How much does your cat eat?

[scottishduffy]

Well,

I looked to different websites and could not seem to get a straight answer. My vet didn't even have a totally accurate answer so I will ask the fine people on the DIS. After all this is a simple enough question.

I took my kitty today to get his shots updated and he weighed in at 15.3 lbs. In prior visits he had been roughly 12.5-14.0 lbs. The vet said Matisse could probably stand to lose weight. When I feel the kitty I can't feel his ribs so I suppose I agree as I have read your are supposed to be able to feel ribs (not gaunt, just feel them).

He currently gets fed 1/2 cup dry food (with a serving of dental treat sprinkled on top) and 1 pouch (3.3 oz) wet food per day. I was thinking of making an every other day schedule with: Day 1: 1/3 cup dry AM, 1/3 cup dry plus 1 serving treat PM. Day 2: 1/3 cup dry AM, pouch PM.

That way he gets more dry and less wet food which vet wanted. I just wanted to know how much other people are feeding their cats. Obviously I have managed to make my kitty fat, so i am looking to learn some proper kitty portion control.

Matisse is a Main Coon cat if that helps.

 

[HERSEY]

From what I have heard from my vet and other people the serving amounts on the pet food bags are misleading.

I would try to give 1/2c of dry food and just 1/2 of the pouch a day. What did your vet recommend?

 

[HeatherH]

Maine Coons are BIG cats! I don't think that is a bad weight at all for a Maine Coon, and as long as he is healthy, I would feed him the way you are now. It doesn't sound like he's being overfed at all.

My indoor cats free-feed on dry food, and they both get about a 1/2 can of Fancy Feast per day. My "fat cat" girl (she's around 16.5 pounds) gets a little more, but that's only because she's had some teeth extracted and prefers wet food to dry. The boy cat prefers the dry.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it unless your cat had health issues. Not all cats have that lean build. Just try to interact and play with him as much as you can to get him some exercise.

 

[scottishduffy]

From what I have heard from my vet and other people the serving amounts on the pet food bags are misleading.

I would try to give 1/2c of dry food and just 1/2 of the pouch a day. What did your vet recommend?

The vet was pretty vague when I asked him. He said dry food was better than wet and that the treats needed to seriously decreased. But he was obscure regarding actual amounts of food.

It is just pretty hard to get an real good idea of Matisse's shape since he is so darn fluffy. Even the vet had think for minute before deciding if he was overweight or not because it is hard to tell under all the fur. The Vet was going by his prior weights over last 3 yrs compared to now and said to trim him down.

 

[Imzadi]

OP, here's a thread where I asked pretty much the same question. I got some really great answers there. How do you put a cat on a diet?

Both my vet & some posters said to go S-L-O-W, and that's what I am doing. To go quickly would be like putting yourself on a drastic starvation diet. You have to think proportionately from what your kitty has been having and slowly decreasing.

I haven't posted an update on my thread as we are going slowly, but my kitty has lost some weight. She's not in any serious health risks at the moment where she needs to lose weight quickly. So once she adjusted to a new feeding schedule, I have slowly been decreasing the amount she eats every few weeks.

 

[englishteacha]

So....cats aren't supposed to go "Thud" when they jump from the bed to the floor?

 

[Imzadi]

Adding, I also don't think switching the cat's meals up every other day is a good idea. Cats really like a routine. My cat let's me know when it is exactly 12:30 and it is time for her to eat.

It took her time to adjust to a new feeding schedule. She couldn't understand why she wasn't being fed as often as she was used to. Add that to being fed less, and she was really miserable for quite a while. ALL she could think about was food as she didn't know when she was going to eat.

Now, she's on a pretty regular schedule. Every time I veer off of it, we're in trouble again.

I just bought her an automatic, digital pet feeder as I had to go away last weekend, and now that she knows the times it is set for, she is actually waiting in front of the bowl when it goes off. (She's not in front of it any other time.) Animals have an internal time clock.

 

[sunnyday123]

I would just cut him back slowly. Or give him a bath, and then you can tell if he really needs to lose weight. My Ragdoll is 16 pounds and that's small for a Ragdoll. Maine Coon's are big too, so he doesn't sound too overweight.

