16 to 20oz of wet food a day for ONE cat???

[Nebaug]

Hi, I have been lurking on cat site for the past two years and it was tremendously helpful . Finally I decided to join on the fun.
i have 3 and they are all under 2 years old. One of them is purebred Raggy and I was warned about how much they can eat.
He is 10 months old and weighs 14+ lbs. on a regular days he eats 10 to 14oz of wet food. Then he goes trough food binge
usually lasting two weeks eating 16 to 20oz per day!!!! The vet said that he is like a growing teenager and could literally be hooked
up on food iv. It is very funny to watch. Extremely intelligent cat trying to work the refrigerator, lol . The other male is 14 months and 14lbs
however he never ever come even close to that amount of food. The female is 9lbs. None of them is not even close to being overweight.
vet doesn’t have any concerns and thinks that is just the fac that he is a Ragdoll. I would like to have input from you guys who have experience
with larger cats and should I be concerned?

 

[Nebaug]

Oh, they are feed exclusively wet food higher quality.

 

[mizzely]

I guess it would depend on how calorie dense the food is, but it doesn't sound crazy to me!

A 14 lb kitten can easily pack away up 700 calories! If you had a food that is 100 calories per 3 oz, that would be seven 3oz cans a day, or 21 oz.

From a math standpoint alone, I think he sounds totally normal

Kittens are gluttons

 

[tabbytom]

I would like to have input from you guys who have experience
with larger cats and should I be concerned?

Since they are adults already, they do not eat as much food as kittens. Normal active indoor adult cats needs 200 - 250 calories a day. Unless they are super active, then 300+- calories.

It doesn't matter it's 16 oz or 20 oz a day. Most importantly is how many calories are there in the can. If the can has less calories, naturally the amount of food fed is more. Check the label and work with the calories.

 

[Maurey]

Unless the food is particularly fatty/calorically dense, sounds perfectly normal. My female Maine Coon used to eat up to 20oz a day (complete raw food), and she was only around 10lbs at the time. She and her daddy currently eat 9oz a day, weighing 14.5 and 20lbs respectively.

 

[Willowy]

At that age and size, yes, unfortunately! Like feeding a teenage human, lol. He'll settle down in 6 months, maybe .

 

[Nebaug]

Thank you very much for reply. I will happily oblige and feed a little terror as much as he likes.

 

[BoaztheAdventureCat]

At that age and size, yes, unfortunately! Like feeding a teenage human, lol. He'll settle down in 6 months, maybe .

My adult cat is 7 &1/2 lbs and he still eats like he did when he was a kitten. I wouldn't put it past him that if I let him, it would take about 16 oz of wet food per day to make him full! Has anybody else here had small adult cats that eat like pigs?

 

[LTS3]

If the calorie content of the food is too low, then yes a cat would have to eat more food to meet his / her calorie needs. No different from a person trying to meet a 2000 calorie need with a super low calorie diet of only leafy green salads. You'd need to eat a lot of leafy greens to get 2000 calories but maybe just two fast food burgers to get the same amount.

You can look into a different brand of food in a bigger can size and / or higher calorie content. A 7.5 lb cat should be eating roughly 140 to 187 calories daily. That might be four 3 oz cans or one 5.5 oz can plus a little more from another can.