General feeding plan

daishain · Aug 17, 2015

Will shortly be delving into cat ownership for the first time as the primary caretaker. My parents' approach to the issue of cat food was flawed, they are excellent dog trainers and never thought to treat felines differently, this was fortunately mitigated by our cats being indoor/outdoor and excellent hunters. I'm attempting to do better right from the start, not least because my housing will force mine to be near exclusively indoor. I'll be getting a pair of kittens, probably in the 3-6 month age range

In an attempt to balance convenience, budget, and my cats' needs, I'm considering the following approach:

-by weight, a roughly 50/50 combination of wet and dry cat food, with as little grain content as I can manage before the budget is blown.

-a simple water fountain will be placed to supplement moisture intake.

-dry food is parceled out in small quantities throughout the day, with a some placed in a feeder toy so they can 'hunt' a little extra food if they wish.

-wet food fed in one large meal, shortly after a long play session late in the day.

My initial questions:

-Are there problems with the above I may not have considered?

-what would be good value choices for the two types of food?

-What is the best way to determine the actual amount that they need?

2cats4me · Aug 17, 2015

Daishain said:
Will shortly be delving into cat ownership for the first time as the primary caretaker. My parents' approach to the issue of cat food was flawed, they are excellent dog trainers and never thought to treat felines differently, this was fortunately mitigated by our cats being indoor/outdoor and excellent hunters. I'm attempting to do better right from the start, not least because my housing will force mine to be near exclusively indoor. I'll be getting a pair of kittens, probably in the 3-6 month age range

In an attempt to balance convenience, budget, and my cats' needs, I'm considering the following approach:

-by weight, a roughly 50/50 combination of wet and dry cat food, with as little grain content as I can manage before the budget is blown.

-a simple water fountain will be placed to supplement moisture intake.

-dry food is parceled out in small quantities throughout the day, with a some placed in a feeder toy so they can 'hunt' a little extra food if they wish.

-wet food fed in one large meal, shortly after a long play session late in the day.

My initial questions:

-Are there problems with the above I may not have considered?

-what would be good value choices for the two types of food?

-What is the best way to determine the actual amount that they need?

Congrats on your soon to be new additions .. Your plan looks great but may I suggest the you give the wet food in two meals morning and night ( a dish for each cat ) .. Also if you put all the food in one dish it is hard to determine if each cat is eating the proper amount .. I think a diet of 50/50 wet dry is fine ..

momto3cats · Aug 17, 2015

Daishain said:
Will shortly be delving into cat ownership for the first time as the primary caretaker. My parents' approach to the issue of cat food was flawed, they are excellent dog trainers and never thought to treat felines differently, this was fortunately mitigated by our cats being indoor/outdoor and excellent hunters. I'm attempting to do better right from the start, not least because my housing will force mine to be near exclusively indoor. I'll be getting a pair of kittens, probably in the 3-6 month age range

In an attempt to balance convenience, budget, and my cats' needs, I'm considering the following approach:

-by weight, a roughly 50/50 combination of wet and dry cat food, with as little grain content as I can manage before the budget is blown.

-a simple water fountain will be placed to supplement moisture intake.

-dry food is parceled out in small quantities throughout the day, with a some placed in a feeder toy so they can 'hunt' a little extra food if they wish.

-wet food fed in one large meal, shortly after a long play session late in the day.

My initial questions:

-Are there problems with the above I may not have considered?

-what would be good value choices for the two types of food?

-What is the best way to determine the actual amount that they need?

This sounds very good! It's great that you're putting so much thought into how to give your new kittens the best care.

The only thing that might be a problem is the "one large meal", as most cats are not big eaters and prefer multiple small meals. Presented with a large meal, they will usually eat a little and walk away, only to come back half an hour later to eat a bit more, and so on. If you can divide the wet food into two or more meals a day it will better, and they are more likely to eat all of it before it spoils. Kittens especially need to eat several times a day.

