Advice needed on food for hungry cat please

[ClareWilsonNS]

Hello - I have just acquired a rescue cat, age thought to be around two or three. I'm feeding her what is supposed to be the right amount of food based on her weight (4.4kg) but she still seems hungry. She was with a fosterer before, so is healthy, and seems to be settling in with me nicely (it's only day four) apart from this one problem.

I'm giving her two meals a day of dry food (Purina One) as that's what the fosterer gave. Fosterer can't remember the quantity she gave but according to the packet I should give about 70g a day. I'm doing that in two equal amounts, but in the evening before we go to bed she clearly wants more food, waiting by her food bowl, miaowing loudly.

Last night I came down after I'd gone to bed as my daughter said she was acting weird, and the cat did more miaowing and when I started to go back upstairs she nipped my bare foot! Normally she only nips if she is being "overpetted" I gave in and gave half a bowl.

I'm being cautious because I don't want to overfeed her and make her fat. At the moment I would say she isn't fat but isn't skinny either.

For my indoor cats I always have a bowl of dry food next to their water and they can feed throughout the day, but it's never been excessive or a weight issue. One can of wet food for dinner most nights.
My barn cats always have water and dry food, but when it turns dark and cold I chop up cooked chicken and supplement their diet with that.
In my experience cats (especially my rescues/ferals) are really good at self-regulating so I don't have to overly mind their intake. My goats and chickens are a COMPLETELY different story! Little pigs, all of them!

Hi OP. It's good you're thinking about your new cat's health and don't want her to get overweight but to begin with I think it might be better to concentrate on helping her settle in. I would put some extra dry food down in the evening so she has something to graze on overnight even if she's already had her daily allowance. Once she seems settled you can start introducing some new foods alongside the Purina One gradually and see if she seems happier and more full on a different brand or on a combination of wet and dry. Look at the percentage of meat various brands contain and go for the highest meat content you can afford, as a higher meat content should be more filling for the amount fed. A bit of cooked chicken or tinned fish as a treat occasionally also provides some variety.

I leave dry food out and give wet food twice a day. I dont weigh out dry food and just put a small amount out at a time but there's always some available

Thanks for the responses. Wow, this is different advice to what I was told by the rescue centre, which is to measure out the dry food by weight according to the packet guidelines, to avoid them getting fat - and NOT to have dry food constantly available.

I think at least for the first couple of weeks, while she is settling I will take your advice and be more generous with the food. She is clearly telling me she wants more.

Long term I am actually planning to only give dry food plus occasional treats of real human food like cooked chicken or tuna. To avoid the yuck factor of wet cat food. Does that make me a meanie?

Wet food is a source of moisture especially for one of my cats that doesn't drink from the water bowl (the other does). It also gives them a bit of variety

Also you could look at feeding you cat with dried food with a much higher meat content, Purina is very low, Encore and Lily's Kitchen have significantly higher meat content which would be more filling too.

How much meat is in the purina one food? I give encore dry (80% meat) and thrive dry (90% meat). Higher meat content is better for cats as they are obligate carnivores

It doesn't seem to say the meat content on the Purina packet but I'll look into it. I take your point about higher meat content being better. Thanks everyone.

It should give a % in the ingredients

Make sure she is up to date on worming as well, you don’t want to be feeding wriggly extra mouths.