I need some help with feeding amounts & calories. I'm the tiniest bit concerned that Simon & Garfunkel are getting ever so slightly on the portly side. (I'm going by this chart and on the boys I don't see a waist that is quite that defined. Joni cuts a perfectly trim, athletic figure
so I'm not concerned about her weight.) I'm going to adjust with more daily interactive play but I also wanted to get a better grasp of how much they're eating every day since I don't keep very good track. I should also mention I don't know their exact weights - the boys are going in for a check-up in a few weeks so I'll get the official numbers then. I estimate they are about 12 pounds a piece, with Simon taking any remainder between the two of them. I know that sounds like a lot but they are very tall and VERY long boys - if they are overweight it's not by a lot. Here's a picture of Simon & Joni spooning, so you can see their size difference:
On good days (maybe 4 or 5 days out of the week), each kitten gets a third of a 5.5oz can of low-carb (<10% k/cal from carbs) flavors of Sophistacat wet food for two meals, and a medium amount of dry food before bed. On bad days (2-3 days a week) one of their wet meals is replaced by an unknown amount of dry food tossed as quickly as possible into their food pans during the 12.4 seconds I'm in the house between jobs. That gives them either 1.83 or 3.67 ounces per day of wet food, for ~64 or ~122 calories from the wet and an unknown amount of calories from the dry food. Their dry food is Simply Nourish kitten formula, and here's my math question: on the Petsmart website under nutritional info, it says Calorie Content: Metabolizable Energy - 3,910 kcal/kg (Calculated). What the HECK does that mean and how can I convert it to a usable number to control how many calories they get from the dry food?
What formula should I use to figure out how many calories they should be eating based on their weight? There's at least 2-3 pounds of difference between the boys and Joni, so should I try to prevent her from eating the same amount as them, or since she has an ideal body condition just assume she only eats what she needs?
My other question is about food quality. Money has been scarce for the last six months, but with a raise and a move to almost half the rent in my very near future, things will be easing up quite a bit and I'd like to move to a higher quality canned food (with my sights on raw eventually). Will the higher protein content of better foods render this sort of calorie counting unnecessary altogether?
Sorry for the confusing post, posting at work in between projects. Thanks in advance for your help!
On good days (maybe 4 or 5 days out of the week), each kitten gets a third of a 5.5oz can of low-carb (<10% k/cal from carbs) flavors of Sophistacat wet food for two meals, and a medium amount of dry food before bed. On bad days (2-3 days a week) one of their wet meals is replaced by an unknown amount of dry food tossed as quickly as possible into their food pans during the 12.4 seconds I'm in the house between jobs. That gives them either 1.83 or 3.67 ounces per day of wet food, for ~64 or ~122 calories from the wet and an unknown amount of calories from the dry food. Their dry food is Simply Nourish kitten formula, and here's my math question: on the Petsmart website under nutritional info, it says Calorie Content: Metabolizable Energy - 3,910 kcal/kg (Calculated). What the HECK does that mean and how can I convert it to a usable number to control how many calories they get from the dry food?
What formula should I use to figure out how many calories they should be eating based on their weight? There's at least 2-3 pounds of difference between the boys and Joni, so should I try to prevent her from eating the same amount as them, or since she has an ideal body condition just assume she only eats what she needs?
My other question is about food quality. Money has been scarce for the last six months, but with a raise and a move to almost half the rent in my very near future, things will be easing up quite a bit and I'd like to move to a higher quality canned food (with my sights on raw eventually). Will the higher protein content of better foods render this sort of calorie counting unnecessary altogether?
Sorry for the confusing post, posting at work in between projects. Thanks in advance for your help!