Hunger, Calories, & Weight - with a MATH question! :)

parsleysage

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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!
 
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parsleysage

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LOL I just realized my title has hunger in it and I didn't mention anything about it - I was going to talk about how Garfunkel always seem hungry.  If I even walk in the vicinity of the kitchen he runs in there like I'm going to feed them, and when I'm preparing their food he is screaming for it and winding around my ankles and trying to climb the counters.  Is he just neurotic (well, the answer to that is yes, of course, lol!) or should I be concerned about it?  It's just him, Joni & Simon are fine.
 

carolina

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20 calories per pound based on their lean weight - meaning, their ideal weight.
So, if their ideal weight is 10lbs, they need 200cal a day..... if 12lbs, they need 240/day..... That is to maintain the weight.

If you want them to lose, 15 calories based on their current weight :wavey:
 

auntie crazy

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Originally Posted by parsleysage

....Will the higher protein content of better foods render this sort of calorie counting unnecessary altogether?

....
Yes. In fact, I would say such counting is already unnecessary, since cats handle calories from protein, fat, and carbs very differently - with the former two being generally utilized and the latter being converted to stored fat - and you have no way of separating those numbers.

Your cats are still young, and you intend to put them on a better quality (higher animal-protein / lower carb content) canned diet very soon, so I would not, in truth, worry too much about their weight at this time. If anything, I'd simply drop the kibble, since that's likely where most of the carb calories are coming from anyway.

Best regards!

AC
 

minka

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12lbs is normal for a male cat, but the only way to be sure is to get a check up with your vet. Ask him or her what the ideal weight of each cat is. Based on waist, my cat is ideal weight, but all of his fat rests in his chest, so he is 3lbs overweight in reality.

I don't count calories, it's way too confusing, especailly since each flavor has a different amount, some 250, others 110, etc. I feed one can per day, split up into 2-6 meals, depending on if I'm lounging around or 5 minutes late to work. xD

I say start at 2/3rds can of wet (like you are doing) and 1/4th cup of dry and see how it goes. (And be consistant!) If they gain weight, then cut back on dry until they start losing. In fact if you can, like Auntie said, cut out dry entirely. :)
 

ldg

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If you plan (eventually) to move them to all canned or raw anyway, it's best to have them on timed meals to start with. :nod: I don't know your work schedule, but most people feed them before work, after work, then before bed.

And he probably acts hungry all the time because carbs are like empty calories for them. :nod: It's just work on their digestive system.
 
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parsleysage

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Thanks for all the replies!  The boys have check-ups this Sunday so I'll know their weight then.  If they're not 12 pounds I will be shocked!  I am so excited to know their weight, they have grown so huge that it's hard to believe on May 1 when they came home they were little 2-pound balls of fluff!  The last time they were weighed was their neuter appt in July, when they were about six and a half pounds.  

I know the dry is not an ideal food for them and I have wanted to go all-canned with them but the cost and logistics have both been prohibitive.  I've been working so much and coming home at such weird times throughout the week that they could eat at 5pm, 9pm, or 12am, and I never sleep enough so I'm ALWAYS late which makes dry the convenient breakfast food :( as I can sling it in the pans in my mad dash out the door.  Their canned food is very low carb, I said <10% above but only one variety (mixed grill I think) is 6% carbs, the rest are 1% and the turkey & liver is 0%!  (I don't feed the fish-based flavors... though the flavors I do feed ALL have fish in them somewhere, which is frustrating, but it's at least the 8th or 9th ingredient so I'm hoping it's not too bad on them.)

So it's just the carbs in the dry food, which I do need to cut back on.  I quit my second job - YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because moving is going to free up funds for me, so I will work on cutting that back while I get my books back in black.  I do want to try to start raw pretty soon after that, for a number of reasons.  In many cases it ends up being cheaper than an all-canned diet - I was at Petco today and OMG those prices on 5.5oz grain free canned!!!!!!!!! and I also want to do it while they're still young.  I've loved reading all the success stories of converting finicky eaters to raw, and I'm hoping since they are all really strong eaters without allergies or illnesses to contend with, it will be easy for us as well!  (They also eat a lot of canned not 100% dry so I think that will help.)

I guess it is too soon to be worrying about their weight especially since we would be talking about less than a pound, and they may still grow for several months yet.  Instead I'm going to focus on being more diligent about two canned meals with the dry snack at bedtime instead of 1 canned 1 dry plus the snack.
 
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