Cat Calories?! How many do you Feed?

Hi :3


Can you guys tell me roughly how many calories you feed your cats a day?


I'm hoping to get an idea of how much to feed my soon to be adopted rescue cat. I've been searching online, and understand Kittens need as much food as they will eat little and often, but I'm so confused about how much to feed the cat once it's over 1 year :S I've been googling, but different sources are providing wildly different answers, ranging from around 180 calories or even less for a 10lb cat to over 500 calories for the same size cat on Petnet! I know most will probably say just to play it by ear and weigh the cat regularly, but would love to know roughly how many calories people are feeding their kitties so I have a good starting point

The general recommendation is 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. So a healthy 10 lb cat may need roughly 200 to 25 calories daily. Thngs like age, gender, breed, and activity level play a role in how many calories a cat needs. Adjust the daily calorie to your cat's needs. If your cat is constantly screaming for food and being whiny and digging through the trash can or counter surfing and the bones are easily felt, then you're most likely not feeding enough. If you can't easily feel the ribs, you may be feeding a bit too much.

500 calories daily is way too much for ANY cat so that web site is veryy very wrong. Dry foods are very calorie dense per cup, as much as 600 calories, so feeding a dry food ony diet isn't great for your cat's health. Kind of like a Human eating 5,000+ calories on a junk food diet every day and not exercising at all. A measured cup of dry food daily isn't a lot of food either. Canned foods are much lower in calories, around 150 for a 5.5 oz can and under 100 for a 3 oz can, so it's a lot easier to control calories and the food can be fed over a few meals daily to keep a cat's tummy happy.

http://www.catinfo.org is the best online source for proper cat nutrition.

Thanks for the reply, that's really informative

I was planning to feed a wet food only diet German brand premium cat food from Zooplus like Granatapet and Catz Finefood, so it sounds like 250g a day (which they recommend) sounds perfect based on what you said

The recommendation for 525 calories for a 10lb cat to maintain weight did sound ridiculous to me, especially since the article was apparently by a vet and was about feline obesity

I'm adopting a kitten anyway so it will be a while until I have to feed an adult cat, but I'm super excited to get her and so am trying to find out as much as I can :3 Thanks again for the info!

I'm adopting a kitten anyway so it will be a while until I have to feed an adult cat, but I'm super excited to get her and so am trying to find out as much as I can :3 Thanks again for the info!

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20-25 calories per pound of ideal body weight is for ADULT cats. Kittens will require at least double that amount until about 6-8 months of age when you can start weening them down to the ideal adult calorie consumption.

Yah that's what I mean, I don't have to worry about faffing around counting calories as it will be a while before I have to watch calories for an adult cat, and cat feed my kitten as much as she will eat

Can* sorry I reread that quote of mine and realised it does sound like I was intending to not feed her very much.. Don't worry I am a stay at home mum at the moment so I will be feeding the little one as often and as much as she needs!

Sorry for spamming, but I've just thought... Can you feed a kitten an all wet diet? Like, will they get enough calories? For instance I would need to feed at least a whole 400g can of food throughout the day, would they be able to eat that much?

LTS3 said:

 
The general recommendation is 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. So a healthy 10 lb cat may need roughly 200 to 25 calories daily. Thngs like age, gender, breed, and activity level play a role in how many calories a cat needs. Adjust the daily calorie to your cat's needs. If your cat is constantly screaming for food and being whiny and digging through the trash can or counter surfing and the bones are easily felt, then you're most likely not feeding enough. If you can't easily feel the ribs, you may be feeding a bit too much.

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I really like LTS3's common sense suggestions here. We don't weigh our cats or count calories but we can tell, from behavior and the cats' bodies, when/if they need more or less food.

As for feeding kittens, calorie-dense foods are very helpful! (That said, I'm not sure how young kittens are generally fed: I've never had one in a place where there's good commercial food available.) Do keep in mind, though, that some cats will continue to stay very, very active and eat a lot of food even until they're two, even older. It took our cats until they were 2.5 or 3 years old to permanently slow down on their food.

SpookyLark, being at home is great for a cat mum, too! We feed our cats a lot of small meals each day, which works out well for them and us.

SpookyLark said:

Sorry for spamming, but I've just thought... Can you feed a kitten an all wet diet? Like, will they get enough calories? For instance I would need to feed at least a whole 400g can of food throughout the day, would they be able to eat that much?

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Yes, kittens can eat canned food. Kitten canned foods tend to be calorie dense and you should still feed them as much as they will eat and adjust accordingly. If you find that your kitten isn't eating a whole can in one day, try feeding a little less to avoid waste but still keep your kitten's tummy happy. If one can isn't enough, feed more.

Thanks so much for the replies everyone! [emoji]128571[/emoji]

It's so useful and helpful to hear your advice, I will bear it in mind and just feed her as much as she will eat and watch out for excessive weight gain when she is older.

I wish I could be a stay at home cat mum forever!

SpookyLark said:

Thanks so much for the replies everyone! [emoji]128571[/emoji]

It's so useful and helpful to hear your advice, I will bear it in mind and just feed her as much as she will eat and watch out for excessive weight gain when she is older.

I wish I could be a stay at home cat mum forever!

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Every cat is different but for me, anyway, just keeping an eye on them works best because they make their needs very obvious.

I'm a freelancer and love working at home... and not just because I can serve the cats many small meals a day!

My 7lb kitty eats one 5.5 oz can of friskies shreds a day. She's a perfect weight probably a 4/9 body score. It's so weird because my senior is literally double her weight and healthy weight. The ranges of sizes is crazy to me