How much do you feed your cat?

[Smilin13]

As some of you know, we just adopted a cat from the shelter.

Ozzie is a healthy boy who is approximately 1-2 years old and weighs 16 pounds. He is not a fat cat *laughs* He is big boned. The vet has no concern that he is overweight.

He is on a low residue diet, essentially for a sensitive stomach. The feeding instructions call for 5/8 to 7/8 of a cup of food per day. For ease of measurement I use one cup.

The vet recommended not giving it to him all at once, but to space it out through out the day.

He is used to having his food out (at the shelter) all day.

He seems to be CONSTANTLY hungry. When I sprinkle out some of the food, he DEVOURS it. I feel like he isn't getting enough food.

So I wanted to find out how much you all feed your cats.

:)

[camberne]

Our vet said one cup a day, so each of the cats gets 1/2 cup in the morning when my son gets up and 1/2 cup before he goes to bed. It used to be that they devoured every morsel as soon as the food was put into their bowls, but now that they realize that the food is there and isn't going there, it's not unusual to see a few pieces in the bowl when giving them their night's share.

[keska]

I feed my cats heaping 1/4 cup in the morning and a regular 1/4 at night. They are eating IAMS diet hairball control (for the sensitive stomach). One is 14lbs and is on a diet and eats it all right away. The other is 9lbs and a grazer. Our overweight cat, a Siamese, cries a lot whenever we're near the food bowl or it gets within 2 hours of feeding time. You'd think he was starving the way he acts but the vet recommended this level of feeding for his diet. It was especially bad the first week, but he's calmed down some. He still snarfs it all as soon as it's put out. He's lost 2 lbs in the last year. I think he would have lost more but DH sometimes feeds him at night when I'm not looking because he feels bad for him.

[mrs_pell]

We don't measure our's. We just fill his bowl up and he eats it when he wants it. Usually it lasts 1-2 days. I'd say it's about 1 1/2 cups if I had to guess. He is about 6 years old and is 18 pounds (and really not fat...we're pretty sure he's a Siberian).

[fuzzy]

We free feed. Ah, it's not recommended, I know that. But we have four monsters and one has severe anxiety and would get ganged up by the others if they ate at the same time. My female is a push over and would also get pushed away from her food. So, we leave food out and let them eat when they are comfortable. Two are on the heavier side, but we're working on that with increased exercise. :o

It's not uncommon for shelter cats to devour their food. They are probably used to "fighting" for everything they can get, so he's probably still in the mindset that he needs to gobble everything up ASAP.

[Smilin13]

Thanks.
It makes me feel a little better. He is such a VOCAL cat, he meows at everything and every time we get up he runs to the bowl and sits and meows. I don't want to be a mean cat mom and not feed him enough, but I also didn't want him to turn into a fat cat.

When I had cats when I was younger, we used to just have food out all the time, but they were always indoor/outdoor cats. Ozzie is a strictly indoor cat.

So it sounds like we just have to get into some type of schedule and stick with it, and he'll eventually learn it.

Thanks again.

:)

[greenbunny]

We free feed one cat but not the other (they are separated, in case you're wondering how the heck that makes sense). Soon the one will need to be switched to scheduled feedings to accomodate the other being let out.

The one eats grain-free super premium food (Innova Evo). She gets two less-than-full 1/4 cup scoops per day. She gained too much weight too fast (from 8.2 to 9.8 pounds in six weeks) and we are still working on figuring out the right "maintenance" amount. Plus we've found as we switch her to higher and higher quality food, she needs less and less.

The other is on Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul but will also be switching to Evo since we can't risk the other getting into her food (grain allergy). She will get a similar amount of food. She also gained fast--from 6.8 to 8.7 pounds in about three months.

Switching a cat from free feeding to scheduled is a total nightmare, but you just have to put up with the whining until they realize that's just how it's going to be. It will likely take them refusing a feeding or two until they get onto the schedule. Just make sure to monitor their intake and, especially if you have a male, make sure they are eating something at least within a day. If a male neutered cat does not eat they can quickly become blocked up and need serious medical intervention.

[jnettie]

I scoop out a cup and a half for two small female cast each morning. They are both grazers. Every now and again they split one pouch of wet food and then I only put out one cup of dry for the whole day. If I were to only feed twice a day, Jade would gobble it up too fast and then puke, so I have to let them graze. But even with a cup and a half, they usually don't eat the whole bowl in 24 hours.

Jade probably eats more, as she is 10 pounds, while Sissy is only 6 pounds. But I keep my eye on them and see them each eat at different times throughout the day.

