How many calories does a cat really need?

[mfoehrer]

Hello,

Currently trying to put my 13 pound cat on a diet. My main problem though is that it seemed like she doesn't eat much already. For the past year or so I feed her 1/2 of a three ounce can of wet food in the morning and night. Along with *maybe* a third of hardfood(Blue buffalo). Sometimes a little less and sometimes a little more. This doesn't seem like much, but she has definitely gained weight. I want to reduce the amount of hard food as it bothers her stomach quite a bit now. The only issue is trying to find out the right amount of wet food to giver her throughout the day. If I were to give her two 3 ounce cans a day I doubt she would eat all of it. I gave her a full 3 ounce can this morning and shes only eaten maybe half. Giving her a more limited amount of hardfood would be the
*easier option*, but I know its basically junk food for cats. Plus the sensitive stomach.

 

[daftcat75]

Can you do both? Increase her wet food and decrease her dry food?

If she only eats 1.5 ounces at a time, you may have to split those six ounces you want to feed her over four meals. You might reduce the dry food to make certain she'll be hungry for those meals. You can use timed feeders to feed meals when you're not around or not wanting to be awake for them. I don't know what your schedule is like. But I've found it easiest to keep my Krista on a six and ten schedule (6am, 10am, 6pm and 10 pm) and use feeders for the daytime and overnight.

These are my favorite. They work well for wet food. They come with ice packs if you need them. I've found food cold from the fridge is still good for Krista to eat for a long time. I never set a timer for longer than six hours but it's still very fresh, not dry or crusty, when it opens and Krista will still eat it. My recommendation is to buy two and deploy them in pairs. They don't fail very often (maybe two or three times in the couple hundred times I've used them) but it's better to split the food across both and underfeed if one fails to open than to put it all in one and have her starve if the only one doesn't open.

 

[Buffster7]

Can you do both? Increase her wet food and decrease her dry food?

If she only eats 1.5 ounces at a time, you may have to split those six ounces you want to feed her over four meals. You might reduce the dry food to make certain she'll be hungry for those meals. You can use timed feeders to feed meals when you're not around or not wanting to be awake for them. I don't know what your schedule is like. But I've found it easiest to keep my Krista on a six and ten schedule (6am, 10am, 6pm and 10 pm) and use feeders for the daytime and overnight.

These are my favorite. They work well for wet food. They come with ice packs if you need them. I've found food cold from the fridge is still good for Krista to eat for a long time. I never set a timer for longer than six hours but it's still very fresh, not dry or crusty, when it opens and Krista will still eat it. My recommendation is to buy two and deploy them in pairs. They don't fail very often (maybe two or three times in the couple hundred times I've used them) but it's better to split the food across both and underfeed if one fails to open than to put it all in one and have her starve if the only one doesn't open.

I've never seen this before - my poor guys have been going without food for a long stretch of time while I'm out on fieldwork as I don't feed them dry food. This will solve that problem - thanks!

 

[daftcat75]

I've never seen this before - my poor guys have been going without food for a long stretch of time while I'm out on fieldwork as I don't feed them dry food. This will solve that problem - thanks!

The timers are not very precise so don't think you'll be able to synchronize them. But I like the design and seal of these over the wheel or pie feeders that rotate the opening over the compartments. If your guys don't finish whats' in one compartment, it rotates away to the next compartment. You could have a feeder full of half-eaten portions and they may get a nose full of awful by the end of the day. The WOPets feeders are very affordable. If your cats don't share, I'd just get a number of them and hope there's enough abundance to allow each to get their fill.