How much to feed?

[filardimarg-9]

Another question......I hope you don't mind.
Bella is now eating wet food aswell as dry so how much do I feed her, I give her a little tin of Applaws 85gr in the mornings, (which she sits & eats till it has all gone, then in the evening I give her 25gr of Canagan dry food. I read on here somewhere that hardly anyone weighs out dry food but feeds ad lib, when I first had Bella, she was skin & bone, (she had been a stray) so I gave her more food than the Packet of dry food said because she was thin but she has put on some weight now & I don't want her to put on any more.

Marg.

[booktigger]

I'd check if the Applaws is complete or not

[filardimarg-9]

I just looked on a tin, it is complimentary, so maybe she needs more!!

Marg.

[booktigger]

No, she needs more dry to provide the correct balance of nutrients

[vanilla]

Or you can give a complete wet food along with the dry.

[filardimarg-9]

That makes it even harder..........how much more, a whole days supply of dry food for her weight, (3.5/4kg) says 45gr, but that is if I were to feed just dry but I like to feed wet as well, so if I feed 70gr wet complimentary food, how much dry complete shall I feed, my thoughts are about 30gr, would that be ok?

Marg.

[Lilith]

Hi Marg, I'm afraid this is a totally scatty and un-technical reply, but in more than 60 years I've only ever met one obese cat, and it wasn't mine.

I like to feed a good-quality dry and leave it down for them to graze, topping up as required ... eventually it ends up as grubby stale crumbs and so you chuck that out and stick down a clean dish of fresh. And a bowl of decent brand complete wet, whatever they like, once, twice, or, as my lot seem to dictate in this cold weather, three times a day. If there's waste, cut it down or don't feed till asked. I just leave it up to them.

Sorry - I did warn you this was untechnical. But please don't worry too much about instructions on packaging (I never read them; perhaps I may have to one day!) Cats are like people; they're all different, and you find out what works for them - or they tell you lol.

Good luck and fusses to the bella Bella

[booktigger]

I may be wrong as it's years since I looked into it, but I seem to recall that complimentary food should make up no more than 10% of the daily allowance. I go off 20g of dry being the equivalent to one pouch

Lucky you Lil! Heaviest cat I've had was 9kg! Although the 8kg cat looked heavier. It's not actually a good idea to feed dry like that, if it gets wet (say if they drop some), it allows bacteria to breed.

[Lilith]

Wet? Ah, do you mean if they're eating and slobber back into the bowl? Well you do have to keep your eye on it of course. I've never found a problem. Occasionally I've found that the bowl level's not going down so I chuck the whole lot and restart, I will admit.

9 kg!

Blimey, a cat as big as that could push me out of bed!

[booktigger]

Wet? Ah, do you mean if they're eating and slobber back into the bowl? Well you do have to keep your eye on it of course. I've never found a problem. Occasionally I've found that the bowl level's not going down so I chuck the whole lot and restart, I will admit.

9 kg!

Blimey, a cat as big as that could push me out of bed!

Yep, that's what I meant. I wouldn't go as far as my friend who gives hers 3 clean bowls for dry a day, but I do think they need to be cleaned regularly.

Yes, I did ask the rescue lady if she'd brought me a small dog instead - he was such a large boned cat that when we eventually got him down to 6kg, he looked too skinny!! This was the first evening!!

[booktigger]

Wet? Ah, do you mean if they're eating and slobber back into the bowl? Well you do have to keep your eye on it of course. I've never found a problem. Occasionally I've found that the bowl level's not going down so I chuck the whole lot and restart, I will admit.

9 kg!

Blimey, a cat as big as that could push me out of bed!

Yep, that's what I meant.

Yes, I did ask the rescue lady if she'd brought me a small dog instead - he was such a large boned cat that when we eventually got him down to 6kg, he looked too skinny!! This was the first evening!!

Thomas first night lying.JPG

And this was the 8kg female who looked heavier (should probably stop calling my Lucy fat after looking at this!!)

[Lilith]

Wow!

The Giant Haystacks of the cat world!

