Feeding adult Cats

Any recommendations on serving sizes I can make can only be a starting point for you. (This page will discuss feeding adult cats. How to feed kittens is discussed elsewhere.) Determining your cat’s ideal daily portion size is not as easy as a chart which tells you: if your cat weighs this much, feed her that amount. Cats are individuals. Some are big, but thin. Others are small, but fat. They are young and old, male and female, active or sedate, and more.

Any chance of providing you with a simple chart is made more difficult by the fact, that a homemade diet will turn out differently with the meat you use and with how precisely you follow instructions. Some customers use lean poultry, other use fatty beef. A fatty beef diet will be more filling and calorie dense than the same volume of a lean turkey diet. Some customers add more water, giving the food more volume but not more calories, while others omit water and wonder why their cats gain weight on so little food.

Caregivers are often distressed about their cat’s behavior of finishing their plate of food in less than a minute, asking for more, pestering them at the fridge, or taking food stuff off counters or out of the trash, prompting them to think that their cat is starving or lacking something! It is natural for an animal to be opportunistic, and this is part of their survive strategy. Much of this is conditioning and how your cat was raised and how your cat has trained you!

Food requirement should be based entirely on body condition, and not on behavior. If your cat suddenly looses weight without changes in the diet, consult with your Veterinarian about possible illness. It is especially difficult to monitor food intake and its effects with cats who are allowed outdoors. Outdoors, cats can regurgitate food without you knowing, and all you notice is a loss in body weight. The eating of mice and other prey will add calories, but also predispose cats to intestinal parasites. Outdoor, cats will often travel long distances, which takes extra calories. Outdoor, cats may scavenge food from neighbors, which can contribute to weight gain.

Unlike the big cats, domestic cats and wild relatives hunt prey much smaller than themselves. This means, they needs to hunt many times during the day, consuming 8-9 mice weighing an average of 16 gram every day. Based on the natural model, feeding cats 8 meals per day, each meal the size of a tablespoon measure, would be ideal. Indeed, cats thrive on such a meal plan. Unfortunately, it is not convenient for most humans.

My suggestion is to feed a 65 g (1/4 cup) portion 2 – 3 times every day to the average healthy adult cat with a lean body weight of 4.5kg (10lbs.)
Unless you have a very large cat or a young and active cat, 99% of cats will fall into this portion range. Some older, more sedate cats may gain weight on that amount of food and benefit from having the food watered down.

• Cats prefer to eat food from a flat dish , like a saucer.
• Cats will digest food better, and get more out of it, when given small portions 3-5 times a day. Cats will also pester you less for food, if you divide their daily portion into more frequent meals.
• Most cats will not digest a portions size exceeding 1/3 cup well, and will likely suffer from a degree of indigestion. Many cats will actually regurgitate food if you feed a portion larger than ¼ cup. Ability to eat a large meal in one sitting decreases with age.
• Young cats often behave especially frantic to get their paws on food. They may climb up on you while you are preparing or serving their food, climb right into the fridge when it is being opened, and come running at any sound of activity in the kitchen.
• Cats are individuals. Some will maintain a level of excitement about food throughout their live. Others are largely uninterested in eating, and need coaxing to eat even as kittens. Most cats do well eating three meals every day, but some are not interested in eating more often than twice every day; sometimes they only show enthusiasm for one meal per day. Other cats will eat anything, any time, for no reason. Cats’ personality and emotional state is very much expressed by how they eat!
• Cats’ appetite and attitude towards food does not only hinge on a certain personality type, but also on early kittenhood conditioning. Competition from other kittens, type of food fed, and frequency of food fed will all affect what kind of relationship cats will have with food later in life.
• Cats’ behavior towards food and eating is also influenced by how well they have trained you. Do you respond to their begging by feeding them something when you have a meal yourself, work in the kitchen, or open the fridge? A rewarded behavior will be repeated. Although your intention may not have been to reward your cats for that behavior, you did nonetheless yield to their pressure.

If you find a begging cat intolerable, start conditioning your cat early and consistently by feeding him or her at a quite, designated place – preferably not in your kitchen or dining room, so your cat does not form a strong food association with these areas. If you feed your adult cat three times daily (like morning, evening, and just before bed) as much as he or she needs to maintain body weight, and refrain from giving food out of the fridge or from the table, your cat should settle into a routine that is comfortable and predictable for both of you. Feed treats away from areas where you prepare and eat your own food, and keep groceries and the trash out of your cat’s reach. If your cat is allowed into the kitchen and on counter tops, this means you must keep food stored away and inaccessible. If your cat is successful in snatching food off the counters, he or she will continue to check these areas out for food. After all, they are not stupid and will not resist instinct simply to be a good kitty for you.

Regurgitation of food can be almost entirely abolished by feeding meal sizes not exceeding 35 g, and to feed the daily requirement as 3-5 meals. Young, large, active cats who require more than 140 g of food every day should be given an extra meal rather then increasing the size of their meal.