To ask how much you feed your cat

[Wiggles28]

Recently rehomed a three year old cat. He’s quite big (tall) and weighs around 4.5kg.

He seems to be constantly hungry! He currently wakes us up around 6am wanting breakfast (1/2 pouch), then has biscuits then another 1/2 pouch for dinner and then the same for supper. We’ve been giving him supper as at first he was waking us at 4am to be fed!

He’s active but not going outside yet.

How much do you feed your cat, and what?

Cats are designed to act starving aren’t they! I have 4 cats ranging in size and fatness. (6kg - yes shes tubby!, 5.6kg - hes large but lean and muscular, 4.3kg - small and perfect weight, 4kg very slender / bottom end of acceptable but super fussy). If hes quite big then at 4.5kg he could potentially stand to put on a few lbs?

I split a small mug of biscuits between 4 bowls twice a day (early morning & tea time), they move about and pick going to and fro and swapping bowls (and don’t eat a bowl in sitting unlike my dog who just inhales his in 2 seconds) so some may eat slightly more or less than others but it averages out at roughly half of a mug each per day. They get half of a pouch each for supper.

How much you need to feed often depends on a number of factors. If solely fed pouches then an average sized cat (4kg) needs to eat around 4-5 pouches a day. At 1.5 pouches are you perhaps not giving quite enough biscuits? Also food quality, the higher the quality the less you need to feed, cats (and dogs) fed on poorer quality food will produce more waste and in turn need to eat higher volumes of feed.

Cats would naturally eat little but often so tend to prefer to pick throughout the day and many are good at self regulating and not over eating (not all obvs). My vet recommended leaving biscuits down all the time to facilitate this natural behaviour and to try fatten up the skinny one but the greedy one clearly just took up residence at the food bowl hence why shes fat and the skinny one stayed skinny so I’ve had to do designated times and portions to slim fatty down. Maybe you could try leaving a bowl of biscuits down at all times so there is no need for you to be woken as he can pick at his leisure and just give the pouch(s) at one specific sitting?

What are you feeding him? Get good quality high protein grain free wet food and a complete not supplementary biscuit. Dcat is long and about 5.5kg, but not fat, his vet calls him the panther we've always fed him a very good quality high protein diet, when I first had DS we were kept in hospital and DH grabbed some gourmet from the garage as we'd run out of wet food and forgot to order more, little so and so won't touch it.

Bless.him, he looks so healthy now.

My wee 2kg lady is not skinny like that at all, just a different build.

My cat only has dry food and it's left out for her to graze. She is a very healthy 12.5 year old and the vet says this is fine as long as the food is good quality (James Wellbeloved).

This big lummox gets 4 pouches a day plus an egg cup full of kibble. It actually says on the box to feed 3-4 pouches a day so I don't know why people are being accused of over-feeding. Monty is massive. Not fat, just a big boy.

I think you're underfeeding if he's big. Pouches don't fill them up IME if they're huge. Twice a day canned stuff, a good bowlful +biscuits on top. Actually works out cheaper than pouches.

My almost 1 year old has maybe 4 pouches a day when she seems like she asks for it (although she likes Sheba so they are smaller) and she has a full bowl of dry food for her to eat whenever.

It really does depend on the type of food. A good quality (high meat content) wet food or proper complete dry food and they likely won't eat as much as an animal who is getting not so good quality food because they get what they need from less.
(Felix and Sheba contain about 4% meat per pouch)

My old ill girl has 3x50g pouches a day plus kidney dry food overnight and if she is having a hungry day il put either another pouch or some dry food down in the afternoon.

She is currently 3.1kg but was 3.6 but her thyroid levels are not right at the moment so she lost some and I'm in the middle of rejigging her meds at the moment. Last year she dropped right down to 2.4

Before she became ill (and old) she was on dry food according to the brand and she got a pouch of wet food for her Sunday dinner and was always about 4kg.

When she is low weight like now I would like to feed her more but she won't eat more than that so it just goes to waste.

My last one was 6kg (not fat) very active
Had quality dry food in a bowl all day and got third of a tin in the evenings.
Healthy, had ever been to vet just for vaccines and check up in all his 8 years.

@jomaIone

You said your cat is 2kg and you describe feeding her an eggcup of food. 2kg is extremely underweight for an adult cat.

pets.webmd.com/cats/guide/healthy-weight-for-your-cat

2/3 pouches per day plus dry food.

Mine gets either 1 or 2 pouches (depending on the type of pouches and the time of year) and has constant access to good quality dry food, she wont eat any more wet food than that. She also gets some Dreamies but I put them in one of those ball things so she has to work to get them, it also keeps her occupied for an hour.

It actually says on the box to feed 3-4 pouches a day so I don't know why people are being accused of over-feeding.

Yes, if you exclusively feed wet.

But remember, it's in the manufacturers best interest if you feed as much as possible. Because then you have to buy more and more food.

Dry food is cheaper than wet and lasts much longer. Exclusively feeding wet is exceptionally expensive!

You said your cat is 2kg and you describe feeding her an eggcup of food. 2kg is extremely underweight for an adult cat.

It depends on the cat. Mine is 4 and 2.5kg and she's perfect for her size, she's just tiny and hasn't grown since she was about four months old. She's regularly at the vets and she's perfectly healthy.

And most supermarket wet foods are appalling quality. Even stuff like Sheba is mostly grains and has a very low meat content. Feed a high quality wet food and they'll need less of it.

Since WFH my cat thinks he needs 6 meals a day he actually gets 3 pouches and endless biscuit which he will eat if he has to.

We have three cats and they are fed three times a day with two sachets split between them. They have sprinkly biscuits on top and there's always a bowl of dry biscuits down for them too. We also give them treats such as cat sticks.

We are fortunate with ours. He has always been a grazer which I've never had a cat do before but he'll eat a few biscuits, leave it, come back eat a bit more etc, I just fill his bowl up when it's empty. He won't eat wet food, only dry. He's not under weight either he's a big tom

Before him my cats have always had proper meal times and wolfed it down as soon as it's in the bowl and they were having about 2 pouches and a scoop of dry.

my cats have four pouches a day, and there are always bowls of dry food down for them too. plus whatever they can skank out of the dog’s bowl 😂

You need to work out how many calories your cat needs per day according to his weight and activity levels, then work out how much of wet and dry food to give in total, check the website of your brand of food, as they are all different caloric density.

That doesn’t sound like much to me. My old boy used to have two wet pouches a day, plus dry food from one of those plastic balls that dispenses biscuits when nudged around the floor. And he’d play with that for a good couple of hours in the evening (easily pleased, bless him). Can’t remember how much he weighed but the vet said it was the top end of ok- hence making him work for the biscuits. My girl now is the same age and weight as your cat. She’s not a big eater and gets through probably 5-6 ice cream scoops of dry food a day, no wet.

My two get a pouch each in the morning, then dry food - I don't limit it and their bowls are rarely empty. They're just over 4kg and the vet says perfect weight and nearly 2 years old. I asked the vet about wet/ dry food and she said she thought a mix is best as if you feed too much wet food it can build up on their teeth and cause decay.

My 2 are the same weight and have 4 pouches a day but they are active and outside for a good portion of the day

I feed my boy one pouch with a handful of dry food in the morning (7am) and the same in the evening (7pm) and nothing the rest of the day. He's an indoor cat, 2.5 years old and weighs 4.6kgs!

Evencat has one tin (400gr) a day. Dry food available also. Very active cat, weighs 4-5 kg.