How much food is enough/too much?

[changedmyuser]

Male cat is lovely and lean his sister is a bit overweight so I'm trying to get the balance right.

We have microchip feeders so each cat can only eat their own food. At the moment they have 1 pouch of Whiskas in the morning around a tablespoon of biscuits (grain free, Thrive, Purizon, Lilly's whichever is open) and then last thing a night a can of Greenwood's wet food which is only a complementary food but seems to keep them full until breakfast.

Does this seem a lot? Not enough? Around 5pm they meow their heads off if we're in the kitchen so they'll get their biscuits then.

How am I meant to find out the calorific value of any cat food?

Mine has 3 sachets of wet food a day, and open access to a bowl of high calorie dried... he's 15 and has been losing weight so vet told me to feed him on demand . He's had tests for diabetes and thyroid all normal. When he was younger and a lot more active, he had 4 - 6 sachets or a whole tin and unrestricted dry.... he was 7kg and never fat.

Mine are good sized indoor cats (4.8 & 6kg respectively) and they have 1.5 sachets of wet between them, 1/3 small tin of tuna between them, and ad lib dry (plus Dreamies of course!). Going by how often I top up the dry, I reckon they get through up to about 200-250g of the dry a day, again between the 2 of them. They aren't overweight and are in great condition. If anything, I think Girlcat (the smaller one) eats more than Boycat going by when I see them eat but it's hard to tell as they share everything (by choice) except treats.

I think you have to treat them all differently, same as people. I know people who can eat all day every day, fattening foods, and not put on an ounce. I also know people with a similar lifestyle who just have to look at a sausage roll & they put on pounds, and I think all animals are the same. As you have microchip feeders you can probably tweak each cat's food to suit it.

It depends quite a lot on their size, age and activity levels. A young cat who runs around all day indoors and out needs more than a senior cat who mostly spends her time on the sofa, of course.

Is your female cat smaller than your male? If so, she probably needs a smaller portion if she's overweight.

They're both 7 (8 this year) female is much smaller than her brother. Here's a pic of her. The last thing I want is for her to end up with diabetes.

He will eat and only 'ask' if he's really hungry she will chops off anytime you go into the kitchen demanding food.

She should weigh around 4kg she's currently around 4.6kgs

Trying to work out how much food she should actually have is a nightmare I can't get it right! Help anyone?

I should add she's also pretty lazy!

Are they allowed outside? Could she be hunting and eating what she catches? Our cat does this, it’s so hard to get his food level right, because the more we restrict his food, the more he catches outside to eat instead he will never be a slim cat.

Yes both allowed outside, she never goes far though so I doubt she's hunting.