Am I feeding them too little?

Okay, Both Loki and Possum are overweight, so I've put them on a diet.

Before, I fed each cat a 3 oz. can of Fancy Feast a day, but they didn't always eat all of it. I also fed them each about 3/8 of a cup of Purina One a day. With this, Loki has pretty much stayed at 14 lbs. and Possum has gained 2 lbs., but he was already about 2 lbs. heavier than he should be. (He's now about 11 lbs.)

Now, they get 1/3 of a cup (each) of the Purina One and 1.5 oz. of the Fancy Feast each.

I was looking at my cat book and it says that adult cats should have 13-28oz. of canned food a day. Is that right? That really seems like a lot of food a day.

So, am I starving my boys? Was I starving them before? If I was, then why were they gaining weight? I'm so confused.

Tricia

I think an average adult cat will eat 6oz of wet food a day (with no dry food, eating 100% wet food only) but that of course varies by size and the type/brand of food you are feeding.

Have you talked to the vet about a weight-loss diet? If cats lose weight too fast, it can be dangerous.

I would just switch over to all-wet if you can afford it for now.

ETA: I just follow the feeding instructions on the bag of food.

Matilda (9 lb. adult) eats 1/4 cup of Natural Balance Green Pea & Duck dry in the morning and then 3oz of Wellness wet at night (or for other wet foods, I feed her whatever 1/2 of the daily recommended amount is for her size).

Chloe (5 lb. kitten) eats 1/3 cup of Nutro Natural Indoor Kitten dry in the morning and as much wet food as I can get her to eat that night.

Also, if you aren't feeding enough, maybe they are gaining because their metabolism is off? I don't know.

The amounts really vary from cat to cat. Also, some cats do better on all wet or on a small amount of high protein dry--my Odo doesn't tolerate grains very well and quickly gains weight when fed even small quantities of a grainy dry food. For him, I found that 3 ounces of a high quality wet food plus about 1/4 cup of a high protein dry food resulted in weight loss. Both the wet and dry were split into two feedings, so he got 1/4 of a can in the morning, followed by 1/8 cup of dry and the other 1/4 can in the evening, with another 1/8 cup just before bed.