Decided to put my cats on a feeding routine. Can you check my schedule for me?

[Kayseymac]

I made a post on here a couple days ago about my fat cat honey. Honey is 11 months old and she is already overweight. I wanted to free feed her because it has always worked for my four year old cat but I want her to be her healthy best self so I’ve decided to put them on a schedule. Rufus is four and weighs 12 pounds (vet says that’s a great weight for his size) and honey is 11 pounds and she is a petite cat. I’d love for her to get down around 9 or 10 pounds.

Please don’t judge me for how overweight honey is. I play with her for at least 40 minutes every day and it really just dawned on me how big she’s gotten a week ago and Ive felt terrible about it. She was starving as a kitten when I found her so I’ve never wanted to withhold food from her but I think that’s definitely the healthiest thing to do at this point. I just bought a multi cat automatic feeder off Amazon and I’m excited to put it into practice!

my tentative schedule for Rufus: 1 Sheba cuts in gravy at night and 1 in the morning as well (I add a lot of water to this and he doesn’t eat the chunks so I don’t think he’s getting a lot of calories from this- just mainly water and diluted gravy?). 3 oz of dry food split up into 3 feeding sessions (6:00 am, 3m, and midnight).

honey: half a can of fancy feast pate at night and 2 oz of food spread between 6:00, 3:00, and midnight.

thank you so much for any feedback you might have for me. This website is really such a gift. I don’t want my cats to be overfed on their diet but I also don’t want to be starving them.

 

[Robyn5678]

My first thought is that’s not enough. Each cat will need a certain amount of calories. My cats get around 200ish a day, a majority of it being wet food. A can of fancy feast is only like 60-80 calories so I’d say half is not enough.

 

[Kayseymac]

My first thought is that’s not enough. Each cat will need a certain amount of calories. My cats get around 200ish a day, a majority of it being wet food. A can of fancy feast is only like 60-80 calories so I’d say half is not enough.

I read online that cats (on average) need about 4 oz of dry food a day (1/2 a cup). So my thought process was to do just a little under that (3 oz) since they’ll be getting some wet food too. Does that make sense or do you still think it’s not enough? I could be totally off here

 

[Box of Rain]

I would stop feeding dry food, as it is dehydrating by its nature and chronic dehydration is the source of many serious health conditions in cats and dry foods have too many carbohydrates for an obligate carnivore (whose diet should be composed of moist animal products) and those carbohydrates are also linked to health issues (including obesity).

Bill

 

[shebaa]

For the overweight one, you're not want to automatically start the new diet. Start off with what he eats now then slowly transition him to his new calorie intake. How much calories does he get now? To me, its based off of calories and not how much oz of dry or wet. My 1 year old cats gets 290-300 calories (a lot I know but it seems they still need kitten calories) so i do half of their calories in dry and the other half in wet.

 

[louisstools]

Also consider a kitchen scale to weigh things to figure out how many calories you're actually giving.

 

[Kayseymac]

For the overweight one, you're not want to automatically start the new diet. Start off with what he eats now then slowly transition him to his new calorie intake. How much calories does he get now? To me, its based off of calories and not how much oz of dry or wet. My 1 year old cats gets 290-300 calories (a lot I know but it seems they still need kitten calories) so i do half of their calories in dry and the other half in wet.

Thanks for the reply! All these charts I’m seeing online have been in ounces but I can see how counting up the calories would be helpful. I’ll try that!!

 

[louisstools]

Thanks for the reply! All these charts I’m seeing online have been in ounces but I can see how counting up the calories would be helpful. I’ll try that!!

When they talk about ounces...remember there's dry and wet and they're not interchangeable. I believe they're talking about dry ounces when referring to calories per ounce but I can't remember. The metric units end up being easier to use bc there's no guessing is it's dry or wet units.

 

[Robyn5678]

I read online that cats (on average) need about 4 oz of dry food a day (1/2 a cup). So my thought process was to do just a little under that (3 oz) since they’ll be getting some wet food too. Does that make sense or do you still think it’s not enough? I could be totally off here

I don’t feed my cats dry food but it’s be based off calories as well

 

[LTS3]

my tentative schedule for Rufus: 1 Sheba cuts in gravy at night and 1 in the morning as well (I add a lot of water to this and he doesn’t eat the chunks so I don’t think he’s getting a lot of calories from this- just mainly water and diluted gravy?). 3 oz of dry food split up into 3 feeding sessions (6:00 am, 3m, and midnight).

honey: half a can of fancy feast pate at night and 2 oz of food spread between 6:00, 3:00, and midnight.

