How and What do you feed Your cats?

out of curiousity and the quest for knowledge i wonder if everyone could post
what kind of foods you give to your cats, when, (times of day/night) how much, and how often.

do you give them half a cup of dry and half a cup of wet?
how much wet food is too much, and not healthy? how big is
your cat's appetite and what is your daily schedule for feeding them? and how often do you give out treats?

i'd like to make sure i am feeding them the right amounts, and the right kinds of food.
by that i mean, not too much wet food, or too much food period.

Well I ususally free feed my little one Premium dry (in my case Nutro), meaning that dry is available 24/7 and I give as a treat 1-2 spoons full of wet food when I get home in the evening. This works best for me since Loki is a nibbler and dosen't take well to feedings at specific times. That way he has access to food when he is hungry. I guess if I would meassure it he eat abt. 1 cup of dry a day more or less. I have yet to find what is considered a cat treat my little one likes besides the wet food I provide. The amount fed is different from cat to cat - go by the basics as shown on the packaging of the food you buy and adjust based on how active you little one is. Mine is an energizer bunny and therefore needs a little more. But there are some days he scales back and others where he devoures his food. Also don't forget the amount of food consumed also tends to vary with the season - more in the winter and mostly a little less in the summer. Just like a human. Just make sure your little one always has access to plenty of fresh water. Hope this helps.

Well, ever since I had Jake, I would give him dry food mixed with two teaspoons of canned food three to four times a day.
I feed him Iams Kitten food. I sometimes mix some things such as cooked chicken. I am trying to make sure he is getting enough nutrients. Since I'm a first time cat owner, I want to know if I am doing the right thing. My vet says that I should give him more dry food since its good for his teeth but he won't eat it unless I add the canned food.

I do the same as Hell603...I like free feeding because Charlie doesn't eat everything in one sitting, he nibbles. I also don't like the idea of making him wait all day until I get home when he can help himself whenever he's hungry.
His favorite treats are Whisker Lickins chicken flavor. When he sees me with that orange bag, he goes crazy!

Well Loki did not want his dry at first either - then I decided to mix some dry into his wet just like you. Over time I decreased the amount of wet until there was only dry.
Now he preferres the dry over the wet. And now I only give wet as a treat.

thanks to everyone who has already responded

now, where are the rest of you?!

cmon!! i want times you feed them, what brands, how many
treats, wet food or dry or both?

thanks

LOL, okay...I feed only dry food (wet makes for stinky poo's) and I free feed everyone. They all get science diet and they get some meat,popcorn,cereal,ice cream and soda on occasion.

well... i'm worried that i am feeding my cats too much wet food.

how much is too much? they cry and cry for it, and
i dont want to deprive them of something they love so much;
already i feel like i am depriving them as i dont let them
outdoors; for many reasons. on the other hand, i dont
want to be jeopardizing their health. i rarely give them
"human food" or "treats" unless you consider wet food to be
a treat. they also eat their dry food freely throughout the
day & night as according to when they're hungry, wet food
every 2nd-4th day. always fresh water. anyways, i wanted to
know how many of you have the same kind of feeding schedule
as mine

thanks for your responses.

blue, I feed just like you. Free feeding + a wet food meal once every few days. If they are fussy - I let them be fussy until they are hungry enough to eat their dry food

It's basically Iams, though we have been mixing in the low-cal version to help Gezer lose some weight. It helped and he's a lot slimmer now.

blue,
I have two house cats that are free fed. Our morning routine runs: change water and MeowMix, clean litter boxes, wash hands, give CatSip milk,about 2 ounces each in each milk bowl (they are not spoiled, thank heavens). Then just before I leave for work they each get about six "treats" the Whisker Lickens, 9Lives treats etc.

As a special treat, they might get a nibble when I get home at night after my dinner. It might be just little edges off a cheese slice, a piece of the deli meat or for something we just started, a very little bit of my sugarfree ice cream. I'm not giving them much of that because I'm not sure of the sugar substitue and cats.

If I'm having tuna for dinner, they each get one teaspoon of that.

It's funny that I found this post. I was just thinking about this very thing this weekend. I free feed my cats IAMS, and every morning they each get a can of fancy feast wet food. I don't know if I'm doing it right or not. in the evenings they are all over us when we eat and act like they are starving. I was just wondering this weekend if they are getting enough to eat. Thier dry food is always there for them to nibble on.

I've noticed in other threads about how you guys get several different brands of cat food if one does ot work. I read in a book that whe you introduce a cat to a new brand of food, that you give it little by little and mixing it with the old so that it dosen't upset his stomach. Do you do that? Example, if I feed him Iams once and then the next, feed him Purina Kitten Chow.

We have 6 cats and are currently changing over for Science Diet OM to Natura Innova. Both are dry foods. We free feed but are running into the problem of fat cats... anybody else have several cats and have timed feedings? How does it work? Our biggest problem is that if we feed them in the morning they wake us up... Not good, both my husband and I are people who need our sleep / are NOT morning people especially if woken up a 1/2 our before our alarm (too early to wake up and too late to go back to sleep). Can't lock them out of the bedroom either - they get really upset and make A LOT of noise...

thanks!

Heather V. Havel
Michigan - USA

I feed Science Diet. It's available in the bowl all day, but I measure the amount I put out in the morning- Squirt needs to lose weight. I used to do wet food in the morning, but both of mine stopped eating it, so I quit.

Squirt pretty much eats only cat food and the occasional treat. Joey will taste anything put before him and a few things that aren't.

Sateycat is on Hill's Prescription Diet, Feline Reducing Diet (R/D) dry. Satey has always eaten dry food. Anyway he's lost 2 pounds since October!
He gets one cup a day, and sometimes I can give it all at once, usually in the evening, but he goes through phases where he'll eat all of the food in his bowl before the 24 hours are up, and this drives him mad not to have food in his bowl, so at those times I break the feedings down, to feed 1/4 cup 4 times a day or something similar.

Here is an interesting article about pet food that I recently found:
http://www.api4animals.org/doc.asp?ID=79

After Satey gets to his desired weight, I want to switch him to a lite dry food from one of these brands:
http://www.naturapet.com
http://www.avoderm.com

I feed my babies one large can of wet food in the morning split between the 16 of them and dry food is left all day. I feed Nutro dry food. When I feed them in the morning you would swear I starve them the way they eat. It is actully pretty funny. They go from dish to dish. I also give Pounce as treats. They love that! And I have to admit they get chicken when ever I make it. My cats are extremely spoiled as every cat should be!

that is almost exactly what i do! and every morning here come my girls running like they haven't eaten in days, even though I leave the dry stuff out all day.

and i give them pounce when i'm home at night.

Isn't it just the funniest thing. It is really the only time I get to see all my cats at the same time. It's funny though, my husband gets up first in the morning and they do not follow him downstairs. But when the alarm goes off for me they all going running to the kitchen where I feed them. They know who feeds them. The only bad thing is they don't know what weekends are. I can not sleep late on weekends. They are used to eating at 7:00 so I have to get up early on weekends, feed them and them go back to bed.

Mine can't get the weekend thing right either. That is why I only feed wet in the eve and he is free feed Nutro dry otherwise. Have yet to find a treat he likes.

That is a good idea, feeding them the can at night. I am definately going to try that. Anything to get some sleep on the weekends!