How many times should a cat eat?

[Lulu2000]

Hello, I have two cats, Clay and Milo. Clay is the older one (8 months old) and Milo is the youngest (3 months). The feeding schedule is 8 am breakfast, 1 pm, 6 pm, and the last meal is 11 pm. The rest of the night they eat dry food. I have been feeding them 1 spoon each. I have been wanting to switch them to a 2 times eating period but I'm waiting for the youngest one to get older. But can anyone tell me how many ozs/cans of wet food should the older one eat and the youngest should? and how can I change their feeding schedule if their current is bad?

 

[Alldara]

You have very beautiful cats!

I feed as much as they'd like until they are 18 months to 2 years. They are still growing during this time and there may be days where they eat a LOT and some where they eat less.

If it's wet food, they can't really overeat.


Afterwards, it depends on the weight and activity level of your cat. It should be between 20 to 30 calories per pound. You want to keep your cat's body condition in the mid-range.

 

[Furballsmom]

I have been feeding them 1 spoon each.

I agree, and I don't think this is enough. Since every cat is different, one of the ways to know how much each cat needs would be to give enough that there's just a little bit left in the bowl.

At some point you could eliminate the 6 PM feeding.

 

[Lulu2000]

I agree, and I don't think this is enough. Since every cat is different, one of the ways to know how much each cat needs would be to give enough that there's just a little bit left in the bowl.

At some point you could eliminate the 6 PM feeding.

Thank you, I would try that!

 

[Lulu2000]

You have very beautiful cats!

I feed as much as they'd like until they are 18 months to 2 years. They are still growing during this time and there may be days where they eat a LOT and some where they eat less.

If it's wet food, they can't really overeat.


Afterwards, it depends on the weight and activity level of your cat. It should be between 20 to 30 calories per pound. You want to keep your cat's body condition in the mid-range.

Thank you very much!

 

[tabbytom]

Hello, I have two cats, Clay and Milo. Clay is the older one (8 months old) and Milo is the youngest (3 months). The feeding schedule is 8 am breakfast, 1 pm, 6 pm, and the last meal is 11 pm. The rest of the night they eat dry food. I have been feeding them 1 spoon each. I have been wanting to switch them to a 2 times eating period but I'm waiting for the youngest one to get older. But can anyone tell me how many ozs/cans of wet food should the older one eat and the youngest should? and how can I change their feeding schedule if their current is bad?

Both of them are very much kittens and they don't mature till they are 1 year old. Feed them as much as they can eat at one sitting. Let them have wet food meant for kittens as kitten food are filled with more proteins and minerals to aid their formative year and wet food keeps them hydrated.
Once they mature or when they are into around a year and a half, slowly transit them over to adult food or you may feed them now with wet food labeled 'For All Life Stages' and feed them with this throughout their entire live. My boy was on wet food labeled 'For All Life Stages' since he was rescued at around 3 - 4 weeks old. He's coming to 8 years old in December.

When they approach 7 months old, they go through a phase called 'Growth Spurt' which they tends to eat more than usual and this will probably last till they are around a year plus and thereafter the food intake will taper off. A normal healthy active cat needs around 250 and a more active cat needs around 300 calories per day. You should be able to find the number of calories per can stated on the label.

Oh, by the way, by the 7th month, all adult teeth will be in.

 

[arr]

When my cats were kittens, I fed them wet food four times a day, as much as they could eat each time, with dry food available at all times. Now that they are adults, I feed wet food for breakfast and dinner, as much as they want to eat until they walk away. The auto feeders dump out a portion of dry food for lunch, again they get as much as they want until they walk away. (we observed how much they’ll eat and set the auto feeders to dump that amount). No food is left out at any other times.