How to feed my cat!?

So ever since my cat got spayed around 6 months she has been gaining weight. She is 10 months old and weighs 11 lbs? Maybe more not sure...I'll update you on the weight soon. Anyways I have been giving her 1/2 cup (purina one chicken and turkey dry cat good) in the morning and then 1/4 cup at night. The suggestion on the bag says for 10-15lbs give 1/2 to 1 Cup a day. I am worried she is still gaining weight but if I don't give her the 1/4 cup at night she is starving. 

I've been thinking about adding wet food in her diet because it's low carbs. However, I am a college student and cannot afford to just buy the most expensive wet food there is. I also can't afford to give her all wet food. So, for the people who give their cats wet and dry food (and have a bigger cat like mine) how much do you feed of each a day? AND What brand do you feed of wet and what brand for dry? I need her to losesome weight because even though I love fat cats it's not healthy and I want her to be a healthy baby!

She is such a cutie! Since she's only 10 months old, she probably still has some growing to do. Does a vet think she's overweight? I'm not very good at telling if a cat is a healthy weight from pictures, so I'm not sure if you need to be concerned or not.

You might have to experiment a bit to get the portions down. Every cat has different energy levels and metabolisms, so the amount you need to feed varies a lot. Fancy Feast classics tend to be a good option for a high protein wet food on a budget. I'm not too well versed in dry foods, but if you have a Tractor Supply store nearby, I've heard 4Health is a good quality for the price. Of course ideally you'd want something without grains, potatoes, peas, or corn, but it can be hard to find even more expensive dry foods without fillers.

Higher protein foods will also be a lot more filling for the same amount of calories as a high carb food. Wet food is also important because cats have a low thirst drive and don't really get enough water without it, so whatever amount you can feed wet helps!

I feed Mingo Beyond dry cat food. It's high in protein and not many carbs. I also feed him a can of Fancy Feast in the evening. Fancy Feast is not very expensive, and if you buy a box of 24 it costs about $18, which makes it about 75 cents a can. If I think Mingo is getting chubby, I reduce the dry food a little, but not enough that Mingo notices, and his weight does come down. Weigh her before you do anything - hold her and step on the scale, then let her go and weigh yourself to find her weight. If she is getting heavier, cut the morning food down to 1/3 cup, then 1/4 cup and give her the FF at night.

Wet food is definitely great for weight control. I had an older cat who was quite overweight. He gradually lost weight on his wet food diet and last time I weighed him, he was down to an ideal weight.

Do you have access to a Tractor Supply store? I love their grain free canned cat food line. It's very high quality and is only $0.69 per can. I'm not sure of your budget, but a wet food at that price point would make it possible to feed a cat on all wet food for less than $25 per month.

I don't know what you have, as far as stores or shopping options. I've noticed that Taste of the Wild and Whole Earth Farms dry foods tend to be pretty cost effective on Amazon. I'm not sure of their price in the stores.

I just weighed her. She is only 10 months old and 12 lbs!! I ha net gone to the vet yet. Trying to avoid paying a fee for them to tell me she is fat. Haha I know that! I do have a tractor supply here so I will look into that! I may go by Walmart and get a FF!

Online ordering is also great.

Chewy.com is a fantastic resource for quality cat food, as is Amazon.

By all means, cut down on the amount of food you feed her. One cup per day is too much. Obviously.

A low cost vet clinic is usually easy on a college student's budget You can Google search for local clinics.

Fancy Feast Classic  / Gourmet is inexpensive and available nearly everywhere. Chain pet stores often have huge sales, like 40 cans for $10. But those 3 oz cans aren't a lot of food so you would need to feed at least 2 or 3 daily. It makes more financial sense to buy larger sized cans.

Here are some threads on affordable canned foods:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/308964/healthy-but-affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/241131/healthy-affordable-wet-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306956/new-affordable-petsmart-brand-d

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/181955/cheapest-healthy-canned-cat-food

Dry food contributes to obesity in many cats. Dry foods are very calorie dense per cup, sometimes as much as 600 calories. Few cats need more than 300 calories daily. If you can, feed no more than 50% dry daily (the other 50% being canned). Less dry and more canned would be even better. Instead of the Purina One (junk IMO), feed a better quality brand. Head to the local pet stores (both chains and independent ones) to see what brands are available. I personally like Nature's Variety Instinct which you can find at Petco.

My baby is 10 yra and 11 pounds and I had to put her on a prescription overweight management food. She eats dry food but she's losing weight healthily now. My vet did a caloric intake calculation to figure out how much I should be feeding her.
You should probably base he intake on her healthy weight and not what weight she is. I know my cat food says 2/3-1 cup for a 11 pound cat but she should be 9lbs and she's supposed to eat 1/2 cup a day, according to my vet. There are also nonprescription weight loss foods, but be careful with the composition of the food.

