How much, and what do you feed your cat.

[dingit]

Mine is a bit on the tubby side and I'm trying to reduce her food intake. She has half a pouch of wet food, with the equivalent amount of dried, morning and night. After a bout of illness I've been feeding her fresh fish in the evening.
She never seems satisfied, and wakes me all hours of the night for food, it's worse than having a baby. ( I'm not sure if I've made it worse as I keep food in the drawer next to my bed, otherwise I have to traipse down to floors at all hours). Would I be better giving her a good handful of food at bedtime to see her through the night?
I can't leave food downstairs, we have an unwanted nighttime visitor.

[dingit]

Two floors, not to.

[Artandco]

Those pouches usually say 3-4 a day depending on weight on side of box

So I would say needs at least 1 pouch plus dry morning and night. Plus the fish

I have never fed a cat more than twice a day. Just morning and night

[CabbagePatchCheryl]

Please be careful with reducing her intake without advice from a vet - they can apparently quickly develop problems with liver function etc if you reduce it too sharply.

My guy is 4.5 - 5kg and we feed him 2 pouches per day (morning) and 1/3 of the recommended daily amount of dry food. We did use to do it the other way round (1 pouch and 2/3 of the RDA of dry) but he got a UTI (as neutered males are prone to) which can be very dangerous and the vet suggested more wet food so that he has sufficient hydration. Cats have a low "thirst drive" apparently and aren't very good at drinking enough so get most of their water from food.

That said, he then subsequently got really bad tartar on his teeth, which he'd never had before and the vet (a different one) said it was the pouches that were doing it!! So we can't win. And it cost us £170 and a day of pure terror (mine) whilst he had a general anaesthetic and a scale and polish.

Oh and he constantly moans about food during the day and goes out at night to catch his own snacks (one of which just caused another trip to the vets with a bad tummy and fever) so I think some of them are just naturally gluttonous. We close our bedroom door so he doesn't wake us up going "it's 3am, surely TIME FOR BREAKFAST!!" etc etc

Bloody cats. Sent to try us.

[ThatBloodyWoman]

When he asks fof it he gets a handful of dry food.

He's getting on but he's the right weight and the vet says his teeth are great.

I'm sure thats because he's only had dry food and mice, rats squirrels, bunnies...

[ThatBloodyWoman]

Oh, he's a neutered male.
He gets liquid from mouse guts I think...

[CabbagePatchCheryl]

Oh I should also say (sorry for waffling on) I weigh the dry food out on scales every time. It's a faff and other people think I'm ridiculous but dry food is very nutritious so if you are even a small amount over the RDA, that can add up to a lot of extra calories over a week/fortnight/month. Not necessary for all cats as some "self-regulate" ie will only eat what they need and then stop, but others (like mine) will eat anything that's put in front of them and still want more.

TBW - boak. Yep, I think mine gets his from their little heads and bellies. And the disgusting gutter water he prefers to the clean stuff in his bowl. And licking cars after it's rained.

[clayspaniel]

We give our cat 3 pouches a day. The vet advised us against dry food. She seems to be a bit delicate, so we often have to give her cooked chicken or fish if she has been sick for a couple of days. Despite 3 pouches a day she does go through times where she seems really hungry, trying to scavenge off our food! Perhaps give her more food during the day, could give her the last meal just before you go to bed and it might keep her happy during the night! Good luck!

[Sleepytea]

My cats have 2 pouches each a day and free access to biscuits. They top this is with a supply of wildlife found in the garden. They get plenty of exercise which keeps their weight down.

[happyandsingle]

I'm a bit surprised at this as my cat(he is quite a big cat) eats 4-5 wet pouches a day and has a bowl of dried biscuits left out permanently
. He also gets treats of chicken or fish sometimes during the day.
He doesn't look overweight but am I feeding him to much. He goes out a lot so maybe he is burning a lot of energy? No one else seems to feed there cat as much lol.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

20g of Arden grange salmon and potato in the morning and 1 pouch in the evening each, both cat perfect weight.
Last night that also late night mouse.

[CatsCantTwerk]

My boys have dry food down all the time and fresh water and half a pouch of wet at tea time, They are 16 months old and I tried giving them a full pouch each a day but it is too much for them so they have 1/2 a pouch each.