Realistically speaking... how much does your cat really eat?

[Caffeinatedhuman]

So my darling two year old cat can scarf down 4 wet food pouches a day and stay as trim as ever.

My not so cat lover mother quoted I'm overfeeding her.

If i reduce her food she will protect with wails, batting of my face and a thousand mile stare with such power I feel she's in my mind!

We have three male indoor cats.

The adults are 8 and 3 - they get a pouch of wet food each (split across two meals) and unlimited access to dry food.

Our kitten is sixteen weeks old and is on four meals a day - overall he gets three pouches of wet food plus biscuits on demand though he's not a fan of the biscuits and normally only has a few mouthfuls.

They all get a few dreamies in the evening too - about five each.

Oh - our 8yo weighs a lot - about 9kg. The 3yo is 5.5kg and the kitten is about 1.5kg.

If she's been on that amount for a long time and doesn't have any weight issues then it must be fine for her? Like people, I think all cats are different and it depends on metabolism, size and how active she is etc!

We have 2 cats, they are fairly small. On a (rare) hungry day they will eat 2 pouches each.
Most days they whinge for food about 5 times a day but hardly eat anything and then get on the table to eat cake/butter/leftovers
We give 1 pouch between 2 each time we feed them and often they don't finish their half

Ours are 3.4kg and under 3kg

We have a big cat. Stopped taking her to vet for annual check up as vet was so rude about her weight. Just under 6kg however she honestly doesn’t eat much. 1 and a half pouches and a small handful of dry food is all she has in one day.

she’s just a big cat, not a fat cat.

Mine have a tin each of gourmet gold every evening and the rest of the time they have biscuits down. 1 is about 4.5 kg the other 5.5kg

Very strict 2 pouches each a day
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It goes something like this .... My boy juvenile cats are forever starving. One stands on me in my bed from 5:30am asking for food, he gets me up and the other one will stalk out of his bed, yawning, ready for grub. A pouch each, occasionally the female older cat pops down for a quick snack.

I then have to get the dog shut in the kitchen for her breakfast, by then I've usually opened the kitchen door and she usually stalks through to the cats room for some scraps they've left, or more if I've left the door open too soon - the cats then swap and eat her scraps. Quick garden visit before the bix are attacked - they have a never ending supply of thee as they regulate them.... sort of!
When DD gets up (schools at home), they bother her for food, she gives in - that's about 11 ish. Then from 4pm they're asking again so that's tea time. Once I've gone to bed DD gets pestered again and she'll share a pouch between the boys, occasionally they'll get another too. Female cat comes down then and scoffs 2 pouches to herself with stern looks and hisses at the boy cats. They demolish what's left of her dinner.
In the rest of the day they'll try to find scraps my DS leaves under his chair or if feeling brave they'll jump on the table, DH hollers at them and they scarper! Meanwhile DDog is also always on the hunt for food too and will check bowls regularly for top ups
So strictly 2 pouches a day each plus bix ... and extras lol 😂

Haribo is around 6kg so from us he gets diet food, 60g-70g of biscuits a day, 3 Dreamies and if we are eating plain food he will get a small bit of fish or chicken. However I know he helps himself to cat food from a neighbour who feeds a stray and supplements his diet with the odd sparrow.

My two have 1 pouch per day (they share one morning and night, separate bowls obviously) plus unlimited biscuits, which they graze on. I refill the biscuit bowl every 2-3 days. They probably go through a pouch of dreamies every 10-14 days. They're both incredibly fat. One a bit less so as she likes to be outside but the other is an absolute heifer. We started them on 2 pouches per day each but they just weren't eating it. They don't even eat half a pouch, there's always some left. Tried many fancy foods, including fresh meat foods. They only eat Felix AGAIL or occasionally Gourmet Pearl.

I literally don't understand it and have asked the vet at every yearly check since we got them 3 years ago. They're both very healthy 🤔 they are older though, 11 and 9 approx.

My childhood cats only ever had 2 pouches per day max though, and I've never had a slender cat.

I have 2 cats. They share a tin for breakfast and another for dinner. Male cat eats more than half. My son's male Bengal cat is very trim with no fat at all. He eats 3 punches a day (only 100 grams in a pouch) and then has unlimited kitten biscuits (he's not a kitten but likes the taste).

