How Much Do Your Cats Eat?

[MissMolly08]

Why would an indoor cat's calorie needs be different from those of an outdoor cat? It is all about age and activity level, which are not dependent on a cat's lifestyle.

I assume it's because it's very rare for indoor cats to burn as many calories as outdoor cats.

Maintenance. The average indoor cat should have 20 calories per pound to maintain weight. The average outdoor only cat should have 35 calories per pound to maintain weight. Indoor/outdoor cats are somewhere in between.

Getting Your Cat to Lose Weight - All Feline Hospital located, 2300 S. 48th St. Suite 3 Lincoln, NE 68506

It's just a guideline.

 

[susanm9006]

Willow gets 1/3 of a cup of kibble a day. It isn’t much but she is still about 13 pounds and none of that is muscle.

 

[1 bruce 1]

*Checks daily amount fed for all cats*
*Looks at food bill for last month*

Too much. They eat too much =D

 

[1 bruce 1]

.
@KarenKat - To be frank, most of mine are somewhat indifferent to food, although everyone still crowds the kitchen when the bowls are filled. They are, as a general rule, calm, pleasant kitties, that being no doubt the result of never having been showered with toast crumbs.
.

Oh dear Lord the toast thread!!
We feed 11 indoors and they consist of two colonies that are separate most of the time but kind of sort of allow the others to breathe, sometimes. If they ask nicely. I mean beg.
The colony with access to my personal kitchen I fake out by opening a food container, grabbing a spoon, then nicking off the the room they're fed and they rush ahead of me and I slam the door with me on the other side. I've been doing this for years and most of them still fall for it. I call them the "Adorable but maybe not so bright" group.
The others are much more catty cats and mean business so I get stuff around in the kitch and haul it in.
Two of these guys eat separate, one because of dietary issues and another for being a pokey little thing that takes about 60 years to finish off a single plate of food, and is fed separate to prevent theft.

 

[orange&white]

I feed by calories instead of ounces,

I make the cats' food to be 40-45 calories per ounce and about 50% protein. It's higher in calories than most prepared commercial foods because it has less water.

I weigh the cats a couple times a month and I weigh every meal they eat, then adjust their calories as needed if any cat is gaining/losing weight around their healthy target.

"How much food" doesn't really make much difference here...but to answer the question...

Tangent is currently eating 5 - 5.8 ounces per day. He weighs 12.5 lbs. He's a senior cat (dieted down from 16.5 lb obese cat).

Farrell is currently eating 3.9-4.1 ounces per day. She weighs 9 lbs. She a young indoor slug.

Misfit is currently eating 4.2-4.6 ounces per day. She weighs 8 lbs. She's indoor/outdoor active cat and gets more exercise (plus eats a few insects and other stuff she catches outside).

Those are all with the recent food mixes around 41-44 kcals per ounce.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

Maintenance. The average indoor cat should have 20 calories per pound to maintain weight. The average outdoor only cat should have 35 calories per pound to maintain weight. Indoor/outdoor cats are somewhere in between.

Bob just read this and said, "I need to go back outside right now."

"Why," I asked.

He responded, "1255 calories a day!"
.

 

[Tobermory]

Okay, so now I’m feeling like I don’t feed mine enough compared to what everyone is saying, but honestly, they’re far from skinny! Two are 9 pounds and one is 10 3/4, and they’re average-sized cats. I make their food, and they get roughly four ounces or about 115 grams a day divided into two meals. I weigh their servings so I know exactly how much each one gets, and I weigh them once a week and record it so I can track potential fluctuations.

 

[Pucks104]

I go by whether they have a waist and whether I can feel their ribs but their hip bones and spine aren’t bony feeling. Mine are growing so it’s been a bit of a guessing game. Age, activity level, size and individual metabolism as well as calories in the food are going to determine the appropriate amount to feed at any given time.

 

[chipvang]

I agree that cans usually overestimate. Mine eat anywhere between 5 - 7 oz of raw a day. It will depend on what you’re feeding too.

 

[MissMolly08]

Bob just read this and said, "I need to go back outside right now."

"Why," I asked.

He responded, "1255 calories a day!"
.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Emerson is right at 11lbs, I'm getting Evie down to 10ish lbs from 10.5 (in the words of the vet: "don't let her gain anymore weight and taking a little off wouldn't hurt, either").

I too feed by calories and not amount. They get fed homemade raw in the morning (1.7oz for Evie, 2.3 oz for Emerson). This month's rotation is pork, which is high in fat, so I off balance it with some lower fat Merrick purrfect bistro rabbit at night (roughly half and half, Emerson get a little more of the can). Nighttime snack is either a Merrick backcountry rabbit pouch (2x/week) or a small amount of Dr. Elsey's cleanProtein kibble.

This works quite well for my two. It took a while to get into the exact rhythm of what they would eat. They will only eat very few canned foods in their entirety- Merrick rabbit and Redbarn lamb are what I buy to give them some variety from their raw food, which is chicken, turkey, and a combo of chicken, turkey, beef, an pork from weefeedraw (they are iffy about pork and this last time I ordered it, they will eat it but aren't exactly thrilled about it).