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- Apr 7, 2017
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So I've been searching for how many calories a cat should eat, but there seems to be differing opinions on that and some don't seem to take into consideration the size of the cat. How do you actually calculate the proper number of calories?
I have four cats, two male, two female. The two females are short both in height and length. I suspect that 9 pounds is probably the ideal weight for them both. Which would mean they are both overweight. However when I entered one of them into a calculator website, it said Scooter's ideal weight was 11.2 - she's 10.4 right now. I haven't had the chance to weigh Kitty yet.
Furgus is mid range for height and length, but has huge paws, so I expect there is some Maine Coon or Forest Cat in his genetics somewhere, which makes me think that maybe he should be around the 12 - 12.5 range, and he's currently 12.2 - but then, he feels kind of heavy, and I don't know if that is just in the sense that 12 pounds feels heavy, or that he feels overweight or that he just feels "solid".
Jack is 13.5 pounds. He does not feel heavy, he feels almost too skinny to me. He has some weight in his back end, but his shoulder bones are easily felt. I think he could do with gaining some muscle back. In the calculator his ideal weight was listed as 14.4 pounds. He definitely felt healthier to me when I picked him up when he had a little more weight on him.
So...my dilemma. How do I know how many calories to feed each of them? Do I go by a guesstimate that, okay the girls are smaller framed, so should probably be around 9 pounds, or is there somewhere that I could enter like height and length and calculate the ideal weight of a cat that size? Or do I just go with 20 calories per pound, like one website I found says and aim for what I think is an ideal weight for them?
ETA: I don't know if age matters when calculating calories but Jack is almost 13, Scooter is almost 11, Furgus is almost 10, and Kitty is almost 4-5 (unsure since she was a stray that we took in a couple of years ago).
I have four cats, two male, two female. The two females are short both in height and length. I suspect that 9 pounds is probably the ideal weight for them both. Which would mean they are both overweight. However when I entered one of them into a calculator website, it said Scooter's ideal weight was 11.2 - she's 10.4 right now. I haven't had the chance to weigh Kitty yet.
Furgus is mid range for height and length, but has huge paws, so I expect there is some Maine Coon or Forest Cat in his genetics somewhere, which makes me think that maybe he should be around the 12 - 12.5 range, and he's currently 12.2 - but then, he feels kind of heavy, and I don't know if that is just in the sense that 12 pounds feels heavy, or that he feels overweight or that he just feels "solid".
Jack is 13.5 pounds. He does not feel heavy, he feels almost too skinny to me. He has some weight in his back end, but his shoulder bones are easily felt. I think he could do with gaining some muscle back. In the calculator his ideal weight was listed as 14.4 pounds. He definitely felt healthier to me when I picked him up when he had a little more weight on him.
So...my dilemma. How do I know how many calories to feed each of them? Do I go by a guesstimate that, okay the girls are smaller framed, so should probably be around 9 pounds, or is there somewhere that I could enter like height and length and calculate the ideal weight of a cat that size? Or do I just go with 20 calories per pound, like one website I found says and aim for what I think is an ideal weight for them?
ETA: I don't know if age matters when calculating calories but Jack is almost 13, Scooter is almost 11, Furgus is almost 10, and Kitty is almost 4-5 (unsure since she was a stray that we took in a couple of years ago).