How much Protein should a cat eat.

Does anyone know how much protein should be in dry food. My cats eat a grain free, limited ingredients diet. All the cat food has 30 grams of protein in it. My Vet wants me to feed them and ID formula. Thanks for your help with this issue.

This website explains all about cat protein requirements http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+1399&aid=701

mrtm1957 said:

 
Does anyone know how much protein should be in dry food. My cats eat a grain free, limited ingredients diet. All the cat food has 30 grams of protein in it. My Vet wants me to feed them and ID formula. Thanks for your help with this issue.

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@mrtm1957   , I have  no idea what the correct answer is  or if there even is one but I found this article online that  is very interesting ..  I hope it helps .. 

I feed my 2 cats  kibble ( they refuse to eat wet food of any kind ) ..  I feed  a mix  Wysong Epigen 90 & Evo Cat & Kitten ..

The mix equals about 50% Protein and very low carbs , appx 10% ..  

They have   4 water dishes of different shapes and sizes .. So far they are doing well ..

Here is the article I found .. This the website , it has much more info .. http://endocrinevet.blogspot.com/2011/11/optimal-protein-requirements-for-older.html

How Much Protein Do Normal Cats “Want” to Eat?

Remember that cats as obligate carnivores need proportionally more protein in its diet compared to other mammals (1-3). Cats do not have a dietary requirement for carbohydrates. Therefore, cats are adapted to eat a protein-rich, carbohydrate-poor diet. The composition of a cat’s diet in the wild (as a percentage of calories or metabolizable energy ingested) is approximately 50-60% protein, 30-50% fat, and 5-10% carbohydrates (2,11-13).

First, let’s do some calculations about the likely daily protein intake for the living in the wild:

• First, we know that in the wild where cats can choose what prey they eat, they would normally ingest at least 50% of their daily calorie needs as protein.
• The daily energy requirements for a typical, inactive adult cat is about 40-45 kilocalories (kcal)/kg/day, whereas the energy requirement for active or underweight cats is up to 80 kcal/kg/day (9,14,15).
• So, if 50% of a cat’s calories are derived from ingested protein, and protein provides 3.5 kcal of energy per gram (g), that would calculate into 5.7 g/kg/day of protein (for a cat consuming 40 kcal/kg/day) up to 11.4 g/kg/day (for a cat eating 80 kcal/kg/day).

In support of these calculations is a recent study (16) that examined the diet composition of 42 clinically normal colony cats (aged 2.9-9.1 years) that were allowed to voluntarily choose the composition of their diet in order to fulfill their daily caloric need. In other words, this study asked the question: When cats can choose their own proportion of protein, fats, and carbohydrates to fulfill their daily energy requirements, what did they actually eat?

In that study (16), investigators found that the “intake target was close to 26 g/day of protein, 9 g/day of fat, and 8 g/day of carbohydrate, yielding a macronutrient energy composition of 52% protein, 36% fat and 12% carbohydrate.” Since the mean body of weight of these 42 cats was 4.9 kg, that would calculate to a daily protein intake of approximately 5.3 g/kg/day. 

The daily protein value of 5.3 g/kg/day is close to the lower end of my calculated range of 5.7 to 11.4 g/kg/day for cats in the wild. Why lower? The likely reason relates to the fact that these research cats were inactive. Therefore, their calculated energy requirement was only about 45 kcal/kg/day (9,14,15). Remember that these cats were allowed to voluntarily choose to eat protein over carbohydrates, but they were not allowed to eat as much as they wanted. The more calories cats ingest, of course, the higher their daily protein intake.

Summary: The optimal daily protein intake in clinically normal, young to middle-aged cats appears to range from approximately 5.5 g/kg up to 11.5 g/kg.

One thing to keep in mind is that you need to compare apples to apples.  So when looking at protein figures, you need to always figure out the protein amount on a dry matter percentage.  The package doesn't usually give you that information.  Here's an article that tells you how to figure it out, complete with a download that will figure  out each food for you when you plug in the info from the bag/can.  (bags always show a much higher protein amount than cans, but looks can be deceiving )

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-compare-cat-foods-calculate-carbs-dry-matter-basis

Thank you for all your help.