What is the best way to feed my cat?

I currently have a cat, Olive, that is around 1 year old. I've taken her in from a shelter 2 months ago, and she and I have become the best of friends. I've been feeding her canned Friskies ever since I've taken her in and she loves it. I get her the 400g can, and she finishes it in the course of 2-3 days. However on the can instructions it says that one whole can a day is the way to feed my cat, but I personally thought it to be too much and my cat is already physically "chubby" and well-fed, if you may say.

So my question is, it correct to feed her one 400g can of Friskies a day? Or do I stay on the same method I've been going with? Also, all the canned food types are Fish [Sea food platter, mackarel, prawn, that kind of stuff]

Also, is Friskies a good cat food brand anyway? I've read some things about it that it might not be the best, especially if she's always eating fish type. If so, what would you recommend the best wet cat food? [She prefers wet food over dry food]

And one more question, is raw feeding recommended as well? If you guys can give me information about that as well I'd appreciate it!

Here's a photo of the type of can I get her

Awesome that you're feeding wet! Cats don't have much of a thirst drive so they need to get water from their food.

Friskies isn't the worst but it's not the best. Do you live in the US? I feed my cat a variety of poultry wet foods but she gets a fish variety once a month as a treat. Fish are high in magnesium and phosphorus so it's better to feed poultry or rabbit, if possible. I feed my cat a variety of brands such as Wellness (Turkey only), Tiki Cat (Puka Puka Luau), Merrick (Grammy's Pot Pie), Trader Joe's (Turkey and Giblets). 

You might wanna check out catinfo.org which has a Protein/Fat/Carbohydrates chart of various wet food brands and choose the ones you can afford. 

For the amount I feed, I go by calories. catinfo.org has a formula to calculate how many calories you need to maintain weight. Feed less or more than that depending on your cat's activity level. My own cat usually eats around 140 calories, which might be less than what you think but she's at a stable weight and healthy. The recommended feeding on cat food labels are usually more than enough due to the fact that the food company wants to sell more food and also they feel that it's better to overfeed than to underfeed.

I actually live all the way in Malaysia, so not all the different varieties of cat foods are available here which is unfortunate as I want nothing but to spoil my cat with the best and tastiest food. The other problem I get living in Malaysia is that most of the canned food is pretty much only Fish variety. We get Friskies, Whiskas, Iams and a few other Purina products. But have you heard of Science Diet brand? I've never personally tried it but I heard that it's quite a great quality, if you have any info on that I'd love to hear about it.

And as for the feeding amount, I think I'll just stick to what I'm doing now, she's doing great as she is!  

Thanks for the info, I'll keep a look out on the food brands you told me of and I'll definitely check out that website.

Science Diet is not the greatest. I believe there are some better varieties of it though. 

I know what it's like having only fish varieties. My family lives in Japan, and in Japan also most of the foods are fish varieties. Besides the domestic brands we have Purina, Whiskas/Kal Kan, Science Diet, Iams, and Royal Canin. Do you guys have Mon Petit aka Fancy Feast? I know some of the Mon Petit cans are grain free and they have some poultry varieties.

The other choice is going raw, as I found when living in Japan finding organs was pretty easy. I personally do not do raw because I haven't had the time (might start in the summer). There is a raw subsection of this forum that you can ask questions.

If you go online you might be able to import some of the American/European brands. One of the easily acquired brands you can import is Natural Balance.

Especially since you are feeding all fish canned diet, I would recommend adding some raw meat (chicken, turkey, beef, pork, etc.) like you asked about in your other post. An all fish diet is not good for various reasons, so if you can't get non-fish variety foods, adding raw meat is a good option for you.

Oh yes I think we do have Natural Balance here, but if I'm correct only the dry food variety is available at the moment, but I'll have to check again. I'm guessing it's a great brand? We also do have Fancy Feast, I think I'll add some of the poultry variety to her diet as well. 

As for the raw, I might just give her small raw snacks during the day every now and then just to keep her appetite going and not too addicted to the fish variety. I've asked a couple questions there, still waiting for some answers. Just hoping my cat isn't too finicky haha

vball91 said:

Especially since you are feeding all fish canned diet, I would recommend adding some raw meat (chicken, turkey, beef, pork, etc.) like you asked about in your other post. An all fish diet is not good for various reasons, so if you can't get non-fish variety foods, adding raw meat is a good option for you.

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Ah yes, I just read your response in my other post. That's what I'm going to attempt to do soon, going to hope for some good results! Thanks for the feedback

One more question, I found that Evo may be available here. I've read that it's grain free and rich in protein, so would any of you recommend it?

Evo is a great food. It's pretty high-fat also, so you might be finding that you feed less than what you are feeding right now. Plenty of cats do fine on a high-fat diet, just know how many calories you're feeding and you should be good to go!

Hala Beirouty said:

Oh yes I think we do have Natural Balance here, but if I'm correct only the dry food variety is available at the moment, but I'll have to check again. I'm guessing it's a great brand? We also do have Fancy Feast, I think I'll add some of the poultry variety to her diet as well. 

As for the raw, I might just give her small raw snacks during the day every now and then just to keep her appetite going and not too addicted to the fish variety. I've asked a couple questions there, still waiting for some answers. Just hoping my cat isn't too finicky haha

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If you can find the Fancy Feast Classics that would be good to try. Also, you can try different brands of wet for a different variety and texture for your kitty. It does not always have to be the same brand of flavor. Personally I feed fish to my cats only once or maybe twice a week at most. It's great you have your cat on an all wet diet! I do not have a lot of knowledge about Natural Balance dry food but if you're feeding an all wet diet right now I wouldn't start on kibble!!! ,

A raw diet might, or might not,, be an option for you. We have a great raw forum here on TCS at http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-feeding-for-cats. Best of luck to you and keep us posted if you can

Yeah I wouldn't come close to starting her on kibble snacks, wouldn't want her to start a liking to it. I tried dry food the first few days I got her, and she didn't seem interested in it anyway so I took it out of her diet right away and kept her on wet food only, which I then later discovered was the healthiest for her. She loooooooves to eat, so like you said, I'm gonna start giving her a variety of different brands and food types to spice it for her I'm not sure if I'll find the Fancy Feast classics specifically, but there's other Fancy Feast varieties available, are these also grain-free and healthy to add to her diet?