How much should my cat be eating per day?

bluesmama

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He's 10 months old, approx. 10lbs, healthy and thriving great! Right now I feed him about 1/3cup per day but spreaded about 3-4 times a day.  Only problem with this is that he acts hungry all the time (he drinks fine as well), and will also wake me up mid night cause he's hungry, so I'm not sure if I'm under feeding him since its strictly dry food only (I give wet food as a treat once in a while only).  He is on Blue Buffalo therefor its a high quality dry food.  Can someone point me in the right feeding directions? And please no "you should feed wet or raw only" it just doesn't work with our lifestyle at this moment.  Thanks.
 

xcourtney3

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Which Blue Buffalo are you feeding? 
 
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bluesmama

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Wilderness grain free chicken recipe
 

xcourtney3

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The food has 435 kcal/cup.

I'm thinking your cat probably need ~260 calories a day (this is just an estimate, I'm sure someone will come along and correct me if I'm off)

That comes out to a little over a half cup a day

Hopefully someone can give another estimate for you. 
 
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bluesmama

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I do feed him 1/3 cup a day split in about 3-4 feedings, but he still acts hungry all the time! I think he's a little piggy lol
 

xcourtney3

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I don't think 1/3 cup a day is enough for a 10 month old
 

its tom the cat

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I am not crazy about giving a male cat strictly dry food. I would go to moist and give dry as a treat. Male cats can develop urinary tract problems (crystals) on a mostly dry diet. A close friend who is a pilot and would be away for a few days would just leave dry in bowls to tide him over. The cat suffered with crystals and my friend suffered greatly himself when the cat passed away due to this.

I am hardly an expert on this but speaking of two instances I know about. Hopefully there will other comments on this.
 
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bluesmama

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He cannot eat wet everyday as it gives him really bad diarrhea for a few days after.
 

its tom the cat

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That is interesting. Again I am hardly an expert but maybe its the type of moist. There are a few on-line articles talking about dry versus moist food. Of course one cannot always believe what is on-line but some of the points are interesting.

Cats have since day one been foragers and would eat any thing like mice, rats and birds. Their system adapts to that type of diet which to me is garbage. When I adopted Tom at 12 years of age his former owner sent along his food and I took one look at it and thought Tom deserved better. I bought what I think is better quality food but he could not adapt to it, even by metering it out a bit at a time. I ended going back to his old diet and he eats every morsel and his weight has remain unchanged.

As I said I am no expert but just basing my comments on experience and what I thought (in the case of upgrading his food) common sense.

Nonetheless I would still like to hear other comments about an exclusive dry food diet and perhaps check with your vet. One bit of warning is the vet will try to sell the products he/she carries and will consider everything else as unacceptable.
 

2bcat

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It would in fact be a good thing to revisit trying to get him on wet food at some point, maybe some different types than what you tried before, but leaving that aside for now:

If there are 435 calories in a cup of the dry you are feeding as noted above, then 1/3 cup is only 145 calories.  This is not nearly enough for any 10lb cat.  Though calorie necessity can vary a fair bit by individual cat, a common starting point is at least 20-25 calories per pound of ideal weight, and if he's 10 months he is still growing somewhat and likely needs more.  I'd guess you should be feeding at least twice as much right now.  He's not just looking to eat more because he's addicted to dry and bored.  At 1/3 cup he really is hungry!  Spreading out in separate meals is good, and if you can continue that it should keep him from eating too much too fast, which might be a concern as you increase his intake.

If his final weight is around 10lbs, then maybe a bit later in his life (around age 2 or so) you'll want to cut his calorie intake a bit so he doesn't get overweight.  You may have to keep an eye on the weight and body shape so that he doesn't go over.  But right now I suspect you can double the food intake and not have him be overweight.  If you've been feeding him that little for very long you may want to consider having a vet checkup a little earlier than you might have otherwise planned, just in case this has caused any issues. 
 
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muircat

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I tried transitioning my kitten to wet food when he was around 5-7 months, and every single time he got diarrhea - even with a very slow transition. I eventually gave up, but I decided to try again around a month ago (he's a little over a year now). This time, he could eat it without any problems. I'm assuming as he got older, he just got a less sensitive stomach. I'm not sure if it helped or not, but I also made sure to stick to the same protein source (chicken) with both the dry and wet food when transitioning (and only branched out after a few weeks) So, I'd say it's worth a try again soon.

Unfortunately I can't answer your original question, but hopefully this will help anyway.
 
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