Feeding a Mixed Dry & Wet Diet

I have been feeding my two cats a combination of Purina Cat Chow Complete and Friskies Pate Wet Food for 2 years. I am switching to Kirkland Signature Maintenance Cat Food and Trader Joe's canned food, and want to make sure I'm giving them the right amount of calories and nutrients between the two.

My question is, how does one make sure/calculate the amount of food is right when feeding both wet and dry for your cat? If anyone else reads this, and feeds a mixed diet, advice would be very welcome. Thanks a lot

I feed mostly wet with a bit of commercial and homemade raw mixed in, with a tiny bit of dry. If you're not sure how much your cat needs, I would say ask your vet for their input.

For our 5lb cat, it works out to about 3-3.5oz of wet+raw combined for breakfast and dinner, and the 0.5oz of dry in a treat ball in the evening. The wet/raw works out very similar, around 28-30 calories per ounce, whereas the dry works out to 58-60 calories per half ounce. Altogether, this cat gets around 155 calories per day.

Our big 10lber who needs to put on weight gets about 8-10oz of wet+raw combined for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and 0.5oz of dry in the evening. He gets around 300 calories altogether.

I first measured the proportions on a digital food scale, and then appropriated the amount with identifiable things in the kitchen since I keep my digital scale in the bird room to weigh the birds rather than food (lol, I bought it for the purpose of the birds). So now, Kismet's saucer is 1 tablespoon of wet, Mo's is 2.5 heaping tablespoons, and the kibble is based on the amount that fits in my palm. I usually put out excess because they swap saucers and will eat each others'. Since they don't eat it all in one sitting, I put a bit more out than they need. Fortunately neither is overweight and both are fairly active.

I use this tool: http://fnae.org/carbcalorie.html

Thanks so much! I've thought about raw instead of wet.. but wet just seems to be more convenient. Although there are many benefits to raw... Again thanks for the advice!

Raw can be a big jump - if it's not for you or you're not in a position to add it to your routine, don't sweat it. I'm not in a position to feed 100% raw. Even now, despite the fact that I have the homemade raw frozen conveniently into ice cubes in the freezer in serving sizes, I've been so busy lately that I haven't even had the time to take some out to defrost. So the cats will be on just wet and dry until school lets out, which is ultimately better than just dry. At this rate, the raw ends up more as a "treat" given its infrequency but it's also a healthier treat than commercial treats.

bijouandrocky said:

Thanks so much! I've thought about raw instead of wet.. but wet just seems to be more convenient. Although there are many benefits to raw... Again thanks for the advice!

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Commercial freeze dried raw is convenient It's shelf stable so you keep it in a kitchen cabinet or wherever you keep the canned food. Freeze dried raw comes in kibble-like pieces. There's also dehydrated raw food like The Honest Kitchen which is basically powder that you mix with some water before serving.

MOD NOTE:  Please remember that feeding raw can be dangerous if done incorrectly.  If you are interested in raw/homemade diets, please read this first:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/282314/recommending-a-homemade-diet-hold-your-horses

and check out the forum dedicated to this topic: http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-home-cooked-cat-food

bijouandrocky , getting back to your origianal question, I figure out how much my cat would need if I were feeding wet only. I actually give her about 1/4 of that amount so she's getting 25% of her nutrition from the wet food. Then figure how much dry food she would need if she were on dry only and give 75% of that amount. You can split the proportions any way you want: 50/50, 40/60, etc.

Wow I didn't think I would get so many helpful responses. Thanks so much

LTS3 said:

 
Commercial freeze dried raw is convenient

It's shelf stable so you keep it in a kitchen cabinet or wherever you keep the canned food. Freeze dried raw comes in kibble-like pieces. There's also dehydrated raw food like The Honest Kitchen which is basically powder that you mix with some water before serving.

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I've heard about that stuff, but it doesn't seem very convenient money wise XD Some day when I'm rich enough to afford it that would be nice.

GoldyCat said:

@bijouandrocky, getting back to your origianal question, I figure out how much my cat would need if I were feeding wet only. I actually give her about 1/4 of that amount so she's getting 25% of her nutrition from the wet food. Then figure how much dry food she would need if she were on dry only and give 75% of that amount. You can split the proportions any way you want: 50/50, 40/60, etc.

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That seems like a good idea! I guess math always comes to the rescue~