My cats also share a large cooked chicken breast twice a week and 1 tin of tuna in spring water.

This is a useful video to answer the question Is my cat fat?
There's a long preamble but the useful bit starts at 7.00 minutes in

So whatever you do, please don’t feed cats that aren’t yours 🤦‍♀️

That may apply to your cat, but it doesn’t apply to all cats!

DD’s neighbours got two litter mates, a brother and sister. The owners didn’t get the female spayed or the male neutered, because he is her brother. Predictably the female got pregnant in her first season. The owners went away for 5 days in July, leaving a window open for the cats to get in and out; and some dry cat food and water, in the female’s early pregnancy. The water evaporated by about the third day. The cats went round to DD’s desperately thirsty. She had no idea if they had any food or water left, so she gave them food and water until the owner’s return. She offered to look after the cats, next time the neighbours went away!

The female has been doing massive yellow or white poos, like cow pats in DD’s garden for 3 weeks (coincidentally starting at the time of the birth of the kittens).

The owners went away again last week, leaving the window open for the cats to get in and out.They didn’t tell DD a they were going, never mind asked if she would look after the cats. The female is now skeletal; she walks round dripping clear liquid (diarrhoea we assume, but we don’t know) which she then licks up. All her fur from her middle to down her back legs is wet with the clear liquid she is dripping. She was absolutely starving. DD gave her a wet pouch and water on Sunday night - I have never seen a cat eat so fast, but the food just went straight through her! She was coming round to DD’s conservatory every hour, squeaking desperately. DD started boiling chicken for her. Last night, the cat brought 3 of her kittens round to DD. Their eyes are still blue.

What would you do, if a skeletal cat, nursing kittens begged for your help, when her owners are probably abroad?

1.5 sachets and between 25-50g of dried food depending on the cat. Mine are all 5kg plus and two are on a diet so they get 25g. One of them thinks that’s not enough so he supplements with things he catches 😕

I have a huge ginger boy who snacks all day and howls if we don’t feed him. We lost our old girl back in February, and I think he feels the need to eat all of her food so that we don’t notice! There are always biscuits on offer, but he ignores those (although will eat the dog’s sometimes) and shouts for pouches. He generally has 4, although will go to 6 or 7 on some days. He knows where they are kept and will attempt to open the cupboard door and steal them if we don’t close it properly. He also steals the packs of cat sticks from the treat box and brings them to me in the middle of the night to open if he fancies a snack.

Amazingly, he isn’t overweight, just a healthy and active nutter.

1 small tin (100g) each evening evening. Unlimited dry food (purizon) all day.

They often aren’t hungry

Take it to the vet.

“Take it to the vet.”

Our vet refused to see the cat, as they wouldn’t give any treatment without the owner’s consent. DD didn’t know the owner’s names, or where they are or their contact details; nor did any of the other neighbours know their contact details.

Take it to another vet and pretend you found it as a stray, or hand it to a rescue. I would and I wouldn't feel bad about it either.

That cat sounds like it's got pyometra or some similar infection. It doesn't need food - it needs vet treatment before it dies.

I have two lard buckets, one is 6kg and the other 8kg. They are on diet cat food, one pouch plus unlimited biscuits. We tried limiting the biscuits (in the spirit of, y'know, dieting) but they just stole human food like leftover takeaways scraps from local bins to supplement. So we figure it's better that they're over-eating cat biscuits than leftover curries and chips. So... not sure where we go from here but I'm not looking forward to their next vet weigh-in

I am scandalised that we are on page 2 and no cat tax has been paid (although Mr Pirate is good).

Our boy eats biscuits on demand and catches anything that moves to supplement. He’s a little chubby but not overly so.

I would and I wouldn't feel bad about it either.

Our problem was - what if the vet said “She needs admitting asap for IV fluids or she needs surgery!”

Then we’d have to say “But what about the kittens locked in the house? They will die?”

Then the vet would know we’d lied, saying she was a stray!

Our vet told me, only the RSPCA could do anything about the kittens? We waited two days for the RSPCA to do something!

Ultimately if the mum is left as she is, the kittens will die anyway. Sad, but true.

I appreciate it's not an easy situation but that mum needs vet treatment sooner rather than later.

I havé a small, slim cat. I or 2 pouches a day and unlimited kibble. I'd actually like her to be a little less lithe.