Need help with feeding amounts

I re-read the box for The Honest Kitchen cat food. It says for a 6-10lb cat to feed 1/4-1/2 cups of the dry mix (have to rehydrate). It said this amount was based on active indoor/outdoor cats and for a less active or indoor cat to feed less. 

My question is what should I start Riot out on? Hes 10lbs and kinda lazy all indoor cat. I feel 1/2 cup is a bit much. Hes 1.5 years old. If I did 1/2 cup daily I couldnt afford to feed this food and would have to do half kibble. I was thinking maybe start out with 1/3 cup daily and see how he is a week after eating just that?

Wow!  I just checked their website, and it says it's got approx 600 calories per cup!  So if you feed him 1/2, that's approx 300 calories.  Seems like a lot to me too, for a 10 lb lazy cat!  I would think you could start him out with a little bit less and just keep a close eye on him.  

That being said, when I say a close eye, I really mean that, because I'm converting my cats from kibble to canned in anticipation of going to raw, and last week they all lost too much weight.  WAY too much.  You know it's dangerous if they lose too quickly, right?

I didnt know that. I will keep a close eye on him. Should I maybe weigh him every other day for a couple weeks to see if he loses anything? How many calories a day does a cat need? He does get energy bursts but not very often

"they" say the average cat needs between 20 - 30 calories per pound, and I would say that is per pound of what they should way, not what they actually weigh!  But, as you can see, that's a wide gap.  It truly depends on the cat.  So, if your cat is at a good weight, you really just have to keep an eye on him when changing food to see if he's gaining or losing, and adjust the amount appropriately.  Hope this is helpful

I weighed him today and he went from 10lbs to 9.4lbs in the last week. So I should up his food intake?

Has he only been on the 1/3 cup for 3 days and he's lost .6 lbs????????  If so, that's a dramatic weight loss and I would increase the food.  IF that's what I am reading.  BTW, which Honest Kitchen is he on?  When I googled them, I saw there were two different varieties with different caloric values, although they were still both around 600 per cup, as I recall.  (one was slightly over, one slightly under)

He is on the Prowl one. Chicken based. My scale could be slightly off as well. It says 9.6lbs now. 

Chloe16 said:

He is on the Prowl one. Chicken based. My scale could be slightly off as well. It says 9.6lbs now. 

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OK, so the Prowl says it has 576 calorie's per cup, so 1/2 cup is 288 cals. and 1/3 cup is 192 cals.  So....if you split the difference in the number of calories a cat should get (between 20 - 30) and go with 25 per pound, and go with his ideal weight of say 10 pounds, then he should get 250 cals a day?  Is that what you want to go with?  Then you need to feed somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 a cup.  'Course, if your scales aren't accurate, than what can you do but just look at him and feel him and make your best judgement if he's the perfect weight.  Here's a link to help you judge that:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/213862/ideal-weight-for-cat