Is this too much food?

Mia has been eating two 5.5oz cans of Natural Balance a day (morning and night). She weighs 6 lbs and we've been feeding her wet food to get her weight up. (For those of you who don't know her story, we brought her in as a stray because she had been living in our shed for at least 3 weeks. I had been feeding her during that time, but not much since I didn't know if she was getting food elsewhere.) Anyway, the NB cans say to feed one 5.5oz can per 8 lbs of cat. So she is eating over twice what NB recommends. Also, we don't know whether or not she is a kitten, and the can says to feed kittens as much as they will eat. The vet estimated her age at 1-2 years. So do you think it's okay to be feeding her this much? Thanks!

I would guess that if she is so tiny and not getting overweight that there would be no harm in giving her whatever she want to eat.

i agree.. just watch her weight, you don't want her to put on too much at one time. but if she does need to gain weight and she seems to be doing fine, I wouldn't change anything

Ok...I just wanted another opinion besides my own. Thank you!

I agree, if you're trying to put weight on her, then continue feeding her as you are until she's not underweight any longer (keep in contact with your vet though, Nya weighs between 6 and 7lbs and is not underweight at all).

If she starts to get tubby, then cut down. She may have a higher metabolism than other cats!

That seems like a lot to me, but that's probably because my almost 12 lbs senior gains weight on more than one can per day. Just keep an eye on her weight as others have said and adjust accordingly.

here I go with VERY GENERAL guidelines/...
WET ONLY
for a at proper wt cat = one oz per lb ( though it seems most cats eat about 3/4 oz per lb )

Under wt , kitten or queen who is nursing ... up to three times that amount

just wondering how your new kitty was going on ! sounds like she feeding herself up hows she doing with your other kits

Originally Posted by sharky

here I go with VERY GENERAL guidelines/...
WET ONLY
for a at proper wt cat = one oz per lb ( though it seems most cats eat about 3/4 oz per lb )

Under wt , kitten or queen who is nursing ... up to three times that amount

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Thank you...but I don't know whether or not she is still a kitten.

Originally Posted by mooficat

just wondering how your new kitty was going on ! sounds like she feeding herself up

hows she doing with your other kits

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She has started to slow down a little in eating. She still eats almost the same amount I mentioned before but now she will take breaks from eating. Maybe she is realizing that she will always have food now.

Things are going well with her and the other cats. They have all been in the same room a few times...sometimes there is hissing and sometimes not (Mia hissed at Da Bird last night ). They're still not ready to be left alone unsupervised, but I'm hoping we can get to that point in another week if we keep doing supervised visits.

I also ordered some Innova and Felidae canned for them to try because Chessy won't eat Natural Balance. I ran out of Wellness but I am holding off on that for now since it is manufactured by Menu (although not currently recalled).

My Sweetie is 7# and Juno is over 10. Sweetie eats more than Juno but she prefers wet food while Juno likes her junk dry food. I gave them half of a 5.5 can this AM. They both ate and Juno gave up first. About half hour later Sweetie was at the dry food bowl so I gave her more wet which she ate. In a day I feed them approx. 1 1/2 cans of wet and free feed a mixture of Nutro Natural, Meow Mis (Juno's favorite) and the new purina naturals. Sweetie is more active than Juno so she burns off the calories.

Originally Posted by deljo

Sweetie is more active than Juno so she burns off the calories.

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Mia is a lot more active than my other 2 (another reason I think she could possibly still be a kitten) so I guess she is burning those calories.