That's not enough food for either cat. You're going to have very hangry cats with behavior problems. Ignore amount of food, ounces or cups or suggested portion sizes or whatever. You need to focus on feeding the cats enough calories for their body weight.

Rufus is four and weighs 12 pounds (vet says that’s a great weight for his size) and honey is 11 pounds and she is a petite cat. I’d love for her to get down around 9 or 10 pounds.

The general rule is 20 to 25 calories per pound of body weight daily. Rufus needs roughly 240 to 300 calories daily to maintain his 12 lbs. Honey needs 220 to 275 calories daily to maintain the current weight of 11 lbs. You can slowly reduce calories over time (ie weeks) to lose a pound or two.

Every cat is different so adjust calories based on your cat's needs. Say if Rufus is still hungry on 240 calories daily, increase to maybe 250 calories for a week or so to see if that satisfy his tummy and needs. If he gains weight on 240 calories daily, decrease a little until you find the right amount of calories to keep him at 12 lbs and his tummy happy.

If Rufus doesn't eat the chunks in Sheba, can you feed him pate food instead so he's eating actual food and not just the liquid portion?

 

[Kayseymac]

That's not enough food for either cat. You're going to have very hangry cats with behavior problems. Ignore amount of food, ounces or cups or suggested portion sizes or whatever. You need to focus on feeding the cats enough calories for their body weight.



The general rule is 20 to 25 calories per pound of body weight daily. Rufus needs roughly 240 to 300 calories daily to maintain his 12 lbs. Honey needs 220 to 275 calories daily to maintain the current weight of 11 lbs. You can slowly reduce calories over time (ie weeks) to lose a pound or two.

Every cat is different so adjust calories based on your cat's needs. Say if Rufus is still hungry on 240 calories daily, increase to maybe 250 calories for a week or so to see if that satisfy his tummy and needs. If he gains weight on 240 calories daily, decrease a little until you find the right amount of calories to keep him at 12 lbs and his tummy happy.

If Rufus doesn't eat the chunks in Sheba, can you feed him pate food instead so he's eating actual food and not just the liquid portion?

Thank you this is so helpful!!! So a cup of their dry food is 400 calories. So I guess for now I can feed them half a cup a day and see how that goes? That should be about 200 calories of dry. Then honeys wet food adds 50 cal to her total so she’ll get 250. And then I can slide Rufus a little extra dry if needed since his wet food isn’t very caloric.

He used to eat pate but he won’t anymore- just the chunks. I love giving him the chunks though because I’m able to add several ounces of water and he drinks all of it. He doesn’t drink near enough water without it so i feel like it’s essential.

 

[shebaa]

Have you tried shreds wet? The meat pieces will be smaller than the chunks so maybe he will eat that. If Rufus doesnt drink enough water, you're gonna want to make sure he has some wet in his diet and not all dry. I consider wet food like our watermelon, it contains a lot of water!
Another solution is trying mixing pate with dry food

 

[louisstools]

So a cup of their dry food is 400 calories.

if you're wanting to monitor how much they eat you might be better off using weight (ounces, grams) and a kitchen scale. It's more precise as scoops can vary based on how the food is packed in the scoop,

My girl cat gains weight at 1.9oz of her food but loses weight at 1.7oz. That's like 20 kibble and well within the margin of error for using a measuring scoop.

Just a thought!

 

[LTS3]

Thank you this is so helpful!!! So a cup of their dry food is 400 calories. So I guess for now I can feed them half a cup a day and see how that goes? That should be about 200 calories of dry. Then honeys wet food adds 50 cal to her total so she’ll get 250. And then I can slide Rufus a little extra dry if needed since his wet food isn’t very caloric.

He used to eat pate but he won’t anymore- just the chunks. I love giving him the chunks though because I’m able to add several ounces of water and he drinks all of it. He doesn’t drink near enough water without it so i feel like it’s essential.

Ideally if you can feed more wet than dry that would help Honey lose the extra pound and wet is healthier for both cats in general. 250 calories is probably one whole 5.5 oz can plus part of another 5.5 oz can or one, maybe 2, 3 oz cans of Fancy Feast. Or 4 or 5 can of Fancy Feast. But whatever works for your budget If you need to feed dry, at least feed a healthy-ish brand.

You could try refrigerating a can of pate food until cold and then breaking it up into small chunks with a spoon and adding water to it. Your cat might not notice the difference between that and chunky food in gravy.