Get him a laser toy, and run him around for a while. The best part is that you can sit on the couch!

 

[DarthKTrava]

It's hard to say, since I have 11 cats and feed them all out of a doggie bowl.

 

[wdwmom2]

I have a Siamese and a Sphynx. They each get 1/3 cup of Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul in the morning. In the evening they split a can of Friskies Special Care. Keeps them in good shape!

 

[Angelhalo]

My cat gets one can of wet food each day and a half a cup of dry. She has bad teeth so she has to get more wet than dry.

 

[MomofKatie]

We have 3 cats. 2 are overweight, and 1 is a skinny gal. We feed canned food only, 3 meals a day. The 3 of them eat 15 oz per day, divided like this:

Purrcey, male, 15lb (down from 16.5lb)- 6 oz
GiGi, female, 11.2lb (down from 15lb)- 5 oz
Lily, female, 8lb- 4 oz and supplemented with dry throughout the day (probably 1/4 cup total over several small snacks)

 

[Shyvioletisme]

I'd say you don't need to cut back. Maine Coons are BIG kitties and that weight sounds about right. Perhaps your vet isn't used to dealing with that breed of cat and just assumed that since 15 pounds would be overweight for a lot of breeds that it was for him to? I'd say it is fine, but you could still monitor how much he is eating.

 

[pppiglet]

So....cats aren't supposed to go "Thud" when they jump from the bed to the floor?

Mine goes "thud" when he jumps from the floor to the bed! He's a clutz....but he's also 11lbs.

 

[dakcp2001]

I have two cats, I put out one can of soft food in the am, one in the evening and we always leave a bowl of crunchies out. One of my cats eats often and is a little meatball and the other one grazes and is slim.

 

[pppiglet]

It's hard to say, since I have 11 cats and feed them all out of a doggie bowl.

Hey...you beat me! I have 10 cats and feed them on 5 paper plates. Each plate gets 1 can of 5.5oz Friskies Mixed Grill and 1 can of 3oz Fancy Feast grilled chicken. That's roughly 42oz or 4.2oz per cat per meal. I feed them twice a day ...5am and 5pm. When feeding canned only, they recommend 3-5 ounces a meal per cat and feed 2x a day. Mine lick the plates clean!

 

[Morganpics]

So....cats aren't supposed to go "Thud" when they jump from the bed to the floor?

I have one that is a half pint. The other - looks like a turkey when he sits. Sorry, Herb, I really do love you, even if you do put my arm to sleep laying on it!

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

I have 3 cats. There all american short hairs. They have open bowl grazing and go though a bowl a week.

 

[TnTsParty]

I am not sure how much they actually get but I have 3 male cats and I fill up a 1 cup scoop and split it between the 3 bowls - I do that about 2-3 times a day. One of my cats is almost a year old so still growing and VERY active, one older (11 year old) who is a big cat in general but not overweight by the pictured standards at the vets office and the other is 4 or 5 and is quite a butterball - he is ALWAYS hungry and ALWAYS thinks I am going to feed him if I go into the bathroom where their bowls are. He only eats cat food and won't eat human food. He could use to lose a few pounds.

 

[themarquis]

Maine Coons are LARGE!

Our guy is almost 18 pounds, and he's a bit chubby but not fat. It's mostly fur and a massively huge bone structure! Apparently, he is rather on the small side for a full-grown maine coon. 20 - 25 pounds is completely expected for a male maine coon.

I can't remember if you said yours is male and how old he/she is. But males are very large and female maine coons slightly smaller (maybe 15 pounds?). Males don't reach their full weight until about 4 years of age!! They do a lot of bulking up and filling out between 1 and 4 years. So don't start putting your critter on a restrictive diet if he's going to still be growing -- could be unhealthy!

Re: how much should they eat, it depends on the cat, their size, their age, and the brand of food. There isn't really a rule for this. You're supposed to see if they're overweight based on how ... er ... bulgy they look/feel and whether ribs are visible/feelable. The trouble with a maine coon is that *you can't see or feel their darn ribs* because they are so darn fluffy!! So good luck! We don't even know how overweight our guy is ... just too much flipping fur everywhere to see anything.