I still don't know how much I should be feeding my cat

[Dancergirl]

New-ish first time cat owner. We adopted our gorgeous cat from CP about 18 months ago, we all love her to bits. She was 6 months when we got her and is now 2 (isn).

She is growing but people do comment on how small she is. She eats Felix and Sheba wet food, I aim to give her about 3 sachets a day plus dry food (Iams). But she doesn't always finish it. I'm just guided by her really, some days she eats more than others. If there's still wet food left in her bowl later in the day, I don't put any more out.

So am I doing anything wrong? Should I be trying to get her to eat more to increase her weight? Should I get her weighed at the vets?

Sounds fine - she may just be a small built cat and she's clearly not hungry of she's leaving food.

PS - the vet should be weighing her at each visit and recording on her file and I would have thought they would have commented if she was underweight. Do you have her to the vet for an annual checkup? (I appreciate she's only be on her second.)

Does she look skinny to you?

if she's leaving food.....

i have four cats who range in size from a whopper at 6kgs to a tiny little girl of around 2.5 kgs and all mine get the same amount each day and have done from tiny kittens, i give mine 1/4 of a tin of butchers classic each in the morning and a 1/4 of a mug full of feline choice biscuits each in the afternoon and mine all seem fine and are all a healthy whieght for their individual builds, i would say as she is leaving some she is getting plenty of food and some cats are tiny and some are huge her parents might have been small,

Take the amount Iams for a cat her weight divide it in half and then feed one sachet per day as well for the vast majority of cats whose correct body weight is between 3 and 5.5kg this is the correct amount.
IME cats who 3 pouches and some Iams are almost always over weight I am afraid. The daily allowance of Iams is a very small volume.
This is what I fed both my cats one 3.2kg and one 4.5kg both perfect body weight.
Pet subject currently over weight cats there are just too many of them.

Some cats are just petite, one of ours was always mistaken for a kitten.

If she's leaving food she must be eating enough so don't worry about it.

My own vet has some semi-permanent pictures of fat cats on the wall - little eyes and noses poking out at the top of great furry mounds. Awful.

I noticed on that cat documentary recently how much flubber some cats had.

Some cats don't know when to stop eating though, you have to know for them.

Thank you, so it sounds like small is ok as long as they're offered enough food.

I have booked her in at the vets for a check up anyway.

At the cattery they only feed them twice a day!

Not frequent enough in my view. I'd feed them three times at least with correspondingly smaller portions. They may have staffing issues though.

PS - well done for booking her in though. She should usually get an annual check which you could coincide with getting her booster shots.

I just feed mine twice daily. My girl cat can barely be bothered to eat that sometimes. Boy cat would consider ad lib non- stop food insufficient.
I go follow the research that says it takes 10 hunting episodes to get one successful kill and therefore cats not fed by humans would possibly only eat once or maybe twice per day. This is supported by FAB I do also make my cats hunt for food hiding it and using toilet roll pyramids.

Interesting, Lonecat.

We bought one of those balls that you put biscuits in and they bat them around to make them come out again. Waste of money, he'd give it a good bat, eat the trail of biscuits crumbs everywhere and walk off.

Opening it was like something off the krypton factor, it took both of us ages to figure it out.

Sounds fine to me. Our girl was fur and bones when we got her from the rescue and at the start we had to feed her about a quarter of a pouch eight times a day or it would go to waste. Now she gets about a quarter of a tin whenever her bowl gets empty or has dried out noticeably. Most of it gets eaten, it's only really her overnight meal that goes to waste frequently (if she doesn't get it then she wakes us up at silly o clock because she's hungry so we prefer to waste a little bit of food if needs be). She put on weight rapidly when we got her and seems to have stabilised at just slightly underweight. Taking into account wastage she eats about two thirds of a tin of Butcher's Classic a day (plus a few dreamies and a bit of meat or fish if we're eating something suitable). Some days she eats less than half a can and on others she'll eat a whole can. Since she's not an overeater we give her as much food as she wants.

