20 Calories Per Pound Of Body Weight - Intact Or Spayed/neutered

orange&white

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We at TCS frequently recommend 20 calories per pound of body weight for feeding cats.

I have read multiple articles and studies which indicate that the caloric needs for spayed and neutered cats is 20%-30% lower than for intact cats. What no article seems to specify is whether 20 calories per day is the right amount for intact cats or for cats who have been altered. There was only one article that seemed to allude to 20-25 calories per day being intended for intact cats, with spayed/neutered requiring approx. 25% less...which would only be 15 calories per pound.

It appears that my >15 pound neutered senior cat can't lose any weight unless I drop his calories to under 200 calories per day...at which point I worry that he isn't eating enough food to meet his nutritional requirements.

He should be a 12.5 to 13.5 pound cat. 15 calories for a 12.5 pound cat is 187.5 calories, which is about where he starts losing weight.

Does anyone else have a cat eating around 15 calories per pound of their "ideal weight" to keep them trim?
 

ScarlettGatsby

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I'm not sure what formulation they use but I have a local pet store that has a nutrition calculator and I had them figure it out for me.
My cat is 8lbs 4 oz and her Vet says she is at perfect weight. The calculations for her, being an indoor 6 year old spayed cat, who is moderately active at her weight is recommended to be 180 calories.

I'm not sure if that helps. It seems every calculator I check online has different answers so I decided to go with that one. Although she never finishes the food i measure for her completely, I think she probably actually eats closer to 160 calories most days.
 
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orange&white

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I'm not sure what formulation they use but I have a local pet store that has a nutrition calculator and I had them figure it out for me.
My cat is 8lbs 4 oz and her Vet says she is at perfect weight. The calculations for her, being an indoor 6 year old spayed cat, who is moderately active at her weight is recommended to be 180 calories.

I'm not sure if that helps. It seems every calculator I check online has different answers so I decided to go with that one. Although she never finishes the food i measure for her completely, I think she probably actually eats closer to 160 calories most days.
Sounds like she is self-regulating at 160 calories, and just under or right at 20 calories per pound.

My cat's metabolism went awry when I changed him from a raw diet back to processed foods in 2013. For the previous five years he was able to eat all he wanted and be in great shape. He was nearly 9 years old when I changed his diet. His ability to self-regulate dissolved and his metabolism imploded. He put on almost 4 pounds over 3 years. Now, at almost 13 years old he's back on a healthy diet but I'm having a hard time getting the extra weight off.

Some of his problems are probably age-related at this point, but I screwed up a good thing when I changed his diet. :(

Thank you for your input.
 

maggiedemi

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How many ounces is he eating per day? My cat weighs 13 pounds and he eats around 8oz or 9oz of food per day. I don't really look at calories since this is the amount he's always eaten.
 

_spadekitty

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Im in tech school and we were taught an actual formula to figure out calorie intake, that way you dont have to use online calculators that may not be accurate
Its (ideal weight in kg (lbs/2.2) multiplied by 30) + 70
Then you take that number and multiply it by a given multiplier, the one for weight loss is just 0.8 I believe, the multiplier for an average healthy intact cat is 1.2.

That'll give you the kcals, and you can then go about figuring out how much food your cat needs per day.

For example my cat needs about 208 kcals per day, a 12 oz can of his food has about 450 calories (probably a little less), so I just feed him half a can a day. The extra calories I figure won't hurt since hes pretty active and I personally think a little underweight. Hes a tall, 8 lb cat.
 
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orange&white

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How many ounces is he eating per day? My cat weighs 13 pounds and he eats around 8oz or 9oz of food per day. I don't really look at calories since this is the amount he's always eaten.
He's eating 4 to 4.25 ounces per day. He was gaining weight over 5 ounces, and flat-lining on a diet plateau between 4 and 5 ounces. He's been dieting since September and has lost 1 to 1.25 pounds over 10 months. I made him a mix of lower calorie food today to try this week.
 
