wet food not keeping kitty full......

Ok so I've come at the food issue from the point of view of my boy getting the runs from all kibbles....finally got him settled onto a good one, then he wouldn't keep his heat out of the toilet and use his water bowl....solved that, and he wasn't drinking enough to keep hydrated in the heat  with kibble as his food source. SO I cut his kibble back to less than half of his food, and now I'm feeding him canned food, mixed in with warm water. This serves a double purpose: 1)it keeps him hydrated 2)it warms his food when served from a can out of the fridge.

Well since I put Matt on wet food, his litterbox problems are all cleared up, and he's healthier. the only problem I'm having now is that his food's not holding him more than a few hours. I have to feed him every 4-5 hours. With the dry he eats overnight, (a little less than a 1/4 cup scoop) and the 1/2 can/ day he eats of wet he's on about 300 calories a day...that SHOULD be enough for a 12lb cat, right?  so is it the food? maybe it's not dense enough? I put him on California Natural chicken/rice formula,Oceanfish/rice formula, and Venison/rice formula because I was told they would be easy on his stomach. I don't recall him being so hungry on friskies before though, so I got a can of that and it's denser(and I know packed full of junk which is why I took him off it once I realized how much he liked eating wet food)It occurs to me that when I eat rice I am hungry shortly afterwards, and I wondered if Matt is feeling the same, so I have him back on Friskies for now. What food would keep him full?

Three hundred calories are way too many for a 12-pound cat. Matt needs to go down to about 200.

It is one of the more expensive cat food brands, but Weruva only uses the same parts of the chicken you would eat and is good for fat cats as it is grain-free with only 1% carbohydrates. I know wag.com sells it and assume other online pet stores do too, but if Matt likes it, Amazon has cases of 24 in both the 3 and 5.5 ounce sizes.

300 may not be too many calories. . .25 per pound and that's on the high side of normal. If he's fairly active it could be the right amount. I'd keep an eye on his weight and adjust accordingly.

I feed my cats 3 times a day, I don't think they'd be happy with twice a day. Do you think he'd be OK with 2 evenly spaced meals of canned food and then his dry food at night?

Even if 300 is not too many calories for most 12-pound cats it is still a good idea to feed less than that if Matt looks pudgy or fat in any way. His picture looks good, so if he has not gained weight since you took it, I would not make a big deal about cutting calories. But if he is heavier now than he was at the time you took the picture, watch his waistline and adjust accordingly.

I can see him not being satisfied (and perhaps a tendency to gain weight) from the foods being fed. The calorie content also plays a role here.

Here's why: he is eating foods that contain grains, therefore he is not getting as satisfied as he would if he was eating a grainless canned (or kibble, which I don't recommend for a strict carnivore). The grains are of little use to a kitty--they don't process them properly--so grains/fruits/etc are mostly going to cause weight gain (grains get converted to fat because kitties can't process them), but also not satisfy his hunger. The useless grains also add to the calorie content, but since they are basically there for filler by pet food manufacturers, your kitty is not getting benefit from these calories as real food. It might say that it is 300 kcal per serving (an example), but if the grains were removed it would be less. Perhaps significantly less.

Switching to a grainless canned food would be more appropriate and you should see a decrease in his being hungry so often. He would be getting a much more bioavailable food, and therefore is more satisfied.

It also depends on his age, activity level, his unique metabolism, size, and health how many calories are appropriate. With my three kitties, one is almost 16, the other two are almost eight and five respectively. My "oldster" eats about the same amount as my youngest. My almost 8-year-old is a Maine Coon and can out eat both of the other two, but he is a large kitty-cat (not an ounce of fat on him). FWIW, I feed a balanced raw diet. If I fed canned it would break the bank around here because the bioavailability of the raw is higher than the best grainless/fruit-free canned, therefore they eat less (approximately 14-16oz per day for all three).

EmilyMayWilcha said:

Even if 300 is not too many calories for most 12-pound cats it is still a good idea to feed less than that if Matt looks pudgy or fat in any way. His picture looks good, so if he has not gained weight since you took it, I would not make a big deal about cutting calories. But if he is heavier now than he was at the time you took the picture, watch his waistline and adjust accordingly.

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no, he hasn't gained weight that I can see since I took the photo. that was about 2weeks ago, when I was only beginning the wet food experiment and I was taken with how well he liked it, so decided to make it a permanent thing, if I can figure it out. He's much healthier and happier for it. so far his pudginess is in his tummy, and it's the same as what our old Sassy had...she was 13lbs when we lost her, after losing a pound and a half over her last year...her tummy swung from side to side. She was also on the same kibble. 

   I think I'll try Matt on a 95% meat food and see if it fills him better, then drop his calories down towards a 200-240 goal and see how he does....maybe something more focused on the meat will sit longer in his stomach

The abdominal swing, which some people call the "spay sway" even though it has nothing to do with spaying, is unrelated to obesity. Patricia has it and she weighs less than 10 pounds.

It would be a great idea to give Matt more meat andf less carbs.

I got him one of those 95%meat foods, and I've only had to feed him twice today. I'm, not happy with paying almost three dollars for the 5.5oz can, but considering that he only ate the one can all day and is full.....perhaps it will pay for itself? It could be that I chose a pricey brand too, the kids were with me and touching things, so I just grabbed a couple of cans and got outta there.

Matts mom said:

I got him one of those 95%meat foods, and I've only had to feed him twice today. I'm not happy with paying almost three dollars for the 5.5oz can, but considering that he only ate the one can all day and is full. Perhaps it will pay for itself? It could be that I chose a pricey brand too, the kids were with me and touching things, so I just grabbed a couple of cans and got outta there.

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Think of it this way: If you buy a cheaper cat food thinking it will save you money you will end up wishing Matt had health insurance. You can't go wrong with more meat and less carbs.

I'm glad you picked up some grain-free wet. I also agree that he was likely hungry because he wasn't digesting it fully (due to the added fillers) and 300cal may not have been enough for him.

Personally I know you like to feed dry at night, but I would scrap the dry and feed more wet. There's also less chance of him being overweight on a grain-free wet diet as it contains more protein and less carbs. You also may want to consider rotating between wet foods (each wet food has different amounts of protein, nutrients, etc.) and he may be less hungry if he is getting a variety of proteins/vitamin & minerals. That way you could feed Friskies now and again to help keep costs down, or if your daring even supplement with raw.

If you notice that he continues to be hungry, you could always slightly increase his wet from 1/2 can to 3/4 can for a month or so and then slowly decrease it. If weight becomes an issue I would decrease the dry not the wet since dry is the likely culprit.

I don't know your schedule, but you could always feed three meals a day of wet (morning, supper, evening) instead of feeding dry at night. Thats what we do at my place and everyones happy.

Also, feel free to run wet food brands by us if your unsure of quality, we'd be happy to help in anyway we can!