Lonecat, I also feed mine twice a day tinned food and then small handful dry which is scattered all over the floor so they have to look in nooks and crannies for it.
I have two greedy lads who really would, if food was left down, eat whatever was left and empty the bowls.
I also agree with the comment about too many overweight cats..also dogs. They should be lean.
I heard this said and it makes sense "we are so used to seeing dogs and cats that we think are of a normal weight, but are actually overweight, that we dont realise when we see an overweight animal"

Queen, I have had cats like that before, and when you throw food away you know you have an animal that regulates it's own food. Thats good!

My boys would never eat like that. they really would scoff a full tin each at one sitting if allowed. Never had greedy cats before. Not sure what makes them like that.They go outside and used to hunt the odd mouse etc but wouldn't eat them, just leave the bodies.

My 2 also only get fed twice a day.
A pack of wet food each and a sprinkle of wellbeloved biscuits.

My girlcat is tiny - she's always been half the size of her brother, but she's a bright, happy little thing with a glossy coat so we're not concerned.

Had the same question about mine - cat protection said two pouches a day and maybe some biscuits on the side. She sometimes leaves food, never wolfs it all at once and is, after two months, pretty much the same weight (about 2.8, pretty small cat). The vet said all is well :) wish she'd stop hunting my hairbands in that case!

Hi Dancer! always lovely to hear someone has changed the life of a rescue cat.

Some cats are just small, just like people. To be sure she is getting as much as she wants, leave down a bowl of dried food for her to graze on. Cats are prone to get peckish, and do enjoy 'second breakfasts' and late night snacks'. Which is fine as long as they don't get overweight.

The only thing I would say, is that leaving down food and not giving fresh if its not cleared isn't a great policy for cats as they will refuse food which has warmed and dried out in the air, and is also less moist as the gravy/jelly tends to be licked off on the first snack.

There is a great article here which explains much about why cats are happiest when free to eat little and often

I have two naturally thin cats and one normal sized. I never let them run out of food so they are not deprived. Just little bundles of fluff.

Honestly, people don't realise it but these brands .. Whiskas, Felix, Sheba are really poor cat foods. They are only 4% meat and the rest is packed out with rubbish fillers that no cat needs ... cereals, grains etc and I worry about the quality of the whole 4% meat that they have put in it.

There are some much better brands of cat food out there:

From Supermarkets:

Lily's Kitchen

From Zooplus Website:

Animonda Carny
Grau
Bozita

From The Happy Kitty Company:

Macs
OmNomNom
GranataPet

Personally I feed my kitten mainly raw food. He has food from these companies:

Honeys
Natural Instinct

I also make my own raw food but you need to do some research and make sure that you have the Meat~Bone~Organ ratio correct to ensure your cat is getting the right levels of nutrients.

Twice a week he gets a raw chicken wing for his teeth.
One meal a day he usually has a mouse or rat (You buy these frozen from reptile suppliers).

So anyway, my point is ... when cats are fed on low quality supermarket foods, they tend to eat LOADS because there is so little in them that the cat actually requires nutritionally. They tend to do stinky poos too because there is so much unwanted parts to expel. When cats are fed high meat content, grain-free wet food, they eat a lot less and it meets the demands of their bodies much closer.

Having said that, the worst quality wet food is BETTER than the best quality dry food. Dry food for cats is a terrible idea. I would definitely phase that out if you can. It is so dehydrating and unhealthy for them. Cats need moisture from their foods. This is the way their systems are designed.

I don't leave food out. I feed him five times a day (he's still young at the moment) and when he finishes, I take what's left away until the next meal. I'm not a fan of cats grazing but with raw and wet food, leaving it down gives bacteria the opportunity to grow on it.

Agree that most supermarket food for cats is a pile of rubbish. But frozen mice? Raw lumps of animal? Five times a day? How much are they paying you??

At Deliasmithy prison, inmates have one communal dog sized bowl of Royal Canin to graze on. Those on enhanced privileges have additional treats.

My cat gets 1 cup of biscuits for snacking through the day, then a sachet of wet food in the evening, he's not a small cat but when I went to the vet for a routine visit (slightly concerned they'd say he's underweight) they actually praised the fact his weight was spot on for his size etc., they said overfeeding is so common now, much like babies, we as a nation have forgot how svelte they are supposed to be (cats that is)

haha .. I only feed him five meals a day because he is only a few months old and only eats a spoonful of food at each meal. The number of meals will of course cut down as he grows and I will be aiming for just two meals a day when he is adult :)