How much to feed my big beautiful cat!!

[bisous]

I never thought I’d have a cat again as DH is allergic but my brother needed someone to take care of his outdoor cat and DH consented to letting us keep him in the garage as he is a fantastic mouser.

This guy is BIG. He’s probably a little overweight but he’s also just big! My brothers regimen for feeding him is dry food topped with a small chunk of tuna twice a day. He has a line indicator on his bowl. Is it customary to feed cats twice a day? How much for a big cat?

Ps I remember from my cat owning days that it is less healthy to have outdoor cats but this little guy (8yo) has been outside his whole life!

[JElaineB]

The best resource for cat feeding I have found is at https://catinfo.org. Warning: the veterinarian who runs the site is adamantly against feeding cats dry food.

[o_mom]

No idea, but this thread is worthless without pictures!!

[LBW]

I do one can of wet food per day for all of my cats. Most vets discourage dry food.

[Percycat]

Are you caring for the cat temporarily or are you keeping the cat indefinitely?

If you are caring for the cat temporarily, I would stick with the routine your brother has.

Enjoy your new cat!

[pharmjenn]

I have read such differing opinions on wet vs dry (pros for dry being it helps to keep the teeth clean) We have a 17lber and a 10lber and they get half a can each of wet in the morning, and a scoop each of dry in the evening. Of course, I do not regulate who eats what, so the big guy may well be getting more of the food, but he has actually slimmed down some since I switched from kitten dry (at the little ones 1yr bday) and added wet food. Our vet does not seem to have a problem with mostly dry food; the only reason we added wet was the little one would pee in inappropriate places and found to have concentrated urine.

[essnce629]

We feed our cat frozen raw medallions. She gets 1.5 medallions twice a day, which is probably about 1/4 cup at each meal. She's a Siberian, which is a large breed. She was around 12lbs when we got her at 3 years old and on a dry food diet. She's now 8 years old and 10lbs on an exclusively raw food diet.

Growing up my childhood cat ate dry food and ended up overweight and with diabetes. I didn't want that to happen again.

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[annex]

We have one large cat who will gain weight if we aren't careful to measure food, and one small that would prefer to graze all day and would never gain weight. The large cat was up to 16 lbs, but is now closer to 13 now that we have "meal times" and take their food away when done. Large cat is getting about 3/4 can (3 oz can = 8o cal) of roasted chicken Fancy Feast which is higher in protein than some of their other varieties in the morning and afternoon, then (because I want him to still eat dry when we go away and he only gets fed once/day) he gets a 1/4 cup of Iams dry food (90 cal) at night. You have to look on catinfo.org to get protein/calories per brands since they don't give you this info on the cans or bags. Anyways for a "large" and not very active cat he's getting about 210 cal/day. Catinfo.org says calorie needs for a " small cat 9 lb at least 135 cal/day, 18 lb cat that should weigh 12 at least 180 cal/day. The caloric needs of an average cat can range between 150 - 250 calories/day depending on their lean body weight and activity level." I may try to reduce his calories more depending on what the vet thinks at his next checkup - they were the one's who assessed him as overweight based on their exam. So you may want to start with a vet to get their opinion before starting a diet.