I give them Nutro Complete Care for both dry and wet food. I like it because it's first ingredients are chicken or fish, not rice or corn. And they love love love the wet stuff in the pouches because it comes with gravy. Usually, they lick off all the gravy and eat the bits later.

Every now and again they get some people food. I limit it to tuna juice, small bits of meat (Sissy loves roast beaf), and sometimes cheese (Jade loves parmesean!). But they hardly ever get this.

[maxandmolly]

I never knew free feeding was a bad thing til I got here! Mine have dry food out at all times. They have a large dog size bowl, when it gets empty I fill it. When it gets empty, Max screams to let me know, even if he isn't hungry. Same with the water bowl. They were on Purina ONE for a long time, but about six months ago I switched them to Purina Cat Chow Indoor Cat Formula-and they LOVE it. I hadn't 'caught' Molly eating dry food in about four years before I switched them to this. They also go through about one cat of wet food a day-a spoonful in each bowl for breakfast and again when I come home. They HATE the stuff in pieces, in gravy, anything but the old fashioned kind that is in one big lump in the can. They were on dry only until Molly get extremely ill a few years ago and lost half her weight and I had to feed her canned food to get weight back on-and never managed to wean her off of it. Took Max about a year to figure out what she was doing up on the counter though.

[annie_girl]

I used to free feed Zeke and Jordy when they were little (I got Zeke at 3 weeks - he was feral and got lost and 2 months later I got Jordy who was then about 14 weeks old)

But I started noticing that Zeke would push Jordy out of the way and eat his, Jordy would walk away, and then Zeke would go back and eat his own.

So I started feeding them twice a day, separately.

Then I got Noel, and they each eat slightly less than the recommended amount (well, Nutro Max Cat recommends between 1/3-2/3 cups for 5-10lbs, and 2/3-1&1/8 for 10-15 lbs) Noel is the smallest, but the fattest at 11.5 lbs. Zeke is big and "husky" at 11 lbs. Jordy is the biggest (tallest) cat, but he is the thinnest at 9.5 lbs. He gets the most food, and I give him extra whenever I can because he tends to loose weight (he has health issues). Zeke and Noel get less than 1/2 cup a day (about 1/4 cup twice a day) Occassionally I think they are getting less than the recommended amount and think I should start giving them more, but really, they have ben getting this amount now for years, and Noel and Zeke are overweight and Jordy is stikll underweight (even though I give him extra) so they are fine. Jordy acts like he is starving at random times of the day, so that's another reason I give him extra. He is very vocal, yet he doesn't eat it all at mealtimes. (I put it away for him for later) Zeke and Noel scarf it up as quickly as they can. They always have, even though Zeke was bottle fed AND free fed as a "youngster". (Noel was about 6 months old when I got her and thin. She grew a little and then grew out. She's like a little meatloaf. It's kinda funny :)

Oh, and when my sister lived with me last year, with her cat, she was not good about keeping the door closed to her room (where her cat lived and was free fed) Noel gained about 2 lbs in just a few months. She has since lost about 1/2 pound, that's it. She's fine at 11.5 lbs, I wouldn't put her on a diet for the little amount.

Oh, and keep in mind that when a 10 lb cat loses or gains a pound, that is A LOT. It's 10% of their body weight. So think of you as 100 lbs gaining or losing 10 lbs, or at 150 lbs gaining or losing 15 lbs. For their little bodies, a lb or two is a lot.

Oh, and free feeding isn't bad if that's what the cats are used to, and they don't overeat. Indoor cats tend to overeat, and get really overweight. But if they don't, don't worry about it. My mom's indoor cat is freefed and she's fine at about 9 lbs. (She's Noel's size, not Jordy's. If Noel was 9 lbs she'd be great. Jordy, at 9.5 is too thin)

[MLA]

He is not a fat cat *laughs* He is big boned.

LOL! That's what I always say about my cat, Tucker, except just a little differently: "He's not fat. He's big-boned. So what if his bones are squishy?" :)

Anyway, mine get about a 1/2 cup each in the morning and a 1/2 cup at night. But they free-feed, so I just measure it out in the morning and at night, and if they run out before the next feeding time, they just have to wait for their food. I couldn't do really "timed" feeding because they're both grazers, and they wouldn't get enough food into themselves before it was time to take the food away.

[BSBC]

Our solo kitty (who was a stray, rescued over the summer of 2005 at about 1 year old) is feed 1 pouch of Iams soft food each morning. We also feed her Science Diet indoor cat food. She gets 1 cup full and the cup usually lasts 3-4 days. She mainly eats her soft food in the morning (it takes her between 1-3 hours to finish it - she is a grazer) and she eats her hard kibble during the evening.

We originally just started her with the hard kibble, but we moved her to the soft food because she was very, very skinny. She is now a nice, healthy 10 lb. cat with a beautiful coat.

