks for a bit. She weighs 4.7 kg and even at 9 years of age she bounds up fences and jumps 5ft to get over a gap to the garage roof.
I wouldnt feed him anymore than youre doing as long as he is healthy. He is trying to be boss. He will be if you let him get away with it.
If he seems healthy then hes okay.

The trick to weighing without buying scales especially, is get on the scales yourself, then get on the scales holding the cat, subtract one from the other and bobs your uncle,

Fire_Fox

Increasing from two to three pouches is a 50% increase in calories!! I'd try half a pouch extra per day at first and see if his weight stabilises, then up to three pouches if you still think that is necessary.

UKTigerlily

Mine has 15g of Applaws dry & 1x 70g can of it a day but when on all wet had just two pouches & was fine, she's bang on 4kg

chelle230

I feel a bit stingy feeding my 3 half a pouch each in the morning and half a pouch each at night, as the box says they should be eating 2-3 each a day. but they always have biscuits available and eat those, in fact they prefer them, but they're housecats so don't need as much as active outdoor cats.
mine seem fine on the extra biscuits, and are a nice healthy weight, maybe that's an idea, just make sure there is always water available too

beks

I feel a real meany after reading this. My cat is a little overweight (nearly 6kg) and we give her one pouch (or tiny tin) a day (half in morning, half at night). She does have a handful of biscuits to pick on during the day too though but spends the rest of her time pestering me for more. I would love to give her one with more meat content and I tried raw food but she wont touch it which is so frustrating. She is lazy too and if she is not eating, she spends her time eating. I was so concerned recently (I thought she was drinking a lot too), I took her to the vets for blood tests to rule out diabetes, kidney problems etc but everything normal. Apart from the laziness I have no idea why she is overweight (she is not eating elsewhere and doesnt go out enough to catch things anymore!!)
However, she is such a fussy cat (and I mean really, really fussy) that the food that she will eat costs a fortune so if I bought 3 per day, it would cost about £15 a week to feed her.
If you increase the food, I would monitor his weight and see how it goes. I think you probably know your cat best.

Pixiechic

I have a four year old boy cat and I feed him a pouch in the morning, a pouch when I come home and a pouch before bed. He also has a few biscuits to nibble on during the day. I have weighed him and he is just under 4kg! By the sound of these posts, seems he should be over weight. He is now an indoor cat so if he starts looking porky and weight goes up I will definately reduce it. He's quite good at sitting on the electronic scales for just long enough to weigh him I read and feed what the box suggests so I don't think I am over feeding, I hope not.

tanith

I have a 20yr old who eats 3 pouches and has biscuits available.. she is a little on the thin side but she is still fairly active and spends quite a few hours outside every day...

EDIT: to be honest at her age I think she deserves to get whatever she wants... lol

beks

Pixiechic wrote: »

I have a four year old boy cat and I feed him a pouch in the morning, a pouch when I come home and a pouch before bed. He also has a few biscuits to nibble on during the day. I have weighed him and he is just under 4kg! By the sound of these posts, seems he should be over weight. He is now an indoor cat so if he starts looking porky and weight goes up I will definately reduce it. He's quite good at sitting on the electronic scales for just long enough to weigh him I read and feed what the box suggests so I don't think I am over feeding, I hope not.

No, you are not overfeeding. Your cat sounds like like he is a normal, healthy weight and doing just fine on his three pouches.
I was advised by my vet to reduce my cats food intake :eek:, I simply cannot reduce it from one pouch to half a pouch a day, I think she would leave home!!