I am Feeding Fancy Feast....

My wife and I have two cats.

Maya is 2 1/2 years old and is about 12 lbs. We just adopted Sophie a month ago and she was 6 1/2 lbs when we took her to the vet for a check up. Sophie is about 11 months old.

We are feeding both of the Fancy Feast wet food. We feed Maya 1 1/2 3 oz. cans per day (1/2 in the morning and one full can at night) and we feed Sophie 1 can a day (1/2 each feeding). I realize that the cans recommend feeding in much greater amounts, but I think that would cause Maya to be severely overweight and Sophie to be overweight as well.

Maya looks a tad overweight for her body size and Sophie looks normal if not a tad underweight.

The problem is that they are both obsessed with food. Maya will be looking to be fed hours before it's time and then inhale it like it's going to disappear. She has been like this since we got her about 18 months ago. Sophie eats even faster than Maya and meows for food all the time and tries to eat whatever we are eating.

I have two questions:

(1) Is this because Fancy Feast is bad? Are there similarly priced wet foods that are better? Sometimes we feed Innova dry food when we are going to be away and Maya is similarly obsessed with that food.

(2) How much should we feed?

Thanks everyone!

I also feed mine Fancy Feast, its actually the only food they will eat. I feed mine 1 can 3 oz twice a day each. I free feed dry food but mine aren't too big with dry food. I noticed with mine that the younger ones eat more then the ones that are older I guess its because they burn up a lot of energy. But doing it this way, nobody really bothers when its my meal time. This works for my guys, I'm sure you will be getting more suggestions. Good luck.

I feed my kitties one can of FF and one can of Wellness. They seem to only like the chicken flavors ,and they like FF way more than Wellness. I feed Wellness in the morning and there is leftovers. In the evening, they will gobble up FF like they haven't eaten all day. They also get dry food , but they seem to only snack on it. The FF is eaten all up everytime. They even lick the plate clean. I know there is better food out there, but I must obey my masters otherwise they won't let me sleep

Fancy Feast is also known as kitty crack ... most cats will eat it due to the artificial flavors used in it... Some formulas are grain and by product free ... overall thou it is not the best of foods but if it is the only wet theyll eat feed it ... IMHO some is better than none in wet food

Hi
This is just not enough food. I also believe that there is much less of a chance of your cat getting overweight on this stuff then on dry foods. I fed fancy feast for many years and had no overweight cats.
As far as quality, It is nbot great and I would call it a middle grade food. The reason it makes middle grade is that the first ingrediant in most of the flavors is a muscle meat o fish and not meal or byproduct. What is bad is they use byproducts, grains, gluten ect in their products which cats certainly do not need and can be unhealthy
Did you know that grain free, byproduct free wellness can cost the same if you by the big cans???? The 3 ounce cans of fancy feast cost 50 cents on a good day while the 12.5 oz cans of wellness run around 2 dollars to 2.20 a can
In any case I woul;d athe feed canned food like fancy feast then any dry food even the top

Sophie is still a kitten - almost not, but still is... she should be getting about double of what she is now... The quantities you are feeding are not enough for an all wet diet IMHO. Also the others are right... you can way more nutritious food than FF for the same cost... Also: Cats are pretty good in eating what they need, and not under or over eating... if they seem so hungry it is because they probably are
Good Lucky!

Originally Posted by optionken

Hi
This is just not enough food. I also believe that there is much less of a chance of your cat getting overweight on this stuff then on dry foods. I fed fancy feast for many years and had no overweight cats.
As far as quality, It is nbot great and I would call it a middle grade food. The reason it makes middle grade is that the first ingrediant in most of the flavors is a muscle meat o fish and not meal or byproduct. What is bad is they use byproducts, grains, gluten ect in their products which cats certainly do not need and can be unhealthy
Did you know that grain free, byproduct free wellness can cost the same if you by the big cans???? The 3 ounce cans of fancy feast cost 50 cents on a good day while the 12.5 oz cans of wellness run around 2 dollars to 2.20 a can
In any case I woul;d athe feed canned food like fancy feast then any dry food even the top

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I call it low end food .... But Ken and I agree it is on the too little food side ...