The cat I knew belonged to friends who had several; they lived next door to an industrial estate and the cats led an active life hunting there (not a situation I'd like for a cat in my care I must say) but this particular girl was so fat her eyes were sunken in her chubby little face ... awful!

Hmm ... perhaps I'll feed less dried at a go and clear and change the bowls once a week regardless ... always having a gang of them at the dried, this is the way I've always done it, but I can see the disadvantages ...

[booktigger]

Yep! My Lucy (that tortie was also called Lucy) was that fat at 5.6kg you couldn't scruff her!

I personally would - my neighbour feeds like that, I always make a point of washing the bowls when she goes on holiday, the sides are very greasy which can't be good.

[don1976]

When we first got our Minnie from PAWS shelter, she was approx 4.5kg. Initially we had trouble finding some foods that she'd eat, but stumbled on Gourmet Gold pates and the Perfect Fit complete dry food - she loves these.

Feeding her a tin of pate for breakfast (actually half a tin, then half a tin a bit later on, otherwise she tends to wolf down a full tin and almost make herself sick), we then followed the guidelines on the Perfect Fit bag for portion sizes for the rest of the day. The result ? A chubby moggy.

I posted a thread a couple of weeks ago to say the vets had asked us to reduce her food intake as she was up to 5 point something kilos.

She's probably now eating approx 3/5ths of the dry food she was originally eating (or rather, what was suggested on the Perfect Fit packet). She seems to happy enough. We've got rid of our felix treats, which are probably just floury sugary things, and now instead I give her pieces of dry food instead of treats - she seems just as happy with these. I'd be lying if I said she didn't get the odd tiny bit of fresh chicken when I'm cooking one, as well (If she's good).
One of the problems we had as well was that we'd be putting a 'handful' of food into her dish, and I'm sure we were overfeeding on this as well. We now keep a measure inside the bag so we're always giving her the same amounts and we're not tempted to just lazily dole her out her food.

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating (or the weighing) when we next go the vets and hopefully her weight is going in the right direction. We're also making a conscious effort to exercise her more through play so this will also benefit.

[Lilith]

[quote="booktigger"

I personally would - my neighbour feeds like that, I always make a point of washing the bowls when she goes on holiday, the sides are very greasy which can't be good.[/quote]

Ugh! No way are my bowls as bad as that lol - if they're at all grubby they get changed, and wet food goes in a clean bowl, always, of course, unless it's a little extra top-up. I'm fussy about water bowls too. I've noticed when cat-sitting so many otherwise houseproud people never bother to keep water bowls clean. So I suppose I'm rough and ready but hopefully stuff's bottom-clean ...

Yeah I never bother with treats, bought them on occasion but nobody's thrilled. What they like is meaty titbits, or else anything off my plate - Emily has just been standing over me for the sake of ... raw celery

Poor girl, she couldn't understand why I was eating THAT!

[filardimarg-9]

Dishes only get washed when they go on holiday....Oh yuk, I wash Bella's dishes after each meal, She is relatively new to me, so maybe I am a bit over the top, but I couldn't bare to think of not washing the dishes regularly.

Marg.

[Kay]

I thought everyone washed up cats' bowls after every feed - a dish which had contained dry food is almost certainly covered in dried saliva

[alanc]

I certainly do! Tilly's dishes get washed after every feeding time and she always has a clean saucer for her dry food every day.

[booktigger]

Luckily my neighbour goes on holiday a lot! Waterbowls are another that surprise me. If you go off feeding guidelines for wet and dry food you'd end up with an overweight cat. It is amazing how little the recommended 20g is, so not surprising most people feed more.

[filardimarg-9]

Thanks again for everyones help, I do worry about Bella, over lots of things, the food is just the latest thing to worry about lol, she is very slowly coming downstairs more, usually at night about 10.30pm but I think it is just to tell me she is hungry, she is very interested in the downstairs cloakroom, if I am in there she will push the door open but as soon as I move she runs off............Oh how I wish I knew her background, but I will never know that, she is starting to play with me a bit, I got her a feather thingy on a stick, that got her playing but only once, she prefers to play on her own during the evenings. Well it is a good start.

Marg.