How much raw food are your cats eating per day?

[harrylime]

Suddenly out of nowhere, my 5 month old Tamago has a voracious appetite. As I've posted about before, she was never really a big eater, never cried to be fed, etc... Funny enough the last thread I started here was about her not eating enough food... and now that certainly isn't a problem for her anymore.

Since I got her, I fed her 3oz of raw chicken or rabbit in the morning, and 3oz of raw chicken or rabbit at night. And for the first 2 months that I had her until now, she always had leftover food drying up in her bowl. Now not only does she clear her bowl morning and night, she begs for even more during the day. So about every other day when she gets really annoying, I give her another 3oz portion in the middle of the day, which she really has no problem finishing either! That's 9oz a day (though every other day I've only been giving her 6oz)  for a 5 month old kitten. And of course she still get's a snack or two of freeze dried chicken treats per day as well! Does that sound like a lot to anyone else? She's about 4.75lbs now, for reference.

 

[ritz]

It does seem like  a lot of food--but she's a kitten and the general rule of thumb is to feed a kitten how ever much they will eat.

Rabbit is very lean, depending on the chicken (like 99% fat free chicken breast), it also is lean.  She may not be getting enough fat, so she is eating more food to compensate for the calorie deficit.  The proof is in the pudding:  is she losing/gaining weight?  If she is eating more, losing weight, then I would take her to the vets.

Also, now that she is fully recovered from the move and new home, she is more relaxed and eating more.

Ritz was eating 9 oz of Fancy Feast Classic a day and still hungry.  I switched her to raw about two years ago, and while she is still hungry a lot of the times, she is satisfied with around 4.2 oz of raw (that includes organs/bone).  I attribute her appetite in part to her background--abandoned litter during a very cold, snowy in December who literally did not know where her next meal was coming from.

 

[vball91]

She may be going through a growth spurt. She certainly doesn't sound overweight, so for now, I would feed her as much as she wants.

 

[ritz]

Good point about a growth spurt, humans do that too!

 

[mschauer]

This is kind of a late response but when I have foster kittens of about that age they eat *at least* 2x what what my adult cats eat which is 5.25 oz a day. So 9 oz a day doesn't sound like an excessive amount to me.

 

[cprcheetah]

It doesn't sound excessive to me for a growing kitten.  My cats are both eating about 4.4oz per day, one is 11# and healthy weight the other is 14# and needs to lose weight.  Kittens should eat as much as they want in a day.

 

[harrylime]

I swear Tamago must have multiple personalities... she's back to eating barely anything! I give her 6 available ounces of food per day. Yesterday she consumed maybe 3 total, and today she's eaten ZERO and it's almost 8pm. She's playing around like normal, seems like nothing is wrong. She IS recovering from being spayed one week ago, but honestly it seemed like she was back to normal 12 hours later and hasn't been acting funny otherwise.

I give her the food, if it sits more than an hour, I stir it up a bit. I try microwaving it slightly to improve the smell. I even crumble up her treats and put it on top of her regular food, and she's just not interested. And she doesn't really seem to mind either! What can I do?

 

[furmonster mom]

Keep an eye out for abnormal pee/poo.

If she goes without any peeing or BM's for 24 hrs, I'd consult with the vet.

Sometimes my cats will "fast" for a day, and it turns out they were just a bit constipated.

 

[pisces7386]

One of our cats has done that a few times now, although the crumbled treats usually gets him to eat a bit. He goes from eating all his food to just wandering away the next meal. We seem to have figure out that he gets bored with having just one flavor. Once we change the flavor he starts chowing down again... until a few days later... and then we changed the flavor again... and he starts eating again. Maybe you could try feeding a different flavor.

  Also,we weigh weekly; it is really helpful to have that definite number telling me if he is or isn't getting enough food.