help with timing and quantity of feeding

Hi I have 2 cats - 1 male, about 14 years old, weighs around 9-10lbs (weight has been stable since he was full grown), 1 female, about 12 years old, weighs around 15lbs I've recently transitioned the cats from a free-fed dry food diet to a canned food only diet. Right now they are eating Fancy Feast chicken & beef medley. I wanted to do one of the more "premium" wet foods but this was the one they took to and I figured it was an improvement over the dry either way.

My confusion is in how much they should be eating, since I had always left the dry food out all day. I started with giving them each one can (I think they are 3 oz, they're the really small cans) twice a day (breakfast and dinner time). Gem, the heavy female, cries and cries for food all the time. It seemed like she really was still hungry so I added a 3rd can at lunch time. Typically they won't eat the whole can at that time. So right now they are probably each eating about 2 1/2 - 3 cans per day. Is that too much? OK? It's so hard to listen to her cry so pitifully!

Also, I've read that it's good to rotate foods but I also read that when you switch you have to do it slowly - how do you manage that?

Thanks for any input.

Hi, Jkbank! Welcome to TCS.

I'll take your second question first. Canned food is so much easier on a cat's digestive system that it doesn't require a slow transition period. In fact, it doesn't require any transition (with the exception of really carb-heavy products, which will cause some of the same issues seen with kibble). Prior to going all natural, my cats were eating 21 different canned food varieties every seven days; they didn't eat any single product more than once a week.

So rotate away!  :-}

As to how much to feed, 5.5 to 6 ounces of food a day is the very general guideline, with no less than three meals per day (which you're already doing). Currently, you're offering 8.5 to 9 ounces a day. You can continue feeding this same amount, or cut back to 6 ounces a day per cat. Either way, pick an amount, stick with it for a few weeks, and watch your cats' body condition and weight. If they begin to put on weight (assuming they're currently at or over their optimal weights), reduce how much you're feeding; if they begin to lose weight, just watch that it's not more than a few ounces per week and once they reach optimal body condition, increase the food just a bit so their weight stabilizes.

Optimal body condition = you shouldn't be able to see their ribs, but you should definitely be able to feel them.

As an example, this is my last rescue kitty, Ralph, shortly after he arrived. Notice his ribcage, hip bones and shoulders blades are all visible:



And here he is a few months ago, nicely filled out, but with a still-visible waistline.



Your girl is most likely crying because she's unused to actually feeling hungry. Give her time and she'll come 'round.

Hope that's helpful!

AC

Thanks for the reply. Good to know about the wet food, I am going to try and incorporate more variety into their diet.

I guess I will keep an eye on their weight and see how it goes. One cat is at optimal weight, and his weight has not fluctuated his whole adult life. Gem on the other hand is overweight so it's a little tricky....she should be eating less but she's the one that cries. I'm happy to hear that I"m not off on the three meals a day. I feel like everything I read, and what other people I know do, is 2 meals a day.

Just want to chime in here and say that I also feed a WIDE variety of wet foods as Auntie used to before she went all natural. I never have any issues with digestive upset either. I am now incorporating pre-made raw into their diet's too. They love it. Agree - 5 oz. per day is about right to start and then adjust accordingly after a few week's of taking note of their body condition. I also feed four small meals a day for my crew. I am lucky in that I am home right now and am able to do it that way. But I would never go to two feeding's a day (but that is just me :rolleyes) - I would always recommend three smaller feeding's a day if possible.

It is a good idea to feed wet food if you can, but I really would try to get them off Fancy feast as soon as possible. It is very tasty, all cats love it, but it is the equivalent of feeding your child on hamburger and chips every day, fast food for cats. The nutrition levels are very low, and the cats willl put on weight and still feel hungry. Fancy Feast is very useful if a cat needs to be 'kick-started' into eating after being sick but is not good as a long term diet.To help you find a better food look up some of thcomparison sites, such as

Http//cats.about.com/cs/catfood

jennyranson said:

