How much to feed maine coon

My maine coon kitten Toby is 5-6 months old now and heeats HUGE amounts. I know they generally eat more than a normal cat anyway, and particularly while growing, but I don't know where to draw the line at enough food and too much, since it's a bad thing for these cats to get overweight.
He has two pouches of kitten food a day, aswell as cat milk and some biscuits during the day yet he seems as if he would eat forever if I let him. My other kitten, your run of the mill moggy, eats half the amount Toby does.
How much should a growing Maine Coon be getting each day and am I feeding him enough? Too much?

Even though Maine Coon owners/breeders might be able to give you some clue as to how much to feed, all cats are individuals. So your best bet is to go by how he's looking. You should be able to feel his ribs when you run your hands over his sides, but they shouldn't stick out or be visible. When you can feel them easily, he's perfect. If you have to dig in to find the ribs, feed a bit less and keep on checking.

My Maine Coon female eats about twice as much as my DSH, both fully grown. She has two heaping cups of kibble a day, while the DSH has barely one.

Our Maine Coon Male Free feeds on dry food all day, and gets wet food at night. If you're going to free feed then you have to make sure that he gets LOT'S of exercise to build muscle tone etc. It also depends on what kind of food you're feeding. Alot of the cheaper brands tend to "run" right through them were as the better quality foods stay with them longer, they get from it and they don't eat as much. Hope that helps!

Im also going to move this to the health and nutrition forum. You'll likely to get more info.

Our Cindy cat is a real chubbs butterball and I began restricting her food intake. She, too, would feast on a portion of canned food and then her dry food all day and as I observed her, she would eat much more dry food than Lucy. Lucy, by contrast, is sleek and as fast as lightning. So, this is sad, but our vet recommended putting Cindy on an adult maintenance or adult lite diet and she's just about a year old! Now I give them a portion of canned food in the morning followed by some dry food in a dish, but I take the food away during naptime and when they go in for the night. No more all you can eat around here!

Our vet said that cat food is loaded with calories (kitten food is probably worse). After thinking about cheaper brands of cat food, the Friskies canned food has probably less calories because it is composed of more water and if you know anything about diet programs, they often advise you to drink 6-8 glasses of water a day.

He's on whiskers kitten food right now and the breeder told me that because they develop so slowly, it's best to keep them on kitten for for up to 3 years, as opposed to a regular kitten who only typically has it for a year. He isn't fat.....yet. But he is a HUGE kitten. At only 6 months old he looks every inch an adult cat to the untrained eye.
He is indoor/outdoor and once he gets outside he bursts into action (when he's indoors though he does tend to laze about)so he's likely to remain an active cat as he gets older. Im not too worried about him now but at least I know to be extra vigilant with his weight.

My husband is in the pet food business.  Always try to buy the holistic food.  It's based on the 1st ingredient which is always a protein.  The cheaper brands use fillers as well as by-products which you 'really' don't want in your pet.  And, when using by-products you are feeding them bone, water, organs that are NOT good for them.  It's actually cheaper to buy the correct food as it stays with them much longer, allows for the right amount of stool, and eliminates such things as skin disorders and other problems that can result in having to see a vet.  Happy cat, Happy owner!!

My best  to you and your pet (s).

just read your reply and joined the site!

my kitten (maine coon) is 15 weeks and i thought i should be feeding her a bit more. 

she's bigger and she's a lot more hungry this past week or so.

i don't over do, but i just felt her sides and did feel her ribs, not sticking out and not having to search for them. so i know that's right. thanks so much! 
This is Sasha demolishing some flat cat guards i got, now i have window restricters that a friend will install! she's something else!

Just wanted to share a picture of my beautiful boy he's 2 and a half, about 5.5kg and eating like a beast at the mo!

Never had a Maine coon before...never had a cat before! Rehomed him though and along with rescuing my mongrel doggie, best decision ever

He's a beast for sure!!!  I would never want to meet him in a blind alley.  On the other hand, I am sure he's great back up if you're ever in a fist-fight. 

He's so soft and friendly and sociable, I fear he wouldn't be much in the way of back up in a fist fight[emoji]128563[/emoji]
Are all Maine coons so well natured? Wondered if it was part of their breed... He even purrs at the vets!

Maine Coons are known for their good nature. A friend of mine has a Maine Coon and true to the breed Doobie is a big boy with a sociable, lovelt personality. We always say that he is a "lover not a fighter". Enjoy your beautiful boy [emoji]128571[/emoji]

so far I havent heard a single amount, not even a baseline.  Should i start at a cup, half?  Should I feed him a small child size portions?!  COme on woman, give us deets!
 

Eli Pizarro said:

so far I havent heard a single amount, not even a baseline.  Should i start at a cup, half?  Should I feed him a small child size portions?!  COme on woman, give us deets!

 

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How old is your cat, how much does he weigh, and what are you feeding him? The amount to feed varies greatly from cat to cat. A growing kitten needs about twice as many calories as a full-grown cat of the same weight. Check the instructions on the food you're giving. They usually have an approximate amount for different weight cats. I've found with dry food that the manufacturer recommended amount is usually more than is really necessary.

