Puzzled About Daily Calorie Intake And Cat Weight

[ejoypousson]

I feed my cat Fussie Cat's black label premium canned food, and each can contains 49 kcals. Initially I fed her one can a day split into two meals, and a bit of dry food at night. She was gaining weight noticeably and the vet said her gums had inflammation possibly caused by the dry food, so I switched to feeding her 1.5 cans of Fussie Cat a day. This means she's eating 73.5 kcals/day.

When I first switched, she was around 4kg/8.8 lbs (she had weighed more before, but I cut her dry food down first and she lost a bit of weight). Now her weight is steady around 3.6 kg/8 lbs. She no longer looks chubby, but she's not skinny either. Her ribs, spine, and base of her tail have a smooth layer of fat.

But she is noticeably more hungry around feeding time and finishes her food quickly. She is still active and playful and can go for about half an hour straight of vigorous play (when I have the time for it).

I'm just confused because whenever I look this up, the recommended calorie intake for a cat of her weight is 180+ kcal/day. On Fussie Cat's website this is also the recommended intake.

So I'm just wondering: how is this possible? Sometimes I wonder whether Fussie Cat is mislabeled, but that seems so unlikely. Does anyone else have cats that eat much less than the recommended calorie intake, yet are doing fine? Or should I feed her more anyway...?

Edit: My cat was a stray when she was adopted so I don't know exactly how old she is, but I know she was still a teenage kitten within the last two or three years according to what her feeders told me. She is spayed.

 

[tabbytom]

Hello ejoypousson, welcome to TCS

How old is your cat? A kitten needs more calories than an adult cat as they burn of calories faster because they are growing and are more active. Tim

An indoor cat needs roughly around 200 - 250 calories per day. How many times are you feeding her a day and what's the portion like? If she does not have enough, she'll ask for more. I'm stating this as I presume that you are just feeding her wet food and not free feeding her kibbles also.

An adult cat does not eat as much as a kitten that needs to. So if she meets her calorie intake per day and not that active, she'll not eat that much. It also depends on her activity levels too.

Is she on scheduled feeds? Once she gets used to scheduled feeds, it's easier to gauge the amount she eats at one go and how many times a day and that should be the rough estimate of calories intake for her.

Here's a discussion on calories :- Calculating Calories

 

[ejoypousson]

Hi tabbytom You might have missed my edit as you were writing your reply. I'm not sure how old she is because I got her when she was a stray, but according to her feeders she was a kitten within the last two or three years. The vet estimates a similar number. She's definitely not a kitten anymore.

I feed her half a can of Fussie Cat three times a day (scheduled), so that's around 25kcals per portion. She doesn't ask for more after she eats.

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out

 

[tabbytom]

She should be an adult by now. If she dosen't ask for more and if the amount she's getting a day, think she should be ok. Some cats eat more than others and some less.

As long as your cat is not skinny (running your fingers along her side of the body feeling her ribs will tell if she's skinny or fat), underweight or lethargic, then I think she is getting by with the amount if not she'll be asking for more.

 

[ejoypousson]

Thank you! I'll keep track of her weight as well. It's just the amount she's eating is so vastly different from all the recommendations that it really confused me. She does seem more interested in any food that I'm eating, and right before I feed her she's a lot more vocal nowadays. Before I switched her to 1.5 cans/day (about 2 months ago) she would never do that and was less vocal. Could these be signs she's not getting enough? Like, maybe it happens that she won't ask for more right after eating, but she acts in these ways instead to show she doesn't have enough? Or is this behaviour pretty normal? She's my first cat so I'm not sure about this!

 

[tabbytom]

One way to do is for example :- during the feed, put more on the plate and see if she finishes it. If she does and still hang around, it could mean that she still can eat some more. So give her more or give her more and see how much she finish. Once she's full, she'll stop eating. So with this rough gauge, you get the amount she eats at one sitting base on your 3 times a day feed. Just play around with the amount.

Or try this, xxx amount of food xxxx times a day or xxxx amount of food xxx times a day.

When my boy is hungry, he'll meow and meal and rub his face on my hands. If he's not hungry, even I beg him to eat, he won't eat at all So, just listen to your cat

 

[ejoypousson]

Okay I'll give that a try. Thank you!!

 

[tabbytom]

Okay I'll give that a try. Thank you!!

 

[MissMolly08]

I can't help but wonder if cats may be like humans in this regard? I don't know much about cat metabolism but I know when I was trying to lose weight, I used a calorie counting website that talked about "starvation mode" which is basically like if you don't eat enough, your body tries to hold onto everything it can get. There were always posts of people on there like "I'm only eating 700 calories, why am I not losing weight?" and that was always the answer...they were in starvation mode....
73 calories is WAY too little per day and I wonder if her body/metabolism is acting up because she isn't getting enough food.

 

[Neo_23]

I find this chart from the animal medical center of Chicago helpful: http://www.animalmedicalcenterofchicago.com/pdf/CalorieRequirementsForCats.pdf

As others said though, you don't have to strictly follow a chart, you can adjust to the needs of your cat.

 

[orange&white]

She was about 10% overweight at 8.8 pounds, and now she looks great at 8 pounds from feeding 73.5 kcals/day.

73.5 kcals sounds like it was the right "weight loss diet" amount. Now you can pick her calories up a bit for a weight maintenance diet. Two cans would be 98 kcals/day. I would try that for 2 weeks and check her weight, then adjust again.

My senior cat has been on a diet for a year. He is a little over 14 pounds now (down from 16.5 pounds a year ago), and is eating 133 kcals/day. So, similar to your cat, he just can't eat the "recommended" amount of food and not turn into a butter ball. He will eat 8 ounces of food in one sitting, so he'd be huge if I let him eat the amount of food that "satisfies" him.

From everything I've read, once a cat shows a propensity to become overweight, their diet has to always be carefully monitored and adjusted to keep them at their healthy weight.