Raw and Kibble - how much to feed?

I'm super excited that two of my three cats are eating Rad Cat! Especially because my older male cat is incredibly picky and wont eat ANY wet food, but he's eating Rad Cat with some toppers right now. Our Bengal Rocky is however being very stubborn and refusing all wet food and treats, so I'm still working on transitioning her. 

I don't plan as of right now to exclusively feed raw, I'd like to feed some orijen kibble at night (which they've been on for years) and Rad Cat during the day. I'd like them to eventually get the majority of their calories from Rad Cat, but right now im ok with making it to 50/50 and then slowly increasing. I'm a little confused as to how much i should be feeding them. 

Right now they aren't eating a lot, around 1/4 a cup each per day. I haven't been measuring out the food because I was just trying to see how much they'd eat but now i feel like they like it enough that i need to measure it out. I've looking at the other posts about this and on Rad Cat's site but I'm still a little unsure about how much to feed. Should it be a certain percentage of ideal body weight? or at least 3 oz each? I also read that the lamb version was higher in fat so should i feed less of that flavor? 

Thanks! 

Did yoi figure out how much to feed?

No. Right now I'm feeding Rad Cat in the AM and my cats generally eat about 1-2oz (sometimes they eat some RC in the late afternoon too) and then i put about 1/4 a cup of Orijen out for them to nibble on throughout the evenings. So far it seems to be okay and I don't think they're over eating. I think how much kibble you feed depends on the calorie count for the kibble and how much raw they're eatings, so it varies. 

I have been reading a lot about cat nutrition the past two days.  Kibble is not recommended at all.

Riley1 said:

I have been reading a lot about cat nutrition the past two days.  Kibble is not recommended at all.

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While it may not be recommended, there are people who can't afford anything but dry food.

Riley1 said:

 
I have been reading a lot about cat nutrition the past two days.  Kibble is not recommended at all.

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Sure. Everyone can have their own opinion about it. One of my cats wont eat ANY wet food at all, including raw. My other two are still transitioning. I can afford to feed exclusively raw, I'm just moving at the pace that works for my cats. No need for judgement, we all do what works for us. 

Lots of us have done lots of reading about nutrition. Some people don't recommend kibble, but that's not the issue at hand here. It's not just the issue of what people can afford, but what we as people and what they as cats prefer and will eat. If OP's cats are doing well on raw and kibble, especially a high quality kibble and that doesn't comprise their entire diet, there's really no reason to have qualms about dry food. Every cat is different, and not every cat will eat or thrive on the same diet.

Fortunately Rad Cat is good with providing their nutritional info online, so what I would do is take the two foods you feed and get a ballpark idea of the calorie count with a tool like this: http://fnae.org/carbcalorie.html

It would depend largely on the cat though. Factor in weight and activity level, and there's also a variety of opinions as to how many calories you should feed per pound. Some say 18, some say 20, some say 25 calories per pound. Something like Rad Cat Turkey works out around 28 calories per ounce, and Orijen Regional Red 117 calories per ounce. If a cat is 10lbs, for example, they would need 200ish calories (you can always ask your vet for their opinion since they can actually see and feel the cats' body conditions). You could do something like 0.85 ounces of dry at night and 3.5 ounces of Rad Cat in the morning.

What I actually do, since raw and wet food work out at similar caloric values and I feed wet mixed with raw is I feed about 5 ounces of wet/raw for breakfast and dinner, and then 0.5 ounce of kibble as a treat hidden in a treat ball at bedtime. This is for our 9.5 lb cat whose weight just needs to be maintained.

Hold on guys!  I was not trying to offend anyone or make judgements about their resources.  Just reporting what I have been reading.  Finding many things I did not know & passing on the information.  Sorry if I made anyone feel bad about feeding kibble.

Riley1 said:

Hold on guys!  I was not trying to offend anyone or make judgements about their resources.  Just reporting what I have been reading.  Finding many things I did not know & passing on the information.  Sorry if I made anyone feel bad about feeding kibble.

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I didn't think you were, i was just saying not everyone can afford it just as long they feed the best dry food they can afford

P.S  Evo dry has more protein than any other dry food sold here in the US.  I feed it to my foster kittens because most will be on dry when they leave me.  Orijen is highly rated; never tried it however.