weight management

[beandip]

Originally Posted by Renovia

ok - well that makes sense. so how many medallions do you think for an 8.3 lb cat?

I think a good starting point would be 2.5% of his body weight, so that would be 3.3 medallions/day. I think you said he's fairly active? An even 3.5 medallions would probably be fine...or else just leave those knife tip amounts of wellness in the mix and that probably would replace the 0.3 medallions, making it 3 per day plus that tiny bit of Wellness wet.

I can go on with the math

0.3 medallions would equal about a half ounce of Wellness wet, calorie wise.

At omhpet.com, I only see the calories per kg of the Wellness Salmon dry. I don't know how many cal would be in a 1/4c. I'd be curious to see how many cal you'd be cutting out by elimating the dry and leaving the rest as is. I don't dwell on calories, but I tend to obsess over the math end of things so it's interesting to me nonetheless. I could weigh/calculate with some of the chicken flavor right now, but I would have a small riot on my hands.

 

[ilovemy2cats]

I e-mailed Wellness last month regarding calories per cup. The Wellness salmon dry has 556 cal/cup so that would be 139 cal/1/4 cup.

 

[icklemiss21]

Originally Posted by ilovemy2cats

I e-mailed Wellness last month regarding calories per cup. The Wellness salmon dry has 556 cal/cup so that would be 139 cal/1/4 cup.

That is quite a few cals for a smaller cat when combined with the wet and raw

 

[luxum]

should we buy a scale?

I wish i had bought one a long time ago, it has been very helpful. I got a baby scale that weighs in pounds and ounces (or metric, it has a switch), it's much more accurate than the technique of weighing yourself on a scale intended for adult humans and then weighing yourself again holding the cat which usually only gets you a ballpark figure. I originally got the scale so that i could monitor Rajah's weight as she recovered from her anorexia, but found that Elvirah was also slowly gaining weight that she didn't need, but she didn't look like she had gained any. With this info i was able to balance the portion size so that Rajah slowly gains, and Elvirah's gains have stabilized and then slowly reversed.

Unfortunately they are both completely on dry now while i sort out Rajah's allergy issues, but once i get the dry under control i'll introduce wet until i find one that Raj likes and can tolerate, at which point i'll have to rebalance their portion sizes, and the scale will give me quick feedback to see what adjustments i need to make to keep them both on track.

I bought the scale new and it was worth every penny. Mine has a great "hold" feature that averages the weights over a brief period of time to compensate for babies (and cats!) that won't hold completely still for weighing. After each weigh-in i write down the date, their weight, and note whenever i have had to switch their food, etc. Having this record is extremely helpful.

 

[renovia]

how much is this scale? and WOW i didn't know that the Wellness had THAT many calories in it (dry) sooooo i'll keep him the same on wet (raw, wellness) but eliminate the dry....

will that be bad for his teeth? i know most cats don't 'chew' but....

 

[renovia]

Originally Posted by ilovemy2cats

I e-mailed Wellness last month regarding calories per cup. The Wellness salmon dry has 556 cal/cup so that would be 139 cal/1/4 cup.

aren't they only supposed to get 200 calories a day in total??

 

[beandip]

Originally Posted by Renovia

aren't they only supposed to get 200 calories a day in total??

I think that would depend on their weight. Most of what I have read about cats and calories speak of it in terms of "calories per pound". There would be different requirements for different weights, metabolisms, etc.

200-215 cal is about what Stoli gets from 3 medallions and a little bit of wet Wellness.

 

[luxum]

how much is this scale?

I think mine was around $60 new at a Babys-R-Us, but several posters here have mentioned that they got one used for about $10 at a garage sale.