It is a good idea to feed wet food if you can, but I really would try to get them off Fancy feast as soon as possible. It is very tasty, all cats love it, but it is the equivalent of feeding your child on hamburger and chips every day, fast food for cats. The nutrition levels are very low, and the cats willl put on weight and still feel hungry. Fancy Feast is very useful if a cat needs to be 'kick-started' into eating after being sick but is not good as a long term diet.To help you find a better food look up some of thcomparison sites, such as
Http//cats.about.com/cs/catfood

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Thanks, like I said, it was definitely my intention to feed them a higher quality food but with everything that was going on, I was happy to get them off the dry and eating! Dealing with a litter box issue as well but I think after the holiday craziness I will look to switch to a better food. Thanks for the advice
 

One other thing....how long can you leave a bowl of canned food out for? I know it's not ideal as it starts to dry out but how long before it's dangerous i.e. bacteria?

Jkbank said:

One other thing....how long can you leave a bowl of canned food out for? I know it's not ideal as it starts to dry out but how long before it's dangerous i.e. bacteria?

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Despite what many people think, you can actually leave canned food out for several hours (unless you live in an unusually hot climate or have a pest problem). If you add a couple tsps of water, it won't dry out as quickly either. People are way too paranoid about the bacteria issue. Cat's digestive tracts are much better suited to handling bacteria levels that might pose a problem to humans. I've left canned food out for up to 12 hours and have never had a cat get sick from eating it at that point. And I'm not the only one (thousands of people on another forum do the same). 

Sugarcatmom said:

Despite what many people think, you can actually leave canned food out for several hours (unless you live in an unusually hot climate or have a pest problem). If you add a couple tsps of water, it won't dry out as quickly either. People are way too paranoid about the bacteria issue. Cat's digestive tracts are much better suited to handling bacteria levels that might pose a problem to humans. I've left canned food out for up to 12 hours and have never had a cat get sick from eating it at that point. And I'm not the only one (thousands of people on another forum do the same). 

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Thanks, that's what a friend told me, and makes sense to me. Then my husband got me all paranoid about leaving it out (he's in the food business!). Sometimes there's no way around my having to leave it out...we are still adjusting from an all-dry food diet.

Cats can most certainly deal with crazy high bacterial loads that would sicken and kill their owners; however, we need to keep in mind their tolerance is not infinite (and cats fed a heavily-processed diet of canned or kibble do not enjoy the level of safeguards as those same cats would were they switched to raw).

Canned food will grow bacteria when it's left out, and adding water to that food will increase that bacteria growth exponentially. So while you can leave it out longer than most people think is safe, the longer you do so the smaller your margin of safety grows. An hour or so, even a few hours, I'd be comfortable with; leaving it out for twelve hours on a regular basis is not, however, what I would consider an optimal or healthy practice.

Regards!

AC

Jkbank said:

One other thing....how long can you leave a bowl of canned food out for? I know it's not ideal as it starts to dry out but how long before it's dangerous i.e. bacteria?

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Unlike raw food, the canned essentially starts out sterile when you open it, so it can be left out a couple hours without issue.   Remember the food is already cooked in the can, but the exact time will depend on the conditions of your home.   My home is currently at 45% humidity and 67oF according to my gauge, so the food would long dry out and turn into unappetizing dried refried beans consistency before I was worried about too much bacteria growing. 

Most in the food industry are paranoid about bacteria due to regulation, but I can't count the times I've eaten leftover pizza in the morning that was left out after a party and never gotten sick.  Now if it were an uncooked pizza, no, I certainly wouldn't eat it 10-12 hours later.

Auntie Crazy said:

 leaving it out for twelve hours on a regular basis is not, however, what I would consider an optimal or healthy practice.

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I would say that if there was canned food remaining out after 12 hrs on a regular basis, that someone is feeding their cats too much!

I feed my cat's scheduled meals and do not leave out food. They usually eat everything up at once anyway. I don't think I would leave wet food out for more than an hour. Most cat's won't even touch it after it start's to dry out a bit. If you just feed "scheduled" meal's each day and don't leave any food down - then your kitty will be more hungry and ready to eat at the scheduled feeding's thus be more willing to eat the wet food right up. Good luck with the changeover