Is my cat eating enough?

ok, first off, hello all! To spare any of you who aren't interested in a page of details, here's my question:

My 7 year old calico girl weighs 7 pounds. She eats only canned food. According to the food (small cans), it says most cats should eat 1 can per 3 lbs body weight per day. so that would be roughly 2 cans. She eats a little more than half of that. in the morning, she is served a whole can of which she eats about 55% to 75% (varies) and the same thing in the evening.

ok, here are the details of the situation:

She used to be an only cat. I was free feeding her with dry food only. she didn't seem to pig out too much so I figured that was ok. Then, we adopted a little boy kitten and I decided that we should not free feed either of them. At the same time, I read a big article on the advantages of canned food over dry food on catinfo.org.

So, I decided to feed both of them canned food only. my 7 year old girl cat initially lost a fair amount of her chunkiness (I suppose just from eating less).

Anyhow, she's weighing about 7 pounds at present and she seems healthy. she doesn't look skinny or sick or anything. I'm just concerened that she doesn't eat enough. I've tried feeding her in a separate room from the boy, and still, she eats a little over half the can, then walks away.

I've tried at least 15 different brands/flavors. I give her only the one she seemed to like the most. as an experiment, I fed her dry food to see if she'd go grazy on it and pig out but she didn't hardly even touch it. totally not interested.

So as far as a time line, she's been on canned food twice daily for about 6 months, the time we've had the new boy (he's about 8 months now).

Any ideas?

She's probably ok, based on what you're saying - but.....if you haven't already done so recently, at her age it's not a bad idea to take her in for a check up and initial senior panel (blood tests, urinalysis) and see if the vet thinks she's at a good weight. Worse case is you have a baseline for future exams.

My little girl weighs about 7 pounds, but she's always been a tiny cat. And those guidelines on the bags and cans are pretty much just that - sometimes they're too high for a given cat. I had to work with my vet as my boy was overweight when I adopted him. The portion the vet suggested was far smaller than I would have done without professional guidance. It just looked so tiny!!! I know now my Dharma could never eat a whole small can of wet food at one sitting - it'd just be too much for her.

The best thing to do is have a check up. Without having any idea what she should weigh, we really can't say whether she's eating enough or not! But if she doesn't look too skinny and isn't acting hungry, seems to me those are pretty telling right there.

After many years, we've finally made the switch to (mostly) wet food, and no more free feeding. Several of our cats started gaining weight! With one "little" kitty that also weighs around 7 pounds, and several kitties with large frames that are healthy at 14 pounds - guidelines on the cans are just that, guidelines.

I went searching online, and found calorie recommendations for feeding cats ranging from 15 calories per pound of cat (what the cat should weigh) to 45 calories per pound of cat! Obviously, so much of what's the right amount depends upon the level of activity and age of the cats.

As it turns out, our kitties are older, and apparently rather inactive, because most of them seem to need only 15 calories per pound of cat per day - which works out to about one 3.5 oz can of food/day per cat (a little more for some, a little less for others).

Originally Posted by LDG

As it turns out, our kitties are older, and apparently rather inactive, because most of them seem to need only 15 calories per pound of cat per day - which works out to about one 3.5 oz can of food/day per cat (a little more for some, a little less for others).

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Wow, thats not much at all. My two would probably start looking at my fingers as sausages if I gave them that little. They are spazoids though.

Makes you wonder how much is self-correcting though, within a range at least. If a cat has a little less calories for a while, does its metabolism and thus activity level just reduce to compensate and visa versa?

Interesting question. But given several are STILL more than a few pounds overweight... I suspect the answer to your question is no. Maybe in the wild. But it's a good question for our vet (the one that is also a cat nutrionist).