For amounts - the usual advice is to let kittens eat as much as they want, because growing kittens need a LOT for their size, and the amount will fluctuate as they go through growth spurts. For adults, a good starting place is either 6 oz of wet food per day, or 1/2 cup of dry (or split the difference with 3 oz wet & 1/4 cup dry). That's only an average, however, because cats can vary in their calorie needs and foods vary quite a bit in their calorie content. If the cats are satisfied with the amount they get and are maintaining a healthy weight, you know you're feeding them the right amount.

lisahe · Aug 17, 2015

I couldn't agree more with @2Cats4Me and @momto3cats about feeding more, smaller meals. We work at home and generally feed our cats five times a day, which works out beautifully for them. I know we're lucky to be able to do that and that it wouldn't work for all cats, but it really does keep our cats happier (less begging!) and cut down on waste.

Have fun with the kittens when you bring them home! That reminds me: when our two were kittens--we adopted them when they were ten months old--we used to give them long play sessions before human bedtime. It really helped tire them out so we could get some sleep!

daishain · Aug 17, 2015

Noted on splitting up the wet food, I was mainly concerned about preserving leftovers in such a case.

With my schedule, five or more times a day would not be a real problem on 4 in 7 days of the week. The other three however would be more of an issue. Would frequently altering feeding patterns cause a significant problem?

Also, I could still use a reference to a good value source of cat food.

lisahe · Aug 17, 2015

Daishain said:
Noted on splitting up the wet food, I was mainly concerned about preserving leftovers in such a case.

With my schedule, five or more times a day would not be a real problem on 4 in 7 days of the week. The other three however would be more of an issue. Would frequently altering feeding patterns cause a significant problem?

Also, I could still use a reference to a good value source of cat food.

Our cats are definitely creatures of habit but they've gotten used to slightly different patterns on the weekends so there's probably hope for your two to adjust to slightly different days, too! Honestly, it was mostly trial and error to see what would work well for the cats, their stomachs, and our schedules. We probably wouldn't feed them quite so many meals but one cat vomits if her stomach's empty for too long. Another factor that you might not be facing: our cats are rescues and had tremendous food insecurity when we got them because they were horribly scrawny and underfed. That said, I do like all the small meals because, as I already mentioned, it reduces waste and it's easy to see who's eating what. Plus it really reduces the cats swarming and begging for food.

In your situation, I might start by feeding them the fewest wet meals you can a day and then see if you need to adjust. Since you said you'll be feeding partly dry food, you might not have as much of an issue with frequent feedings as we do, feeding only wet and raw foods that can only stay out for limited time.

As for value foods, it seems like a lot of people feed and recommend Fancy Feast Classics and Sheba; Friskies pates aren't bad, either, though they do have some rice. Some of those foods offer slightly discounted variety packs or cases at warehouse stores. If you're looking for an occasional treat that's pricier, our cats loved Wellness Core's kitten food and I still buy it as an occasional treat for them. I know that @2Cats4Me sometimes gets great deals at Big Lots. Some stores also offer coupons and deals for new pet parents so you might want to ask about that, too. I think it's great that you want to feed them grain-free!

mingking · Aug 17, 2015

I've heard great things about automatic feeders and some can serve wet and dry food.

Depending on your cats, you may be able to get away with 3 days of non-routine feeding. I have had days where I would be out most of the day and my cat does fine. Once, I knew I would be out ALL day so I froze a can of wet food the night before. Fed him a normal unfrozen can in the morning and then took out the frozen can to thaw. I put a frozen gel pack under his bowl for extra coldness so it wouldn't go bad too quickly and also covered it with a loose lid that he was able to nudge off. When I came home, the bowl was empty and he seemed fine. (Of course, this method only applies if you're feeding wet food.)

The general rule is to feed your cat every 6-8 hours.

krazykatjenn · Aug 17, 2015

This advice might sound odd because I'd never recommend buying a dog food at the grocery store, but buy your cat food at the grocery store! I buy my cat's food a week at a time and buy whatever is on sale. There's usually something marked down to 60 or 80 cents a can. My cat's very favorite food is Purina Beyond, which goes on sale for a dollar a can (and usually with the eleventh can free) every other week or so. I like to give my cat constant variety because she gets bored pretty fast if I give her the same thing too often. I also mix up her diet with the occasional fancier wet foods from the pet store like Wellness and Nutro and I'm getting ready to order some Tiki Cat from Chewy.com to try that out.

