How To Calculate How Many Cups?

mwallace056

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How do you figure out how many cups in a dry food bag?
 

daftcat75

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Get yourself a food scale and do everything by weight. “Cups” is a measurement of volume that is inexact for solids. All cat food has a ME (metabolic energy) number that will tell you Kcal/Kg. If you divide that by 1000, you get calories per gram. Then you can weigh it all out in grams to know the calories you are feeding.

I use this one myself and you can probably get it for half this price off eBay.
 
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Take a 1 cup dry measuring cup (not a liquid cup) and place it on a scale. Tare the scale so that it reads zero. You don't want the weight of the cup to factor into the weight of the food. Then fill the measuring cup with food to the top. Now you now what 1 cup of food weighs, more or less. Then do some math to calculate out how many cups of food are in the bag.

Example: 10 lb bag of food. One cup of food measures 4 oz. 10 lbs is the same as 160 oz. 160 divided by 4 is 40. So 40 cups of food in the bag.
 
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mwallace056

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Get yourself a food scale and do everything by weight. “Cups” is a measurement of volume that is inexact for solids. All cat food has a ME (metabolic energy) number that will tell you Kcal/Kg. If you divide that by 1000, you get calories per gram. Then you can weigh it all out in grams to know the calories you are feeding.
so does this both apply to both wet food and dry food? and let see i'm understanding this right, let say a dry food have 3,600 kcal/kg so i just divide that by 1000 to get 3.6 calories and 250 is the calories fed so 250/3.6 to get 69.44, so 69.44 is how many grams i feed a day?
 
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mwallace056

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Take a 1 cup dry measuring cup (not a liquid cup) and place it on a scale. Tare the scale so that it reads zero. You don't want the weight of the cup to factor into the weight of the food. Then fill the measuring cup with food to the top. Now you now what 1 cup of food weighs, more or less. Then do some math to calculate out how many cups of food are in the bag.

Example: 10 lb bag of food. One cup of food measures 4 oz. 10 lbs is the same as 160 oz. 160 divided by 4 is 40. So 40 cups of food in the bag.
Thank you.
 

daftcat75

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so does this both apply to both wet food and dry food? and let see i'm understanding this right, let say a dry food have 3,600 kcal/kg so i just divide that by 1000 to get 3.6 calories and 250 is the calories fed so 250/3.6 to get 69.44, so 69.44 is how many grams i feed a day?
That’s correct!

I feed Krista wet food which is 1300 kcal/kg for 1.3 cal/g. To get that same 250 calories, I would need to feed her 250/1.3 = 192 g. There are approximately 28 g (28 and change) in an ounce. So that’s approximately 7 oz. krista can eat 1.5 oz in a meal. So she would need about 5 meals to get those calories.
 

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Most dry foods have around 4 cups per pounds, if you just want a rough estimate about how many servings are in a bag. If you need it to be more exact, yes, use the proper math.
 
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mwallace056

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ive been feeding my brother's cat, 80grams of wet food out of 22oz can, and 1/4 cup of dry food

it just feels like that 80 grams of wet food is too little and that i should be feeding double or triple the amount. i just need someone to double check my math.

the total calories in the 22oz is 747 and dry food is 310. im aiming for around 180 calories a day.
 

Willowy

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The dry food is 310 calories per cup?

If so, that's not quite 180 calories. I'm getting about 175.

How old is the cat and what size? Neutered or not?
 
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mwallace056

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yes, 310 per cup. he's 3 or 4 i believe. 14 pounds. neutered. he's overweight. so i'm trying to get him down to like 12 pounds.
 
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mwallace056

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i'm thinking of feeding him(leo) more wet food and less dry food. because he doesn't seem to losing any weight. maybe its the carbs of the dry food. so hopefully feeding wet food will make him lose weight. but the problem of feeding wet food. the kind he likes and only willing to eat. im down to 4 of 22oz cans, while i have 20 cans of other kinds but he not willing to eat those. my plan is, mix 90% of the kind he is willing to eat, and mix 10% of the new kind. i might have to start with 95% with 5% or so but yeah. i would have my mom buy more of the kind he likes but she will refuse, i don't need to ask her. she will go "he already has a bag of food so there no need to" "you're not going to treat him like a king" or some bs like that. especially since she quit her job, even so i have money. a can lasts a week or so. its cost 1.08 dollars per can. so 1.08 times 4 equals $4.32. so i would only be paying 4-5 dollars a month, which i can afford. but i don't have control over my money so yeah.

if mixing little bit new food with the kind he does likes doesn't work, what some other ways i can get him to eat it? all my cats will eat any food that i put in front of them, so i'm not experience of getting a cat to eat a food that they're not willing to eat.

i did got him down to like 13? pounds and i was feeding meow mix, about 168 calories. i was afraid to feed any less calories with a vet advice. then he returned to my brother, only to come back few months later, where we are today. 14 pounds. my brother said, that he only fed 1/2 cup but i don't think he actually measure, just eye ball it so i'm hoping if this time, i feed a good amount of wet food and less dry food, he will be able to make it to 12 pounds. i'd like a vet opinion of his ideal weight but based on what i know about two of my cats, their ideal weight is 10 pounds. Leo is bigger built so he is definitely a pound or two heavier at his ideal weight.
 
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mwallace056

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well i put a scoop of the new in the container i was getting the food out of, mixed it together. weigh it out and fed it to him. he ate it with no issues. did this twice today.
 
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mwallace056

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during the last fed of today, i gave a bite size of the new food and he ate it, so thats good. so i tested it again, he ate it the second time. so its looks like he is willing to eat the new food. which i has plenty of. so it should last him for awhile. i will keep mixing small amount with the old food for the next few days or so. but the fact that he ate it twice without sticking his smell up and refusing to eat it, shows progress.
 
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mwallace056

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well, i fed him just the new food and he ate it with no issues. so i'm going to start feeding less dry food(about 1/8 cup) and 116 grams of wet food a day. which should be 180 calories. i will decrease it to 170 calories in a week if he doesn't lose any weight. last time i tried getting him to lose weight, i got him down to 170 calories while he gotten to 13ish pounds from like 14?, i was afraid to go any lower without a vet advice or guidance but the last time i was feeding just meow mix, which is high in carbs, so that may be why. so i'm hoping feeding mostly wet food this time will cause him to get to 12 pounds much more easily. i'm thinking feeding 58 grams in the morning, later in the day 1/8 cup of dry food then another 58 grams at night. if i need to, i will cut out the dry food. and feed 50 grams of wet, 3 times a day.
 
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mwallace056

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right now, hes 14.30 pounds, so if he gets to 13 pounds but i'm feeding 170 calories by then, should i feed less calories, since it 14 calories per pound? im afraid to feed less than 15 calories per pound without a vet. also i know playtime would probably help, but he doesn't really play, i mean he does but he doesn't move much, it hard to keep him interested. but when there is a mice running around, he is on it with no problem. so i'm thinking maybe a robotic mouse or something would be perfect for him. so any suggestions? cheap ones?
 
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mwallace056

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actually he's 14.10, down from 15 pounds since i got him. don't know how he got to 15 pounds when his owner says he only been feeding two handfuls a day. idk
 
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