What do you feed your cats and how much?

[VeganCow]

My 2 have about 150g of canned wet plus about a desert spoon of dried food each a day, split over two meals. They are neutered boys and even on that little amount could do with losing around 1lb each.

Do you find that the recommended amounts of food is two to three times higher than they actually need?

[gindrinker]

Gummy tortie mog has 2 or 2.5 pouches of wet food, a splash of cat milk and if we're having meat a morsel of that.
She's perfect cat weight, but doesn't have many teeth so wet food is a must.

[Repeatedlydoingthetwist]

Mine has a wet pouch each morning and she will only eat Whiskas. It's been an ongoing battle of wills to try and get her to eat other brands but she is incredibly stubborn and will literally rather starve than let me win. She has about 2/3rds the size of the pouch in dried food each evening, weirdly enough she is not precious about the brand when it comes to biscuits?!

[gobbin]

My three have a tin of Butchers Classic plus 50g Royal Canin Kitten 36 split between two meals. They weigh 4kg (big orange boy), 3.5kg and 3kg (little tortie)

[QueenStromba]

One pouch of Whiskas a day is hardly going to break the bank fortunately. My vet really doesn't approve of Whiskas though - he thinks they put the equivalent of kitty crack in the jelly which makes them lick the jelly off and leave the meat. Have you tried tricking her by mixing a bit of the new food into the Whiskas and gradually increasing the amount of new food BigOrange?

My girl was on Whiskas pouches when we got her and transitioned her onto Butcher's Classic over the course of 2-3 weeks due to her having a dodgy tummy if we change her food suddenly. She never seemed to notice the difference and really loves her new food. We started off with a forkful of Butcher's mashed up in one pouch for a couple of days, followed by 2 forkfuls for a couple of days, then 3 forkfuls etc. We were being extra careful because of her digestive issues though. You could always do 5g in half a pouch, 10g in half a pouch etc and if it she won't eat it put a bit more pouch in. I found that the chicken Butcher's worked with all of the meat flavour Whiskas and the ocean fish or haddock worked with all of the fish ones. We also portioned the tins into forkful amounts in an icecube tray and froze them because at the start a tin would last for a week.

Butcher's is less than half the price of Whiskas pouches which is great and she seems much more full of life than when she was on the Whiskas. That might just be because she was really thin when we got her though.

[Repeatedlydoingthetwist]

We did try something similar QueenStromba but it really didn't fool her. To be honest though I did lose patience with it after a few days so I think I need to retry and will use your method. I've heard a lot of people say that they don't approve of Whiskas so I wonder if there is something to it?

[portraitoftheartist]

If you research cat food you find that supermarket food (Whiskas, Felix etc) is generally considered absolute rubbish. There are much better foods, with more meat and no fillers. The real zealots feed only raw food.

[Rikalaily]

My three get 3/4 of a tin of Butchers classic each a day, split into a few meals with warm water added. They used to have a bowl of Burns dry food put down between them overnight and 1/3 of a tin each, but one of my boys got a urinary blockage last year so they don't get any dry food now in case he eats some. On the plus side, our big boy who used to weigh about 8kg has lost weight.

I keep all of our pets wheat/ cereal free, I don't mind a bit of brown rice in the dogs food but refuse to feed them crap packed with fillers which is why we feed Butchers classic, the dog gets Wainwrites.

[VeganCow]

Butchers Classic is the only food you can buy in the shops and not online, that is 100% meat, no cereals/ veg etc added.

[Fluffycloudland77]

I am trying to diet him, and that's all Ill say on the subject.

[cozietoesie]

Dodgy tactic Fluffy - he might eat you in your sleep!

[Fluffycloudland77]

He's locked in the conservatory overnight due to crimes against curtains.

[VenusUprising]

I also find the recommended amounts to be too much.
I feed her 35g dry RC sterilised cat, and one royal canin pouch a day. Half a pouch sprinkled with dry bits in the am, and a few dry bits around 4pm, and the rest of the pouch and the rest of the dry bits sprinkled over the wet at night.

If I give her wet food without the dry, she wolfs it down, and hiccups. The dry bits slow her down.

It's supposed to be 45 g dry, but unless she running and jumping all day, she gets heavy on that.

And water.

[VenusUprising]

Ha ha crimes agains curtains!

[Pascha]

My two boys get 1/3 of a tin per day with a handful of biscuits split over two meals. The Snowshoe certainly supplements that with random small rodents and some fish from the canal. He is a racing snake. The Lion is old, fat and mostly doesn't eat all his food.

[Pascha]

Oh, and they get whatever is on offer at Pets At Home.

[EasterHoliday]

mine get a small handful of Iams for fat cats / Iams for aged, fat, sterlised cats morning and evening. They're still fat (& aged but no food's going to help that) because they hunt very succesfully, and because they're quite brilliant thieves who put Slinki Malinki in the shade. Can't leave ANY food out - not a loaf of bread or wrapped pack of anything as they'll have it in a flash.

[EatenByZombies]

My two girlies have a bowl of biscuits that's kept relatively full all the time and, once a day, a bowl of wet food.
My tabby eats pretty much only biscuits even though she has the choice, while the other prefers wet food, so when they get their tinned food I usually fill two bowls which is enough for one each or all the wet food for one and lots of biccies for the other :)

[Snog]

Our cat is a gourmet perle fan
2 pouches a day plus a bit of dry food
She has a tiny pouch!

[AnnaBegins]

Hi, I'm late to the thread but can I have some advice please? We have 2 new cats, and they came with whiskas kitten pouches (the cats are 6 months old). I've been giving them one pouch each in the morning and one each in the evening, some dry food came with them too but I've not tried this yet.

But this seems quite a lot, is it too much? They constantly pretend to be starving but I'm not fooled!

Also, when should they move to grown up cat food?

[cozietoesie]

Just to be safe, probably leave them with kitten food until they're about a year old - but for another few months anyway I reckon - and then do a gradual change over.

I'm pretty liberal with amounts, I have to say, and I'd be inclined to feed a kit more in particular if they indicated strongly that they were still hungry and depending on their weight and breed. (Have you checked the recommended amounts on the packets?) Two pouches each might be enough (I wouldn't say it's too much) and they could be trying to scam you but they might be genuinely hungry for more.

Lots of fresh water at all times of course.

Are they booked in to the vet yet?

[AnnaBegins]

Thank you cozie, I'm going to register them at the vets and change their microchips to my name next weekend, give them chance to settle in before going to the scary vets!

Yup they have fresh water always, I'll leave them on 2 pouches with a few biscuits at lunchtime (as DH is a soft touch and thinks they should have lunch like we do ) and see how we go.

[bruffin]

Mine has an 85g gourmet sachet and a single layer in her bowl of iams. It doesnt seem much at all but she only cries for food if her evening meal of the sachet is late.

[cozietoesie]

Ah - the 'scary vets'. (For their ops, I assume.) Keep a close eye on them in the meantime then. You don't say what sexes they are but 6 months is quite old enough to reproduce and a lot of people have been caught out with young cats.

One thing you might try (because they're really large kittens0 is splitting up their pouches into more than two meals. If you or DH have time at home that suits that is. So, maybe, half a pouch each four times a day (breakfast, lunch, tea, supper) or two thirds three times a say and so on. Going from morning to evening is a long time for a youngster especially if they're indoors.

[AnnaBegins]

Oh no they have both been neutered, 1 month ago. I just need to take them so they can have the check up required to register them.

Yeh might try that, thanks.

[cozietoesie]

Good stuff. Let us know how they get on with the feeding.