 

[Fourcats4me]

What does your vet say about your feeding schedule? Feeding more of a low calorie for cats might work just as well without denying teh cats free choice food. My cats are grazers, others like to eat at certain times a day. You need to accommodate their normal eating behaviors as well.

 

[Juniper_Junebug]

For the shreds, if you can afford it (bc it's not cheap), I like Tiki After Dark Shreds. It's got more water and fewer calories than pate and I've noticed that my kitty licks it up rather than eating it, bc the shreds are small and broken up. Once my kitty hit 10lbs at a little over 1 yo, and the vet said she shouldn't gain anymore, I subbed out a pate with the shreds and she didn't seem to notice the difference in calories (57 for a 3 oz. can vs. the 100 for the pate I give her at other meals). And if there's a cheaper shredded brand, I bet it's similar in calories. (You'd probably want to give your boy a little extra to maintain his calories).

I empathize with the difficulty in calibrating the right calories (and I only have one cat!). I always read you should free feed until at least one year, so I was caught off guard when my vet said, don't let her gain more weight.

 

[Alldara]

So you'll need to check the calorie count on the package, and then calculate how many calories your cat should have. Usually a younger cat is usually 20 calories per pound.

Cat Calorie Calculator: How to Calculate Your Cat’s Daily Calorie Intake - PetPlace

if you message your vets office, they may have a dietitian that can tell you how much of the specific food you have is good OR if it's not on the package, you can try googling it. There are many charts out there.

you don't want to be underfeeding too much as it's best for them to loose weight slowly. (I unfortunately had Nobel's weight up at 25 lbs when his lean weight is 17 -- I was very young when I brought him home. He's down at 17 now).

 

[Tippy’sMom]

I would stop feeding dry food, as it is dehydrating by its nature and chronic dehydration is the source of many serious health conditions in cats and dry foods have too many carbohydrates for an obligate carnivore (whose diet should be composed of moist animal products) and those carbohydrates are also linked to health issues (including obesity).

Bill

I had decent luck reducing my baby’s dry food and increasing the wet as far as weight control also. She’s two. It’s hard with the shortages though because she’s so picky. I knew the dry was bad for her, but she was averse to wet food as a kitten and would only eat Fancy Feast appetizers. I fed those in addition to free feeding dry kitten food. After the first year she became willing to try different wet foods. We rotate Sheba, FF, and Tiny Tiger and she gets the little FF appetizers as a treat occasionally. If she refuses more than two meals of wet food, I take it up and put down a couple of tablespoons of dry and the next day she usually agrees to eat the wet! It’s a constant battle between what she will eat and what I can find available for purchase.

 

[Box of Rain]

I had decent luck reducing my baby’s dry food and increasing the wet as far as weight control also. She’s two. It’s hard with the shortages though because she’s so picky. I knew the dry was bad for her, but she was averse to wet food as a kitten and would only eat Fancy Feast appetizers. I fed those in addition to free feeding dry kitten food. After the first year she became willing to try different wet foods. We rotate Sheba, FF, and Tiny Tiger and she gets the little FF appetizers as a treat occasionally. If she refuses more than two meals of wet food, I take it up and put down a couple of tablespoons of dry and the next day she usually agrees to eat the wet! It’s a constant battle between what she will eat and what I can find available for purchase.

I'm very fortunate that my Desmond seems to be the world's least picky cat. He eats everything!—and with gusto.

Of course, I only feed him meat, and organs, and soft-edible bones (and occasional egg and seafood), so that might help?

I have fed all sorts of proteins and he's chomped down every one. LOL.

Bill

 

[Alldara]

I had decent luck reducing my baby’s dry food and increasing the wet as far as weight control also. She’s two. It’s hard with the shortages though because she’s so picky. I knew the dry was bad for her, but she was averse to wet food as a kitten and would only eat Fancy Feast appetizers. I fed those in addition to free feeding dry kitten food. After the first year she became willing to try different wet foods. We rotate Sheba, FF, and Tiny Tiger and she gets the little FF appetizers as a treat occasionally. If she refuses more than two meals of wet food, I take it up and put down a couple of tablespoons of dry and the next day she usually agrees to eat the wet! It’s a constant battle between what she will eat and what I can find available for purchase.

We have a dry food addict over here too. After two days no dry, he will just not eat...not like he will give in if hungry, but actual refusal. Bit of dry and yup...will eat wet again.