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orange&white

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Im in tech school and we were taught an actual formula to figure out calorie intake, that way you dont have to use online calculators that may not be accurate
Its (ideal weight in kg (lbs/2.2) multiplied by 30) + 70
Then you take that number and multiply it by a given multiplier, the one for weight loss is just 0.8 I believe, the multiplier for an average healthy intact cat is 1.2.

That'll give you the kcals, and you can then go about figuring out how much food your cat needs per day.

For example my cat needs about 208 kcals per day, a 12 oz can of his food has about 450 calories (probably a little less), so I just feed him half a can a day. The extra calories I figure won't hurt since hes pretty active and I personally think a little underweight. Hes a tall, 8 lb cat.
Thank you. I used that formula as a base. The lowest multiplier has too many calories for him to lose weight, but that's where we started several months back.
 
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orange&white

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Is he on raw food only?
Yes, he is now. I took away the kibble in September when his skinny brother passed away and went total canned. In January we went total raw. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure how many calories per ounce were in my mixes, so I started him over at 6 ounces and have slowly decreased the amount of food from there. He gets weighed every Sunday.

I just finished a spreadsheet/calculator for calories per ounce and protein/fat ratios for all the varieties of meats and organs I use. That should help. In theory. :think:
 

lalagimp

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Tommy's prescription diet had him on about 220 calories to lose weight. He started at 20 1/2 lbs. He stayed on 220 calories until he reached his 13 lb goal even when we moved him off prescription. Then we moved him to raw and his metabolism is broken and he's losing. I think now he needs 260-275 but I can't tell because I can't math out my recipes.
 
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orange&white

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When I put him on canned in September, the "feeding instructions" wanted me to feed him 470 calories per day. :jawdrop: I knew that wasn't right so I went with that veterinary formula from several sites with the .8 multiplier (the formula spadekitty posted above). I started at 260 calories, but was gaining, so I dropped 20 calories per week. He didn't start losing weight until I was feeding just under 200.

Then we moved to raw in January and I just yesterday got my calorie equations set up, so I wasn't sure where to start.

I made a "typical" batch of food today which came out to 45.8 calories per ounce. I also put together a very lean chicken breast mix just for Tangent which is only 28.1 calories per ounce. I'm going to give him 10 ounces of "low-cal" and 20 ounces of "regular" this week, which is a cut in calories, but an increase in the amount of food he can eat.

The kitten is doing great eating all she wants and self-regulating her calories, but Tangent's metabolism is not working. I think I broke my cat. :oops:
 

kttn

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the 20 cal per lb rule worked perfectly for my cat, fwiw. i got her down from 20.5 lbs to 10 lbs and maintaining at 200 cal exactly.
 
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orange&white

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the 20 cal per lb rule worked perfectly for my cat, fwiw. i got her down from 20.5 lbs to 10 lbs and maintaining at 200 cal exactly.
I guess my cat just has a really slow metabolism. :(
 

MeganLLB

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I had one vet tell me that she doesn't count calories for cats. She measures out 2/3 cup total. So whether it is dry or/wet or dry and wet they shouldn't eat more that 2/3 cup in volume. (not sure about raw).

So I feed 1/4 cup dry kibble and about 2.5-3 oz of canned which together would total about 2/3 cup and coincidentally also falls into the 20 cal per lb rule
 

kittyluv387

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My orange cat would get too fat from eating 20 calories per pound. Hes about 14.7 pounds and eats 190-200ish calories a day. 70-80 of those calories are from high quality wet and 120 is from raw. I guess he has a slow metabolism because he looks just right. But my 12.8 pound black cat eats about 240ish in all raw. I really think their metabolisms can vary like people.
 

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orange&white

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Tangent used to be able to eat all he wanted for 5 years the first time on a raw diet. He blew up during the 3.5 years I went back to commercial food. Now it seems like he's maintaining his weight on 180-190 calories, but he still needs to drop 1.5 pounds to get to 14 lbs. Last week I cut him back to average 166 calories and he didn't lose any.
 
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