We feed a mix of wet and dry food (for two reasons we do not do all wet, first is economical, second is because we travel frequently and someone is not always available to feed her on a schedule). Basically instead of doing two of the small cans a day, we do one (half in the morning and half in the evening), then have a little bit of dry food available all the time.
However I'm starting to get concerned with the amount of dry that she's eating. She's about 9 months old and a very active indoor cat, so she does get plenty of exercise, but she is growing fast and I am paranoid about starting a bad habit and turning her into a butterball. A few days ago she wasn't always finishing her wet meals (unusual for her because she loves to eat), but we noticed she had been eating more of her dry than usual, so when we cut back her dry a little bit she went back to devouring the full amount of wet food - seemed like a clear case of overeating.
So we know we need to restrict the dry food more than we had been, but I'm not exactly sure how. She's getting about half the amount of wet food a cat would have in a day if that was her only food source, and I read on the bag of dry that a cat her size should have about 2/3 cup of dry daily...but we if we cut that in half it just doesn't seem like very much. As I said she's very active, so I'm not sure if she should be eating a little more than that because she'll work it off, or if those guidelines are correct.
I don't want her to become a fat cat, but I don't want to be too strict with guidelines and end up giving her less food than she needs! Any advice is appreciated - thanks!
However I'm starting to get concerned with the amount of dry that she's eating. She's about 9 months old and a very active indoor cat, so she does get plenty of exercise, but she is growing fast and I am paranoid about starting a bad habit and turning her into a butterball. A few days ago she wasn't always finishing her wet meals (unusual for her because she loves to eat), but we noticed she had been eating more of her dry than usual, so when we cut back her dry a little bit she went back to devouring the full amount of wet food - seemed like a clear case of overeating.
So we know we need to restrict the dry food more than we had been, but I'm not exactly sure how. She's getting about half the amount of wet food a cat would have in a day if that was her only food source, and I read on the bag of dry that a cat her size should have about 2/3 cup of dry daily...but we if we cut that in half it just doesn't seem like very much. As I said she's very active, so I'm not sure if she should be eating a little more than that because she'll work it off, or if those guidelines are correct.
I don't want her to become a fat cat, but I don't want to be too strict with guidelines and end up giving her less food than she needs! Any advice is appreciated - thanks!