Buying the food weekly instead of monthly helps make the cost feel easier to manage. I know theoretically it's somewhere between 30-60 a month, but because I'm not paying that upfront it just feels like a small addition to my grocery bill every week. (What's ten dollars added onto a hundred dollar grocery bill, right?)

Oh, and one last bit of advice I wish someone had given me a couple months ago when I adopted my cat: don't buy in bulk until you know what the cat likes! I ended up giving a barely touched bag of kibble to a neighbor and throwing out all kinds of wet food because I bought food in bulk before I got the cat then found out she hated it. Be prepared to try out all sorts of things to find out what your cats like. Get free samples from the manufacturer if you can.

Good luck and have fun! Adopting my cat was easily the best decision I ever made. She makes me smile everyday and I wouldn't trade her picky craziness for anything.

2cats4me · Aug 18, 2015

Daishain said:
Noted on splitting up the wet food, I was mainly concerned about preserving leftovers in such a case.

With my schedule, five or more times a day would not be a real problem on 4 in 7 days of the week. The other three however would be more of an issue. Would frequently altering feeding patterns cause a significant problem?

Also, I could still use a reference to a good value source of cat food.

There are several decent affordable wet foods .. You can even mix and match 3 oz cans and 5.5 oz cans .. As @LisaHE mentioned I find a lot of deals at Big Lots . Most of their canned cat foods are .50 cents . Also check K-Mart if you have one of those . They sell .50 cent cans as well .. Sheba is a good brand and they often offer great coupons in the Sunday paper . Petsmart has Great Choice , Authority which are very affordable as well ..

lisahe · Aug 18, 2015

@KrazyKatJenn is so right about variety and not buying too much food at once! We rotate our cats through a mind-bogglingly large selection of foods (I make a "food matrix" for my husband when I travel!) because they get bored so easily. The good thing, though, is that if they've liked a food but then get bored with it, if I set it aside for a month or two, they'll often eat it again, happily, as long as I don't serve it very often. That's worked with Hound & Gatos lamb, which is a fairly reasonably priced food.

fluffscruff · Aug 18, 2015

I have kitties around this age range and they go through about a 5 - 6oz can each per day, a little more if they were fed a low-calorie food like weruva that day. I make sure to look at the kcal/6oz can for each food just in case; for example, I know that a can of Instinct has over 200kcal/can, but a can of Weruva, Soulistic, or Merrick can have 100 - 130kcal/can. I give them around 1.5 oz at each feeding (4 times a day) and leave it out for them to finish on their own; if they especially like the food, they'll gobble it up then and there, and if they don't, they'll graze on it until their next meal time. I use these silicon/plastic can covers, which I bought on a whim, but they've turned out to be useful in covering the can with leftovers and keeping them in the fridge for a day or two.

I personally budget for $1.50/can on average, so I'll buy some cheaper good value brands and some higher quality brands, which keeps the overall costs to around an average at $1.50/can. I found that the Trader Joe's brand is good value for the quality at $0.79/can. Buying 12oz or 6oz cans are always better value than buying in the 3oz size, and good quality foods like Dave's and Wellness offers cat food in 12oz cans. Natural Balance, Blue Buffalo, Soulistic (petco brand), Simply Nourish (petsmart brand) are around the $1.50/can range. I also try to buy online, like amazon or chewy, for low prices and free shipping.

If you were interested in looking through this, this pdf has a cat food nutritional chart, and when looking for a food that's high in protein, moderate in fat, and low in carbs, even a brand like Fancy Feast fares well nutritionally (of course, this isn't taking into account the source of the protein and quality questions like that): http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

General feeding plan

daishain

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2cats4me

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momto3cats

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lisahe

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daishain

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lisahe

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mingking

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krazykatjenn

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2cats4me

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lisahe

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fluffscruff

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