Food dilemma... again! Am I over-feeding my cats?

[Sunshine49]

Hi everyone!

Until today I’ve been feeding my two cats one pouch of James Wellbeloved wet food each twice a day (the recommended amount for a complete diet on the packs) plus a small handful of dry food (Thrive) each twice a day.

However, I’ve just weighed out how much dry they’re meant to have according to the packet instructions, and was shocked to find that they should be eating two generous handfuls a day as a complete diet! In other words, I’ve been feeding them the recommended amount of dry food per day (almost) plus two pouches on top - so they’re essentially getting double meals!

Should I try to cut down so I’m feeding them one pouch each of wet a day for breakfast and then one handful of dry for dinner? I’m just a bit worried, as I’ve tried that today and the girl cat has already polished off her dry dinner (not like her as she usually picks at her food over the course of several hours).

What does everyone think?

There's a cat calorie calculator online which helped me get my cats food right, maybe give that a go?

Are they overweight? Have you got pictures from above - do they have a 'waist'?

Mine have their dry ad lib, and going by the packet they eat at least as much dry each as the recommended full daily amount if not more, plus 1.5 sachets of wet between them. They recently had their MoT, and though both are quite large (4.8 and 6 kg respectively) neither is overweight according to the vet.

Different cats have different food needs, and many (like mine) do self regulate.

It sounds like a lot! Two pouches plus two handfuls of dry food each day

How much activity do they get? My cat is mostly indoors especially in winter and though she’s pretty active (only 1 year so very playful) she just gets a small amount of dry food (recommended amount) in a no-bowl puzzle feeder system so I fill up the puzzle feeders and she snacks through the day. No wet food as she’s a good drinker and females have less urinary issues than boys. I’m still anxious about her weight/activity as i’ve Only ever had outdoor-indoor cats previously.

I think one trap a lot of cat owners fall into is mistaking the cat meowing as calling for food. In reality they may simply want attention/playtime/cuddles so try these first. Don’t automatically reinforce the meowing with food - remember they are training you!

This is useful
www.wsava.org/WSAVA/media/PDF_old/Body-condition-score-chart-cats.pdf

Mine have almost exactly the same, except dry food is one handful last thing at night. They tend to self regulate with the wet food so don't always eat all of it. But will always eat all of the biscuits, which is why I limit it.
Recent vets check up declared them to be fit and healthy and maintaining their weight nicely so I am not worried. Also they are reasonably active outside in fair weather which helps I think.

Thanks for the replies everyone! At the moment both cats are indoors only, although like Veterinari's cats, they're only just over a year old so very active - they love bombing up and down the stairs and playing with their toys! I am planning to introduce them to the garden in the summer, but think they need a couple more months indoors first, as they're very timid rescue cats.

I'll try and get a photo of them from above to post. One of them is semi-longhaired, which makes it harder to assess his weight - although I can see he has that "nipped in" waist thing by his back legs if you know what I mean, which suggests he's an ok weight.

If I am feeding them too much, can I cut down to the recommended amount straightaway or should I slowly reduce it over a few weeks?

Thanks!

You’ll likely get away with it whilst they’re active and growing OP - are they neutered yet? That makes a difference too.
Just keep an eye on them and reduce it slowly

I let my cats self regulate with dry food plus they get about 1 and a half pouches each of wet food. Vet said they weren't overweight. They are neutered and go outside too

If you are using dry they need half a pouch each a day of wet

Mine has a pouch morning and night and a spoon of dry food at lunchtime and during the night. If you look down on him he’s definitely goes in at the waist

WIth the body condition score it’s important to look both from the side as well as above. Some cats will still go in at the waist when looked at from above even when overweight because if they have poor muscle tone the fat drags the abdomen down. If you look at them from the side you see the hanging abdomen. So they should go in at the waist when viewed from above and have a nice neat tucked abdomen when viewed from the side

Hi Veterinari, yep they're both neutered. When I said my boy cat is nipped in at the waist before, what I actually meant was that he has a tucked in abdomen when you look at him from the side - oops! It's a bit tricky to tell with the girl, as she has quite a lot of fur on her tummy, which makes it harder to see.

I think I'll slowly cut back on their food as you suggested, as it sounds like they're getting almost double quantities at the moment!

My young boy cat happened to sit on the bathroom scales yesterday and I caught a glimpse of his weight - he's only 7lbs (3.1kg)! I'm surprised - he's a lot smaller than he looks under all that fur. I definitely need to reduce portion sizes...

That's interesting about the tummys Veterinari. Both of mine have that saggy look to their bellies, but it feels like just loose skin rather than fat - I spend and awful lot of time stroking, rubbing and generally playing with Boycat there (his choice, he adores it). As I said they had their MoT and the vet said in great condition, and I can feel spine, ribs, shoulders & hips when I stroke them so I'm guessing in their case it's just poor muscle tone due to being indoors all the time?