She abhors normal kitty treats (the kitty snack food) but loves plain cooked chicken and turkey. She gets a little piece if we are having chicken or turkey (our vet said this was OK).

[maxandmolly]

She abhors normal kitty treats (the kitty snack food) but loves plain cooked chicken and turkey. She gets a little piece if we are having chicken or turkey (our vet said this was OK).
I've never gotten mine to eat kitty treats either! They both look at me like I'm trying to feed them poison or something! My Molly, though, loooooves chicken. When she was little I worked nights, BF worked days, and would get Church's for dinner every night and share it with her-which I learned MUCH later, when I finally asked why she flipped for chicken anytime I cooked it. This past Thanksgiving I cooked a turkey for the very first time. All afternoon at random times, Moolly would just start meowing like she would for tuna or chicken. Couldn't figure out why. Eventually figured out, it was everytime I opened the oven to check on my turkey! Now, I call her my turkey-whore. She'd eat her body weight in turkey if I let her.

[BSBC]

My cat is the exact same way - she flips out any time we are cooking or eating turkey and chicken. It is like kitty crack.

When I've cooked turkeys and chickens, I've even cut up the kidneys for her. It is totally gross, but she loves it.

[tlew12778]

One of our boys is btwn 16-17 lbs. We have him on Royal Canin Obesity formula. I give him 70-80 grams a day (I have a tiny scale for his food). He also likes the wet version so every now and then (it's expensive!) I will give him 1 package of wet and only 50 grams of dry that day. I used to free feed him the RC but he stopped making progress on his weight loss. So now I give him food about 3x a day or when he asks for a snack (max is still 70 grams a day though).

We free feed his brother who is actually rather thin.

[Tonysweetie]

I free feed Max. I always have since we adopted him back in June. He's a year old and weighs about 5.5 lbs. He's a very small kitty. He's a grazer too. When I put out his wet food it takes me ove ra course of a day to eat it. I didn't know free feeding was a bad thing either? :confused:

[greenbunny]

Re: the free feeding--my vet and I discussed this at length, because initially Bella was very thin. She said the reason free feeding isn't as good as scheduled feedings is not because of weight gain (though that can be an issue as well).

She said that because cats are so good at hiding pain or illness, monitoring their food intake is one of the best ways to make sure they're healthy. If food is available all day, it's harder to keep track of how much they're eating. Also, with free feeding multiple cats, it's even harder to know which cat is eating what amount.

If free feeding works for your cat, it isn't a horrible thing--you just have to be diligent about making sure they are consuming normal amounts of food, and in general watching them for symptoms of any problems.

This is assuming you feed kibble. People who raw feed, or even feed a lot of wet food in a warm climate, would probably do better with scheduled feedings, simply to avoid spoilage.

[vwinkel]

I give two of my cats a can of wet food in the morning and a can at night, but since my third cat no longers like it, we keep a constant feeder of dry food out all day long.
She said that because cats are so good at hiding pain or illness, monitoring their food intake is one of the best ways to make sure they're healthy.
This is a great point. Kenny (the one who doesn't like wet food anymore) stopped eating all together and we didn't notice this until he had lost two pounds. It became serious and we needed to feed him through a syringe (mixture of wet food, water and oil). He finally pulled through but ever since then - he hates tuna, chicken, turkey, and anything that comes out of a can. But we would have noticed his illness sooner if we didn't have the constant feeder.

[maxandmolly]

Yeah, that is true-it's much harder to figure out who isn't feeling good. Especially since after Molly nearly died, I didn't see her eat dry food for nearly four years. But her weight stayed up, so I had to assume she was ok. The one day I came from work and it looked like someone had puked the way she had when she was sicksick (and not like Max does when he has hairballs) I FREAKED out and took her to the vet immediately. I wish it wouldn't have to get that bad, but at this point, I think if I went from free feeding to certain times of day with the dry, they'd skin me alive! I already suffer dire auditory consequences if I try to sleep in on the weekends and feed them their canned food late.

[fuzzy]

She said that because cats are so good at hiding pain or illness, monitoring their food intake is one of the best ways to make sure they're healthy.

Agreed. We tackle this issue by having a set "dinner time." Three of my guys are male and one is prone to UTIs. My old vet suggested that, in addition to getting a kitty water fountain, we feed them small quanities of wet food, just do make sure there's more moisture in their diet. So they each get ~one tablespoon of wet food every night. Its not exact, but it allows us to monitor them in case they suddenly stop eating etc.

