Cat eating less when weather gets hotter?

It's getting warmer and I noticed my cat is eating less and starting to ration her food, specifically her dinner (I feed 3 meals a day with her dinner being the largest).  So I'm going assume a cat eats less when it get's hotter, right?  Do owners feed less calories during the Summer (cut down from your cat's usual amount)?  If so, is there a specific calorie range?  Normally I feed around 260-280 calories to maintain Shanoah's weight of 9-10 pounds.

I've never experienced it, but I have heard that some cats eat less. It makes sense, you just don't need as many calories to maintain the same body temperature. Normally I get hungry for richer foods during the winter.

Sorry, don't have any guidelines for how much food to reduce, but just make sure she doesn't lose too much weight.  When you're trying to get your kitty to lose weight, it is recommended to go down no more than 10% of calories per month.

Mine are in the A/C all day so not much difference. My female eats less since she stopped going out. I feed two meals and a bedtime snack. Morning is the biggest meal,it is also the coolest part of day! They get 2 or 3 .5 ounces a meal, small female and big male! Snack is purebite freeze dried chicken (dog size) since dog loves them too!

My cats have both lost a little weight lately (they had some to spare) and it's because of the heat. They both eat a little less than they did in the winter, and they've been going out for walks every day. It's surprising how quickly this had made a difference, wish I could lose some "winter weight" that easily...

For Shanoah I normally give her:

Breakfast: 3 oz can

Dinner: 1/4 cup Honest Kitchen (plus 1/4 cup water)

Midnight: 1.83 oz of a 5.5 oz can

This always rounds out to 260-280 calories.  Breakfast and midnight are different everyday with a rotation going on.  For dinner I switch between chicken or turkey HK every other day.

She cleans her bowl in one go during breakfast and midnight but she's rationing dinner.  She'll eat some, walk away, come back later and eat some more, walk away, etc.  So I should figure out of she's sick of HK or eating less because of the heat.  It seems like a no brainer to cut down the HK to 1/8 cup (plus 1/8 water).

Our house doesn't have A/C so we open windows, doors, and use bed room A/C machines.

FelineEmpathy said:

For Shanoah I normally give her:
Breakfast: 3 oz can
Dinner: 1/4 cup Honest Kitchen (plus 1/4 cup water)
Midnight: 1.83 oz of a 5.5 oz can

This always rounds out to 260-280 calories.  Breakfast and midnight are different everyday with a rotation going on.  For dinner I switch between chicken or turkey HK every other day.

She cleans her bowl in one go during breakfast and midnight but she's rationing dinner.  She'll eat some, walk away, come back later and eat some more, walk away, etc.  So I should figure out of she's sick of HK or eating less because of the heat.  It seems like a no brainer to cut down the HK to 1/8 cup (plus 1/8 water).

Our house doesn't have A/C so we open windows, doors, and use bed room A/C machines.

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Then your observation might be correct, when my girl used to go out her summer appetite dropped and she lost weight! Or, maybe your cat prefers canned foods! See if canned food at dinner is eaten as slowly! Mine takes all day to eat freeze dried raw. She does not like it! My cat never loved heat and humidity, but she loooooved the snow, she is an odd one!

bonepicker said:

Then your observation might be correct, when my girl used to go out her summer appetite dropped and she lost weight! Or, maybe your cat prefers canned foods! See if canned food at dinner is eaten as slowly! Mine takes all day to eat freeze dried raw. She does not like it! My cat never loved heat and humidity, but she loooooved the snow, she is an odd one!

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Yeah I think I'll try giving her canned for dinner tonight to see how she does.  I have a sneaky suspicion that it might just be the heat.  When she's a sick of a food or doesn't want to eat it, she'll just flat out not eat it and start rubbing against my legs trying to get something else out of me.

I know how that goes, they play you!

I have noticed that my cat eats slightly less in summer and seems to eat slower in the heat.   

Well I was totally wrong.  Gave her a can of Fancy Feast Classic and she gobbled it down without rationing and proceeded to run around the house being wild .  I guess she was getting tired of the Honest Kitchen.  The 1/4 cup serving is pretty big too so I could try cutting down on it.

FelineEmpathy said:

Well I was totally wrong.  Gave her a can of Fancy Feast Classic and she gobbled it down without rationing and proceeded to run around the house being wild :lol3: .  I guess she was getting tired of the Honest Kitchen.  The 1/4 cup serving is pretty big too so I could try cutting down on it.

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Now a bored kitty eating less that I have heard of a lot! [emoji]128576[/emoji][emoji]128576[/emoji][emoji]128576[/emoji]