Hi guys, I'm new to the Main Coon world! I have other kitties though. But I was wondering how much I should be feeding my 4 months old baby girl. I feed her a very good quality wet cat/kitten food and dry kibble for kittens. Seems like she's a good weight, but I want to make sure she doesn't get fat.

Eeva said:

Even though Maine Coon owners/breeders might be able to give you some clue as to how much to feed, all cats are individuals. So your best bet is to go by how he's looking. You should be able to feel his ribs when you run your hands over his sides, but they shouldn't stick out or be visible. When you can feel them easily, he's perfect. If you have to dig in to find the ribs, feed a bit less and keep on checking.

My Maine Coon female eats about twice as much as my DSH, both fully grown. She has two heaping cups of kibble a day, while the DSH has barely one.

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Good advice.  

Breed doesn't matter,   I have two Coons,  Mr. Chunky has a body which is shorter than breed standard, Mr. Slim has a body that is about breed standard.   Both get fed the same and both are littermates.

Hi, we have 2 Maine coon kittens. I'll post photos after this post. The first, Mia, is around 10 months old now. She is bigger in size than our 6 yr old adopted regular moggie cat but weighs 4kg, just took them all to the vet Dec 28th! She is quite lanky and boney. Beautiful condition though and an immense tail!

We put her boniness down to the fact that the lady we bought her from had been feeding her and all the kittens, Felix adult cat food. Presume it didn't have enough nutrients of any kind as its quite cheap food and not made for kittens either.

Our other kitten mojo is really stocky, much healthier build and he also weighs 4kg! He is 7 months old. He was the runt of his litter, the smallest of 7 kittens!! The lady we got him from had been feeding them all a raw meat diet and you can really tell the difference.

When we first got Mia we were feeding her Royal canin Maine coon kitten food for dry food and testing out a mix of wet food. Since then I've read this http://www.maine-coon-cat-nation.com/royal-canin-cat-food.html and noticed a lot of the supposedly good dry foods and ones that vets recommend, have lots of corn and fillers in.

So now we have switched to grain free Orijen: http://m.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/orijen/45156 which they all love [emoji]128578[/emoji]

We free feed this to the 2 kittens and they seem to get through a 15cm diameter mostly filled (maybe 2cm deep) bowl in 24hrs, the 6yr old will try to sneak in and eat some too though so not sure if it's only the kittens! We do notice they eat quite a lot overnight (even when the adult cat is out so it's definitely the kittens not moggy eating it!) so we figured they like to eat little and often!

Re: wet food right now we are giving them approx 3 meals a day. They share a 70g tin of applaws, http://m.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/applaws/kitten/405596 so it's really not a large can and we split it between them. Again we noticed giving them more they just leave it after a munch so we'd rather give them more fresh, later than have it sitting about.

With wet food I noticed a lot of the organic food still included lots of organ meat and we didn't like that, in the wild cats wouldn't have that amount of only organ meat, so I always look very closely at the ingredients now.

Once every few days will give them a portion of raw organic beef which they LOVE, I bought a book called raw meaty bones http://www.rawmeatybones.com/book.php

That's all about raw feeding, not read it yet so just giving them a mix of food as raw meat only isn't a balanced enough diet for them from what I've learnt. Interestingly the adult cat who was often shut outside by his previous owners before we adopted him, he catches and eats rats, mice etc to survive before we met him - he won't touch the raw beef! And he LOVES to eat! Maybe he's just set in his ways at the ripe old age of 6!! So happy to see him relaxing in his new home though [emoji]128578[/emoji] I digress though!

So we give ours about the same : 3 or 4 (if they ask nicely!) small wet food meals each per day - about 30/35g per serving - we don't weigh it just split the can or pouch between the 2 of them

And free feeding Orijen dry cat and kitten food.

Mia hadn't put on any weight in about a month when we last weighed her but mojo had put on 0.5kg! Think they will both grow a lot more though. Mia had a worming tablet last week so hope she can put on a bit of weight. Our 6yr old moggy weighs between 5-5.5kg. Vet said she'd prefer 5kg to 5.5, we agree lol, he's so sweet though and it was Christmas [emoji]128521[/emoji][emoji]128578[/emoji]he just recovered from a poor swollen face bite infection so we had to pamper him a bit [emoji]128578[/emoji]

Hope it helps [emoji]128578[/emoji]

mojo is the 8 month old with white, mia is the tabby / Tortie now 10 months old [emoji]128578[/emoji]

a better one of Mia as she is quite a lot longer than mojo, couldn't see so well in the other pic [emoji]128578[/emoji]

another one of mojo, he was 600g when we first brought him home bless him! He's eating LOADS now (more than Mia who is 2 months older) maybe is because he knows he needs to grow into a huge strong massive Maine coon male!! His dad was HUGE!! [emoji]128578[/emoji]

this is a better one of them together, taken about 4-6 weeks ago I think. Hope this helps [emoji]128578[/emoji] Sorry for so many pics!! [emoji]128512[/emoji]