[keska]

Is my cat the only one that doesn't like wet food? She'll eat any type of dry food and is interested in just about all people food, but she won't touch wet food. Since she's the grazer, we tried getting her to eat a full meal at a time by switching to some some soft food but she wouldn't do it. Now, we keep her bowl up high when we're home so that she can eat when she wants but our bigger cat won't get into it.

[maxandmolly]

Mine will turn their noses up at a lot of typoes of canned food. For YEARS all I could get them to eat was Iams Chicken flavor. Not any other brand chicken flavor, not any other flavor of Iams. But it's gotten harder and harder to find, so I bought some Friskies out of desperation, and suddenly Molly (my extra-fussy Miss Fussbucket) loved it so much she ate all of hers, shoved Max out of the way, ate his, and whined for more!

[greenbunny]

Bella used to love wet food--she gets a few spoonfuls at dinner time. But suddenly last week she wouldn't touch it, and now we have to coax her to get her to eat it. It's so weird.

Summer will eat anything that hits the floor.

[fuzzy]

McGee -- my UTI prone/highly anxious/spent many months on prozac male cat -- suddenly turned his nose up at the wet food too. So off I rushed him to the vet, thinking something major was wrong.

Nothing was, but my vet said that is a cat has kitty IBS, wet food can often make it worse, so cats learn to avoid it.

[ignutzz]

Our guys are on a wet food diet and they get fed twice a day, AM/PM. Originally we just left food out for all four of them, but then Gordy got sick and we had to make sure he was eating ONLY his Rx food so we switched to the scheduled feedings. Now, even though Gordy has passed, it's just easier, and healthier, to keep the rest of them on their usual schedule.

Brizlo in particular we have to watch because he needs lot of extra liquids (he had life threatening crystals and ended up needing the PU surgery) to make sure his PH stays in check.

Rosie and Ollie don't care for dry food all that much and the vet perfers that Brizlo doesn't eat too much of it since it makes him fat and it doesn't have the moisture that he needs (his is a Rx dry food).

[vwinkel]

Is my cat the only one that doesn't like wet food? She'll eat any type of dry food and is interested in just about all people food, but she won't touch wet food.
Maybe it is the type or flavor that you buy. My kitties will only eat seafood wet food. I typically buy Friskies, but if I get Fancy Feast they devour it in one sitting.

[cosmic]

Switching a cat from free feeding to scheduled is a total nightmare, but you just have to put up with the whining until they realize that's just how it's going to be.

This is exactly what we're doing right now. Our female cat's eating was completely out of control, and she had the haunches to prove it, lol. After years of being free-fed, she complains about seeing an empty bowl.

[CindyLouWho]

Our cat ( a male) is a diabetic and weighs a little over 16 lbs. He got up to 17.5 at one point because we free fed him and older ( 10 at the time) overweight males are the likely to get diabetes. I wish I'd known! He's always been "big boned" too and enjoys eating.

But to answer your question, we switched him very recently to the wet version of his specially formulated diabetic food ( he's carb sensitive and the dry isnt' working as well!) I asked the vet how much to give him and he said " 2/3 of a can OR what ever will keep him at not one ounce over 16 pounds!"

( Just a cautionary note: if he is drinking tons of water and peeing alot, have his blood sugar checked. We suspected that something was up when our cat did that AND he ate tons- but lost weight. That's when he was initially diagnosed).

GREAT that you got him from a shelter!! I hope you have many happy and healthy years together!

[imagirliegirl]

I've always free fed Princess and she does great with it. I usually have to refill the bowl every other day. I'd say it's maybe a cup or so in it? I've never really measured.

I started giving her a little wet food as a treat - BIG mistake. Now she meows ALL the time for it. I mean, screams for it. It's awful. So if you haven't ever fed your kitty wet food, I wouldn't start. :p

[tlew12778]

Mine wouldn't touch wet food until I just happened to try the RC Obesity formula. Fatty loves it. Actually... he loves licking the sauce. It's pretty annoying considering it's like $1 per pouch. The skinny one isn't allowed to go near it or he gets whacked by the fat one. I bought the new Iams wet in a pouch but apparently it's disgusting. Good thing FMIL's cat likes it.

[Daisy]

Feeding my kitties is a serious process each day - they are fed twice a day (morning and evening) and in separate rooms. My fatty is 21 pounds and gets a 1/2 cup of food a day. He eats Purina OM (Overweight Management) that we get from the vet. And no, he isn't diabetic, thank god, and he doesn't have a thyroid problem - we checked for both. We need to get him down to 18-19 pounds. He is a big, snuggle bug. :D

His brother is a normal 12-13 pounds and eats about 1 cup of food a day. He eats Nutro/Max Cat Indoor Adult food.

For treats, they get Dried Bonito Flakes - they go ape sh!t over them.