Is this excessive?

[Buttermill]

Two cats both wormed up to date with all vaccine fleas etc but my issue is that they seem to eat an excessive amount of cat food I seem to spend all day going between the food bowl. For reference they've had 45 pouches between them in 3 days thats on average 7.5 80g pouches a day plus a little dry food which they don't seem to really eat. At each serving they would have two pouches each and I seem to be feeding them 4 times a day. Both mature adult males. Its hard to tell of they are overweight as one male has quite thick fur the other is average and not overweight I would say. How much do you feed yours in a typical day? Pic of the one with the thicker fur for size

This sounds awful but wet food is crap really, our cat was like this and the vet and loads of other people said it’s just like junk food for them, like how you’re starving after a takeaway. If you could mix in the dry food or else just limit the wet food so much that they have to eat the dry food. You feel terrible doing it but now my cat actually likes dry food and will eat both! Only other reasons would be worms or boredom really!

edited to add or they could be thirsty?

My cats share a pouch for breakfast (which they pretty much just lick the jelly off), then they'll often have a squirty treat, and in between they eat 100% meat dry food which is available all the time. They're neither fat nor skinny (look/feel just about perfect), and they're active (indoor and outdoor cats).

Sometimes they've been hungry and shared a second pouch between them, but I can't imagine them getting through 7 pouches? Are they definitely hungry? Or just demanding - maybe leave the dry food out (I would say, that if they're hungry,they'll eat it - but, well... cats are stubborn)

Mine always had dry food available 24/7 and two pouches per day (one morning one evening).
Your going to have very overweight cats if you continue feeding them that much.

Finlay is about 4.5kg and has 3 pouches a day - he’s not a huge biscuit eater but they are always available - he’s young and very active when well so burns it all off

Not all food is made equal, whiskas and felix have something like 4% protein and won't fill them up, you'll need to feed a tonne of it compared to a high protein wet. The advice to switch to just dry is bad though, cats are prone to kidney issues, and if you have a greedy one you'll find it even harder to control weight, there's about 4x as many calories in a gram of dry v wet.

If male, definitely not dry only
Blockages are an emergency and can kill, and it starts getting really expensive if they're blocked
Mine hates wet food but I force him to eat it along with a supplement and hills urinary dry after a near blockage

This with bells on .
I posted up thread about my young adult male.
He has had to go through the vets 3 times staying in for several nights while they try to figure out why he can't pee .
One one occasion it was touch and go it took him hours to recover from the GA because his system was shuting down .
They never really got to the bottom of it other than he has a 'kink in his pipes'
With the 2nd half of his pouch I always rinse it out with about a table spoon of water and add it to his meat.

Each vet bill was over £1000

Royal Canin do an appetite control one as well.

That might be the one I'm thinking of then and I got the brand wrong.

Better quality food - some dry - will help them feel more satisfied.

If you're making bolognese, let them have some rolled up balls of raw beef and you'll see the difference it makes to them to have meat rather than the heavily carb based MaccyDs of the cat food world in the meantime.

And your rather magnificent chappie is definitely becoming somewhat portly.

I do sympathise, I have an ancient stick insect with whiskers and a male of a similar age as yours who has gone from a big lad to a flipping behemoth since I had to switch to high calorie kitten food for her Royal Stickiness, as whilst he isn't actually deliberately overfed, he does minesweep all of the lovely scraps she leaves behind in her 300 micromeals a day.

My old lady is exactly the same! She would like to have about seven or eight minimeals. She has a bit of chub on her but she's at the age vets approve rather than tell you off. The little one would have seven or eight large meals if she could, but she's hyperactive and is outdoors in all weathers, so she stays slim.