Wet Cat Food

[Deleted]

For those of you who feed your cat(s) wet cat food, how much do you give them? Our vet would like us to switch from dry to wet food. I was assuming you would just go by the feeding recs on the cans but they seem a bit... excessive? I read on other forums that people feed their cats 5-6 oz. of wet food a day. That's certainly less than what any of the cans are recommending.

[cmeon]

The problem with "average" feeding guidelines for cats- is outdoor cats (ugh). They have a much, much higher caloric requirement than the average indoor cat- so the guidelines skew high.

A 10lb, healthy weight, indoor adult cat with low to average activity level will need about 200 calories a day- which is roughly a 5.5-6oz can of most cat wet foods. It's a good place to start, at least- if your cat is "indoor average".

[Deleted]

Nov 7, 2015 18:44:18 GMT -5 cmeon said:

The problem with "average" feeding guidelines for cats- is outdoor cats (ugh). They have a much, much higher caloric requirement than the average indoor cat- so the guidelines skew high.

A 10lb, healthy weight, indoor adult cat with low to average activity level will need about 200 calories a day- which is roughly a 5.5-6oz can of most cat wet foods. It's a good place to start, at least- if your cat is "indoor average".

Thanks, cmeon!   It seemed like way too much, and I thought I was losing it looking at the recs.  I'll start with about 1 can (5.5-6 oz.) and tweak from there based on how they do.  We have 3 strictly indoor cats.  Our elderly cat is underweight, middle cat is just right, and our baby (4 yrs. old) could stand to lose some weight.  

[msmerymac]

Yeah, it's kind of a try-it-and-see process. I feed 1 can (5 ounces) per cat per day, BUT they also have access to dry food all day. 1 6 pound cat and 1 12 pound cat.

[mrs.jacinthe]

I feed a large (5.5oz) can per day and limited-free-feed dry (they get 1 cup dry total per day and if they eat it all by noon, that's too bad.)

My boys are quite big cats though, about 12-13 pounds when not underweight.