How much food do you serve?

OK, I've gotten the insulin shot thing down -- Fred is mildly disinterested. AND, with the help of the heated rice sock, vaseline and treats, the testing thing is going better.....but I'm still stuck on how much food to serve and when.

Fred, Bella and Lucy are all on wet food (from Binky's list) and accepting it very well. I read the cans and some articles and came away with the idea that I should serve 1oz of food for each pound of cat per day. That means 15.5 ounces of food for Fred each day. Well, he just won't eat that much. I leave it down, but they just don't seem to eat it like they did the "candy corn" dry food.

My vet want me to have food available to Fred (my only diabetic) in case he senses his blood glucose level dropping during the day. Right now he has this annoying habit of waking my around 2:30am for a snack. Wish he'd eat more in the evening and sleep through the night. It's not a problem to leave food for him, but the other cats might eat it.

Do you have any suggestions about quantify? Appreciate your help.

K.

 

i can't give specifics as i just don't get that much into detail about things but i know if we all fed what the packages said, diabetes would be the number 1 diagnosed disease in our animals that's for sure.

someone i'm sure will come along with specifics or some formula but my cats pretty much eat roughly a 5.5 oz can a day per cat, maybe slightly more.

 

Kathleen I am glad you asked this. I was wondering the same thing myself. I am about to take away the dry food for all 4 cats and just increase the amount of wet food. However, with four cats I am not sure at all as to how much to put out at each feeding.

Let's see what they say

 

The labels on cans of food tend to overstate how much a cat will need.

From Dr. Lisa's site, in the section on obesity, I found the formula
Required calories per day = [13.6 X optimal lean body weight in pounds] + 70

The label on a can may state the number of calories in the can. If not, Janet & Binky's charts may give it, or the company's website may give it.

Decide on how much your cat should weigh (not how much kitty weighs today, but how much she should weigh) and plug that number into the formula.

Figure how many cans or how much of a can you should be feeding to get the total number of calories required. Divide by the number of meals to get how much to feed per meal. (Divide unevenly to account for snacks, if those are part of the picture.)

This will give you a good starting point, but ECID (Every Cat Is Different), so your cat may need more or less food. There's no way to know except to try and then adjust as appropriate.

 

It is really difficult for me to even guess how much my two eat. They are both 11lbs & just not that interested in eating -
I open a 3oz can & they can easily eat only half of it (both of them) then they are done. We do this maybe 3 times a day & neither one of them eat it all at once. I leave food out ALWAYS, but they never finish it. They do wake me up around 3am for a feeding - I gladly do it - but awake to still only a bit being gone. They are very active too (blessed there) we play at least 30mins a day..but neither are big eaters. Baby does like her snacks..but Sadi does not.

 

I'm guessing out of "left field" so to speak, but have you tested Fred around 230am when he wants his snack? It may be his way of telling you he's getting too low and thus, the need for a snack. Of course it could also be that he just gets hungry at that time too. My cat's are ready for breakfast at 5am.

 

I'm currently fostering a cat who can't see to get through the night with out wanting a snack. I have a timed feeder I bought for Em and so I put a little food in that to open at 2am.

I feed what they will eat in about half an hour. If there is food left over I feed less, if it is all eaten and they don't settle down I feed more.

My cats often lie to me about how hungry they are simply because of routine. If my Dh leaves teh house early and they ate at 4 instead of 6 that they are used to, by 7 when I get up they "dying" and swear they haven't been fed. but if I ignore them they often settle down by 7:30

Connie

 

Depends on the food how much they eat and want.

When they were on dry food, they seemed always very hungry and they were always eating. I left the food in reach all day.
Later on there were some diet issues and I fed them only twice a day, when I was around. But that was no way, so I left the food all day for them again.

And now I feed only wet food and do that twice a day still. In the morning at 7 I check the bg values, then I put half a can of food in front of each of them and depending on the taste they eat it all or leave a bit.
Then Spacey get's her shot (or not) and some painkillers for her teeth. After that I give some chunks of raw meat for them to chew on.
Same procedure in the evening (except for the painkillers).
They never complain anymore. And even better, they don't seem to overeat which was always the case with dry food.
Now they stop eating when they are done.

 

Honestly? I just feed them when they are hungry. Since going off dry they all went to the right weight and seem to self-regulate. I do go through about two to three 5.5 oz cans a day between 2 cats. That might be too much for some cats but seems okay for mine. One is 10 pounds and the other is 8 pounds.

 

Yeah... that's what I can see as well. They are self regulating. I find that amazing. But they are just 5 day's or so on the new food. So who knows what changes are still about to come.

 

I agree, I feed them whenever they want - neither have a weight problem. Neither of them ever even finish what I give..so I feel OK, just don't want them to lose weight! They were 13lbs a year ago, the Vet said they should eat Lite food (Dry) & a year later we now have one with Diabetes & both 2lbs lighter. Now it is dry free & feast on.......raw, canned (high protein/low carb) & high protein treats.

 

I am switching to 100% wet food as we speak.

Since I have always free fed dry food how do you know when they are hungry? Do they meow?

I am really clueless to this and am worried that they will go hungry. I have estimated that I will go through 4 cans of 3oz Fancy Feast a day. But I don't know if that is enough for 4 cats. Thoughts?

Webber weighs 13lbs, Chloe 7lbs, and the other two are 18.5lbs (fatties I know---hopefully they will lose weight now, lol).

 

Each cat is different, I just know my cats - they come to me & look at me..or go their feeding spot & look at me (which communicates to me they are hungry) or one of them somtimes meows. I know a lot of people leave the canned out all day, I leave it out for about an hour & whatever they havn't eaten - I pick up - the raw Natures Variety I leave out for no more than an hour - but find Baby never goes back to it - she gets her full when I first place it down. During the day when I am at work - I open a can for before work & then I remove a ziploc baggie from the freezer that I have frozen overnight. I set it out when I am leaving for work & it thaws out for them to eat during the day.
Bottom line is that every cat is different, I suspect you will not have any issues knowing when they are hungry - most have a way of communicating to us & we just know. As far as 4 cans a day - I don't know - that again varies - but people that know more than me will let you know. Good luck & great job on canned only
I am new to this too - less than a month.

 

As the others have said, at first it can be hard to determine how much to feed-- especially if your kitties are "OMG! This stuff is fantastic! Why's Mombean been holding out on us for so long? We want more, more, more!!!!!!"

For my crew (8 kitties, ranging in weight from 6 pounds to 18 pounds--- biggest is a Norwegian Forest cat) I feed 4 of the large (13 oz?) cans of Friskies a day. They let me know they're hungry because the start "circling the wagons" and follow me around, a few (Robbie mostly, but he never shuts up!) moan and groan that they're starving. I leave the extra food out and it's usually finished off before the next feeding. At first you may have one or two that are complete pigs and want to eat everyone's food, but I've found that eventually even that sorts iteself out (even Robbie found his "off" button after a few weeks once he realized he wasn't going to be starving like when he was abandoned).

Good luck and great choice to switch all your kitties to wet!

 

Hehe, that is so funny how they show you they are hungry. This morning I woke up and the last little bit of dry food that I was letting them have was gone. I opened two of the small cans of Fancy Feast and three of the four ate good. I have one little piggy-poo that is not very interested in this canned food. He sniffs it and then sniffs it again.

I am going to have to be hard on him to get him to switch completely....but I am sure he will give in

Thanks to all!