Oz Vs. Calories

[MissMolly08]

Do you feed your cat the same amount of food per day or the same amount of calories per day?

We just moved to an all wet diet and I'm having a little trouble... Some of the canned foods have less calories than others so I have been calculating the calories needed per day and giving portions to equal that. In some cases that means she gets 5oz of food a day and in some cases it come out to like 7...

Well, 7oz a day seems to be too much for her stomach. The Merrick Rabbit pate only has 140 calories/5.5 oz can while many others have 180-200 so when I fed that to her yesterday, I gave her 1.3 cans (187 calories but 7.3oz of food). She vomited shortly after her dinner...

So how do you work this? Do you only give your cat a certain # of OUNCES or a certain # of CALORIES? What if they can't eat enough of a food to get enough calories?

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

It CAN get tricky, that's for sure. I don't give the same amount of calories every day for that very reason. I try to get close though. On those days where I am feeding a lower calorie food, I might give them a few more high calories treats. BUT, I make sure those treats are 100% pure meat, like Purebites or WholeLife, not Temptations

I don't ever give them more than there regular oz per meal though, for the very reason that they will regurgitate it up if they get too much in one sitting.

 

[maggiedemi]

How many ounces did she eat at once when she vomited?

 

[maryah]

I ran up against the same questions when I switched my young cat to a wet diet. The way I've finally worked it out is to feed one 5.5 ounce can per day split over 2 feedings, and then balance out the difference with small amounts of a high-protein, high-calorie, low-carb dry food. (I use Nature's Variety Ultimate Protein.) So if today's can has 185 calories, I just put a small amount of the dry for her to nibble on overnight. If it's a lower-calorie selection, I increase the dry a bit. It's quite high-calorie, so it doesn't take much. As she gets farther past the one-year-old point, she seems to need or want less and less of the dry. If she seems to be gaining too much weight in the future, I'll cut back or eliminate the dry.

But I think it's also good to keep her used to eating the dry at all, in case I was to get sick and family had to tend her, or if I needed to be out of town for a day or two.

 

[MissMolly08]

How many ounces did she eat at once when she vomited?

I feed twice a day so i gave her 2/3 of a can at each feeding... Something like 3.6oz.

 

[maggiedemi]

My cats have never eaten more than 3oz at one meal, that might be a little too much for her.

 

[Neo_23]

I feed calories instead of ounces. Calories are important for me because I’m feeding a growing kitten. I think they would also be important if you’re trying to maintain or achieve a certain weight. I’ve also noticed that my kitten is still hungry when I give him lower calorie foods so purchasing foods high in calories is a better deal for me (he’s on an all wet diet).

 

[Neo_23]

Sometimes splitting feedings over multiple times a day also helps. I don’t know where this idea that cats only need 2 feedings came from. I think they do better with multiple small feedings

 

[maggiedemi]

Yeah, if you could split into 3 meals per day, that could help.

 

[orange&white]

I don't worry about feeding the exact same calories per day every single day, but average calories per day over one week. It's fairly easy to keep a spreadsheet running Sunday through Saturday on how many calories and ounces per day the cat ate, then just take a summary average calories per day at the end of the week.

One of my cats hardly eats some days and eats like a pig other days, in terms of calories and quantity. As long as her weekly average is fairly steady and her weight is good, I've quit worrying over her appetite ups and downs.

I'm not sure your cat's vomiting was from eating too much food in a day. It's unusual for a cat not to walk away from the plate when she's full. Eating too fast can cause a tummy upset though.

 

[MissMolly08]

I figured it may have been a bit too much at once, that's why I was curious how other people do it. I mean, I know there are people that can only feed twice a day for various reasons so if your cat can't eat that much in 1 sitting, how does that work?

I will try to squeeze in a 3rd feeding or fill in the gap with treats on the days I give her the Merrick though from now on.

 

[Lalka]

It is very confusing and, for me, its a lot of work because im feeding dry and wet (wet from different brands/formulas). I'm increasing the amount of wet vs dry these days so i made a white board and made some kind of food chart with the amount of food/ calories for each food i usually buy. (i.e. 1 1/2 can of tiki cat +3 spoons of dry Acana...thats what she get for the day...if i use a different wet food it could be like 2 cans of Boreal + 1 spoon of dry). I prepare containers with all the food each morning for the day. I usually do 3 meals a day...but they usually bother me for a last meal before bed so i make sure i leave a little bit in the containers for a snack. I started that last week and its still complicated
I got the idea of doing that from a Dr. Karen Becker's article.

 

[MissMolly08]

I ran up against the same questions when I switched my young cat to a wet diet. The way I've finally worked it out is to feed one 5.5 ounce can per day split over 2 feedings, and then balance out the difference with small amounts of a high-protein, high-calorie, low-carb dry food. (I use Nature's Variety Ultimate Protein.) So if today's can has 185 calories, I just put a small amount of the dry for her to nibble on overnight. If it's a lower-calorie selection, I increase the dry a bit. It's quite high-calorie, so it doesn't take much. As she gets farther past the one-year-old point, she seems to need or want less and less of the dry. If she seems to be gaining too much weight in the future, I'll cut back or eliminate the dry.

But I think it's also good to keep her used to eating the dry at all, in case I was to get sick and family had to tend her, or if I needed to be out of town for a day or two.

I thought about balancing the calories with just a tbsp or 2 of dry for that very reason but I worry about the food going bad. I've read that dry food shouldn't be kept more than 3 months and even the smallest little 3lb bags of food would probably last longer than that with only feeding a tbsp. here and there.

 

[ailish]

I feed calories. Ailish gets 4 meals a day. That seems excessive, but I had to add a nighttime feeding because she was throwing up bile early in the morning before I could feed her. Since the 2:15a feeding, no yellow puddles. I use an auto feeder for that one meal. If for some reason I need to boost calories I put some Stella & Chewies freeze dried on top of her normal wet. Stella & Chewies is crack to her.

 

[Lalka]

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