How many calories?

Ms. Freya · Jul 5, 2009

Just wondering how many calories an adult cat should eat in a day.

Since working on getting Cotton to eat canned, I've noticed there are alot more calories in wet food and some of the feeding instructions would mean an awful lot of food (2-3 cans a day) for a cat his size and nearly double th calories he was getting with dry food. So, I'm just wondering how many calories he should be getting.

Thanks.

ETA - I'm an idiot.

I was reading the calories/kg, not per can. Turns out it's about 190-200 cal/can, which doesn't sound so odd. I've heard that cats should eat between 200-300 cal/per day. Does that sound right?

snake_lady · Jul 6, 2009

From The Cat Owners home veterinary handbook:

Generally, an active adult cat will need about 30-35cal per pound of body weight per day...An inactive cat needs about 18cal per pound of body weight per day.

altered cats fall into the inactive category, whereas pregnant/nursing cats about 45cal/lb

Hope that helps.

enik · Jul 6, 2009

My 2-year-old cat weighed 19 pounds at the vet. I have cut down the amount of food I give him from 1 three-ounce can (Wellness) plus 2/3 cup of Indoor-cat dry food (Wellness). This is the amount recommended for a 15-18 pound cat on mixed food. He's a large cat to begin with and has long fur, and I think he is part Maine Coon and perhaps part Ragdoll. (white with blue eyes)
The vet said to lower the amount of canned food daily. I thought that dry food contained more carbohydrate than canned. I would appreciate hearing any suggestions. Is a mixture of dry and canned best? He's active for an indoor cat and very happy. thanks.

Ms. Freya · Jul 6, 2009

Originally Posted by Snake_Lady

From The Cat Owners home veterinary handbook:

altered cats fall into the inactive category, whereas pregnant/nursing cats about 45cal/lb

Hope that helps.

Thanks. That's exactly what I was looking for...and I definately think he falls in the 'inactive' category.

Actually, according to that his can of wet and ration of dry is about right. Whew...I don't think I've thought about my own nutrition as much as I'v thought about his.

Ms. Freya · Jul 6, 2009

Originally Posted by Enik

My 2-year-old cat weighed 19 pounds at the vet. I have cut down the amount of food I give him from 1 three-ounce can (Wellness) plus 2/3 cup of Indoor-cat dry food (Wellness). This is the amount recommended for a 15-18 pound cat on mixed food. He's a large cat to begin with and has long fur, and I think he is part Maine Coon and perhaps part Ragdoll. (white with blue eyes)
The vet said to lower the amount of canned food daily. I thought that dry food contained more carbohydrate than canned. I would appreciate hearing any suggestions. Is a mixture of dry and canned best? He's active for an indoor cat and very happy. thanks.

Enik,
I'm suprised that the vet would have you cutting down the wet instead of the dry. I'd thought that they're less likely to be overweight on wet food and yes, dry generally contains more carbs than wet. Also, Maine Coons are big cats so 19lbs doesn't seem that big for a Main Coon. The quantities your feeding don't sound like too much to me for a cat his size.

enik · Jul 6, 2009

Thank you so much, Ms Freda!!! It's hard for me to tell whether or not he is actually fat He has short legs, but his tummy doesn't reach the floor and I can see a waist (barely).
After we got home I looked at the package of dry that I have here (indoor-cat), and saw that it contains rice, wheat, etc. in it! I'm sure that's fine if the cat is put on a treadmill every day, but my 'Snowy' sleeps, plays, sleeps, jumps to look out the window, plays, sleeps, etc. He certainly doesn't race around the house all day!
I have been feeding him only 1-1/2 cans of Wellness 3-oz. cans divided into 3 feedings for 4 days, and he seems to be perfectly satisfied. He prefers the canned food (always has), but he does like to have dry food in his bowl - especially at night. I'm thinking he was eating during the night because of boredom? Now that I know the approximate amount of calories, I hope to be able to keep him at a good, healthy weight. (thanks also to everyone else who answered about the calories, etc.)
Have you tried different brands of moist food? By moist do you mean canned?
Good luck! I'll keep following your posts.

Ms. Freya · Jul 8, 2009

Originally Posted by Enik

Thank you so much, Ms Freda!!! It's hard for me to tell whether or not he is actually fat He has short legs, but his tummy doesn't reach the floor and I can see a waist (barely).
After we got home I looked at the package of dry that I have here (indoor-cat), and saw that it contains rice, wheat, etc. in it! I'm sure that's fine if the cat is put on a treadmill every day, but my 'Snowy' sleeps, plays, sleeps, jumps to look out the window, plays, sleeps, etc. He certainly doesn't race around the house all day!
I have been feeding him only 1-1/2 cans of Wellness 3-oz. cans divided into 3 feedings for 4 days, and he seems to be perfectly satisfied. He prefers the canned food (always has), but he does like to have dry food in his bowl - especially at night. I'm thinking he was eating during the night because of boredom? Now that I know the approximate amount of calories, I hope to be able to keep him at a good, healthy weight. (thanks also to everyone else who answered about the calories, etc.)
Have you tried different brands of moist food? By moist do you mean canned?
Good luck! I'll keep following your posts.

Good luck with Snowy, weight can be a bit of a struggle with some cats. To answer your question, I've tried pretty much everything I can find with Cotton. He's just never been interested in wet food (I do mean canned when I say wet) The vet even recommended some since Cotton used to have intestinal issues, but we had no luck there either. It wasn't until I made the point of getting grain-free canned that he started eating it.

I think that some cats will eat if food is available, even if they're not hungry. Grogs mentioned in my other thread that dry food doesn't always have enough protien to turn off a cat's hunger receptors, so they eat more than they should without feeling full...maybe that's what Snowy was doing.

Good luck in getting his weight under control.

enik · Jul 8, 2009

Thanks for wishing me luck! I can see that I'll really need it now that I've read other posts about how difficult it is to keep our dear ones at a perfect weight.
I mentioned in another post that I spoke to Beverly at The Wellness Company and she said that I should change Snowy's dry food to Healthy Weight, which has no grains in it. He is so used to having some dry food available (but he only eats a little at a time) that he was having a hard time getting used to seeing an empty bowl. So, I bought some 'Healthy Weight' and leave a little in his bowl. Otherwise I'm trying to give only wet food. Today he has seemed satisfied on 1 three-ounce can of Wellness plus 1/8 cup of the dry I'll give him more canned later. I can tell when he's really hungry when he comes into the kitchen and rubs against my legs and stays in the kitchen.
How are you doing? Forgot to say that Beverly told me that a 3-ounce can of Chicken contains 120 cal.

How many calories?

Ms. Freya

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enik

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