Also, she sometimes cries for more food, but if I ignore her she quiets down. She wants more food, but I know she can't have any.

DreamerRose said:

 
By all means, cut down on the amount of food you feed her. One cup per day is too much. Obviously.

Click to expand...

You apparently didn't read my post right because I never said I give her 1 cup a day. 

I know you didn't, but the package says to give up to that. What I meant was don't believe everything you read. If what I wrote implied that you gave her that much, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it.

I'm wondering if you switched to kitten food if perhaps you could cut down by just a little bit.

Is she active? If she's not, I'd play with her a little. It does seem a bit unusual to see a kitten get chubby.

Can you post a good picture of her from the top (so we can see her waistline) and side (to see her tummy from the side). But she's furry and I wonder if that would even help.

There's a scale you can find online (a graphic) you can use to judge your cats chubbieness. Maybe someone here can find it and link it.

As for food, how much per month can you
afford? That might help us steer you in the right direction. Sheba pates are a good start; you can cut 1/4 cup of dry a day if she gets a whole can. As she is still a kitten, Id not recommend cutting her food by too much. And crazy4strays abd LTS3 among others, gave you some really excellent brand recommendations!!

My cat (she's a senior not a kitten, but it's all the experience I have) has gotten way more active since I started feeding her the right amount of weight management food. She thinks she wants more but she is obviously healthier now!

misterwhiskers said:

I'm wondering if you switched to kitten food if perhaps you could cut down by just a little bit.

Is she active? If she's not, I'd play with her a little. It does seem a bit unusual to see a kitten get chubby.

Can you post a good picture of her from the top (so we can see her waistline) and side (to see her tummy from the side). But she's furry and I wonder if that would even help.

There's a scale you can find online (a graphic) you can use to judge your cats chubbieness. Maybe someone here can find it and link it.

As for food, how much per month can you
afford? That might help us steer you in the right direction. Sheba pates are a good start; you can cut 1/4 cup of dry a day if she gets a whole can. As she is still a kitten, Id not recommend cutting her food by too much. And crazy4strays abd LTS3 among others, gave you some really excellent brand recommendations!!

Click to expand...

So when I started buying her dry food it was like $16/ month. Now that I am thinking of giving her more wet food I know it's going to be more expensive. I only want to give her one can of wet food a day. That would be around $22/month. I don't want to spend more. I hope y'all don't think I am a horrible cat owner, but I am just in nursing school and can't afford anything else. Today I gave Willow her normal 1/2 dry food in the morning. Tonight I gave her 1/2 can (1.5 OZ) of FF wet food. By the way, she meowed and ran to her bowl because of how excited she was. 

SO question! If I start giving her 1/4 dry in the morning (just because I don't want to leave wet food out while I'm in class) and 1 can of FF at night is that too much??? What do y'all think?

***I will definitely post another picture of her. I will post soon. 

Also...I will look into getting another brand of dry food. The one I have is (again) purina one. It's high in protein but I think it's high in carbs too. However, I don't think it will affect her too much since I am going to start giving her 1/4 of dry. I just want to finish this food before I find another one. I don't want to waste it. 

ANOTHER QUESTION:

If I find a wet food where I can afford to feed her JUST wet food how many cans should she get? FF is 3 oz...if she were to be on just wet food would I give her 2 cans a day?

*sorry for all the questions. I sound like a crazy cat lady I know!

I think that's about right- 1/4 cup dry in am and 1 can at night. If you go all wet, that would be 2 cans a day of FF. If she grows into a much larger cat but not overweight, you can increase some. She sure is a beautiful cat.

So what about Purina Friskies Pate wet cat food? Why FF over that? They are both made by the same company. 

Or Sheba? I think I saw someone post about that brand. Both of these are cheaper than FF.

Sorry for all the questions btw! I just am trying to get the best for my money

My cats all love Sheba. It's one of my favourite brands as it's not too expensive and they always eat the lot.

The amount of food a cat needs can be worked out by the amount of calories they need, rather than the size of the cans. If you can find a brand of wet food that your girl likes and is within your budget check how many calories are in the can and feed her accordingly.

This chart will help you work out how much she needs.

http://www.animalmedicalcenterofchicago.com/pdf/CalorieRequirementsForCats.pdf

She doesn't look like she needs to lose any weight to me. Maybe you could weigh her once a month and if she keeps gaining cut back on the calories a little.

I feed Friskies pates to my ferals, it is not grain free, but there is nothing wrong with it if it's in your budget, (stay away from the non pates, too many carbs) you could feed that and just a few occasional quality kibble bits as a treat. This is VERY cost effective. This is what I do.