VERY General rule of thumb 1/2 oz to 1 oz per lb per day

so
12 lb kitty 6-12 oz per day

6 .5 a tad over 3oz to nearly 7 oz ..


Finding the big cans in many areas is difficult... I have to order them in my area ... But most online retailer s have the big cans .... You may have to try many brands to find one they like ... I have 5 cats ... One will not eat wellness at all ... 3 eat readily and one eats sparingly ...

there are lots of brands to try out there ... IMHO your feeding close to the bottom so there are many many out there

Thanks for the responses everyone!

We are definitely going to look at, if not buy the Wellness tomorrow. I am just shocked how much cheaper the 12.5 oz cans are-almost 1/2 price.

We feel bad that we've been underfeeding them so much. Hopefully Maya will stop waking us up at 5:30 AM

I would be interested in more thoughts if anyone else cares to weigh in.

Thanks so much for your responses. Maya and Sophie thank you also for their much larger dinner tonight!

I feed Fancy Feast wet to my cats, and FF dry to free feed on. I had our friend over the vet tech and we talked about different foods and she did recommend EVO, which I hadn't heard about until last night when I was reading some threads on here. I am going to start doing a switch over next week, of course slowly and mixing. I am going to a store that is knowledgable on the foods and what are ingredients to stay away from. I haven't decided on one brand just yet, but I'm going to try something new.

I just think I have to start feeding all of my cats the best diet they can have..and since I'm getting 2 new sphynx in a couple weeks, I'd like to feed them their kitten food of a higher quality than the Purina Pro Plan kitten food that I am starting my 4week olds on.

Your kitten should be eating much more than that. My 10 month old eats about 8 or 9 oz of wet per day.

I've been feeding my 13 year old spayed girl and 5 year old neutered boy Fancy Feast for almost a year and it's the only cat food they like. I buy a variety of the seafood kinds and chicken. It's the first cat food they both seem to agree on. I just weighed Tim and he's 13 lbs. They're both super playful and energetic but always want treats. So, I just joined this site and read about giving them each a 3 ounce can at meals (twice a day of course). I've been splitting a can between them at meals. I feel pretty bad that I'm probably not feeding them enough. Maybe by feeding them both a little can they might not want treats constantly. Will see how they do with eating a little more.

I believe the better foods are more filling but more expensive except for one natural balance. Try natural balance ultra 5.5 ounce cans. Buy at chewy.com for good price or pet supplies plus. It is more filling and better quality but priced similar if you buy bigger tins.

SweetKara said:

Your kitten should be eating much more than that. My 10 month old eats about 8 or 9 oz of wet per day.

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Mine doesn't even eat a 5.5 oz can a day. He's 13 or 14 weeks. I feed him three smaller meals and a snack every day. I'm constantly trying to increase his portions, but he almost always leaves food in the bowl...I can probably count on two hands the number of times he's eaten everything.

Normally I'd be concerned, but he's healthy, happy and energetic. When I got him, his coat was grungy, he had frequent eye discharge and he had a slight limp. Eight weeks later, his coat looks great, he doesn't have nearly as much eye discharge, he's got boundless energy, and he's jumping surprisingly high. He's doubled in size but he's still pretty small, so maybe he genuinely doesn't have a big appetite. I dunno. Gonna bring it up with the vet and see what she says.

Sounds like the little guy is doing well! My youngest, Tim - he's 5 yrs old, is short and stocky. He was a real sick little guy when I adopted him. He and 1 litter mate were rescued from an abandoned house literally in the woods near a lake in Oklahoma. He spent the first 3 months of his life at the vets all week and I'd get to take  him home on the weekends. I moved back to the Ohio Valley after my husband passed away. He had a malignant brain tumor. Tim and Lilith (she's my 13 yr old female) are with me in my somewhat new apartment and they're happy.  They were both really picky eaters until I started feeding them Fancy Feast - they like a variety of the sea foods. I also thought I wasn't feeding them enough so gave them each a full can - they didnt' eat it all so I figure half a can in the a.m. and half in the pm is enough for them.

Stick to FF classics ( no gluten) and lint fish to once a week not good forbthem