How do you feed your cat?

no1catman

We have had problems with feeding our cat firstly, solved with some dental work, and secondly a bit of tlc - after going on hunger strike after getting stressed out encountering 'toms'!!


At one point went down to 4.27kg - having lost in the region of 500gm - and you could see the difference.
Started getting her feeding again with lambs liver, after awhile got bored with that, so went on to boiled white fish fillets (buy a 450gm pack with 5/6 pieces).
Then she graduated, from that to also having a pouch of wet food, go-cat is always available, and the too often 'dreamies'.
Sometimes, during the night she can be heard have a 'midnight feast'.
Last weigh-in in January was 5.38kg, and she looks good on it.

helcat26

By feed on demand do you mean coming up to where I am sitting working, and repeatedly jabbing me in the legs and behind with front paws going BrrrrrOOOOOwwww!


Certainly demanding

Feral_Moon

I've always left a bowl of good quality dry food down 24/7 and offer around 30g of wet food per cat per meal twice daily. Cats are naturally grazers and prefer to nibble frequently than scoff down a huge meal then go without for several hours. Never had an overweight cat as they self regulate when they know food is always available.

Marmaduke123

Mine always had a bowl of good quality dry food available to eat as and when she chose, and one pouch of felix in the morning. She was never that bothered about food, but I could always tell if she had had a busy night in and out of the cat flap, because she would have eaten much more of the dry. Her weight was very stable at 5 kilos for years.

It all changed last autumn though. She completely stopped eating the dry food, and wanted at least one other pouch later in the day, obviously to make up for the lack of the dry food.

She's now been diagnosed with early kidney failure, and is on two pouches of the renal food per day. She very occasionally eats a piece or two of the renal kibble too.

Seems like she knew what was good and bad for her, before she showed any symptoms. I'm a great believer in cats being able to self regulate their food intake, just as they would in the wild

SensibleSarah

My 4 cats are pretty much 'free feeders' but I do have 3x set mealtimes daily, mainly to ensure that they all check in with me at least that often and they always show up like clockwork. Breakfast & bedtime are wet food (3 pouches between 4 cats each meal) and teatime is a handful of good quality dry food each. They also have cheaper dry down all of the time which they dip into every now & again or if I'm late home etc. The biggest is a very large boy who weighs about 8kg but he's not overweight, just a big frame. None of them eat the wildlife, but that doesn't stop them killing it anyway

bspm

Robin9 wrote: »

23lb is obese.

Not if its a Maine coon

quidsy

Our vet advised 95g of dry per day & one pouch only of wet. The dry is down all day. The pouch given in the morning as he is always famished after being out all night.


Too much wet can give the cat quite bad plaque.


My cat is 6kg

his_missus

My cats get fed in the morning, in the evening when we get home home from work and maybe at our bedtime if they seem to be demanding and maybe lunchtime at the weekend.


One cat will only eat dry food, preferring turkey flavoured biscuits. We put down enough for a day and he just seems to graze as he wishes.


The other 2 share a pouch at each mealtime or have a 200g tin per day. I also put down the recommended amount of biscuits (these two prefer fish flavoured ones) for one cat according to the bag.


My vet recommends kibble for cats as it helps to keep their teeth cleaner than wet food. If they were out in the wild, they'd be chomping on bones as well as meat I suppose.

GwylimT

Our cat is mainly fed raw, she also has some decent wet as well.

If eating raw she has around 200g a day, if just wet she has around 300g a day. She is just over 5kg. She is fed on demand.

We make our own raw which works out at around 30p per day, her wet food would be around 40p per day.

I wouldn't personally feed dry, cats simply cannot gain any benefit from carbs and it contributes to feline diabetes, plus cats have an awful thirst drive as they are designed to get liquids from food, so a drinking cat is a dehydrated cat. I also wouldn't use biscuits to clean my teeth, so I don't expect my cat to.

WeAreGhosts

Interesting to read everyone's feeding habits and weights.

My vet, for some reason, believes that every cat should be 4kg, and I'm made to feel guilty if mine is creeping up to 5kg