Feeding Kittens That Are 6
At 10 to 12 months old, you can transition your kitten onto an adult cat food. The time at which you make the switch will depend on the breed and body build of your kitten. If your kitten is prone to weight gain, then you may want to switch them to adult cat food sooner, as this contains fewer calories, proteins, and fats than kitten food.
If your kitten is a larger breed, like a Maine Coon, then they can benefit from staying on kitten food until theyre 12 months of age. If youre not sure when to make the switch, your veterinarian can help by assessing your cats body condition in conjunction with their breed and overall health.
Foods To Avoid Feeding Your Cat
This list is by no means the full extent of what your cat shouldnt eat. But keep these common foods in mind whenever youre putting food in its bowl or dropping scraps from the table, as there are some that are highly poisonous for your feline friend.
Foods to avoid include:
- Coffee or caffeinated products caffeine isnt just found in tea and coffee, its also in cocoa, chocolate, cola and stimulant drinks. It can also be found in some cold medicines and painkillers, so never ever leave these lying around
- Fruit stones for example, mango seeds or apricot pips
Determining How Much To Feed A Cat
Different cats have different nutritional needs based on their size, life stage and more. Here are some factors to consider when deciding how much food your cat should eat.
- Age & Life Stage: Kittens have different nutritional needs than adults or senior cats. Pregnant or nursing cats also have different needs.
- Weight: If your cat is not at her ideal body condition, you may need to adjust what and how much you feed her, says Dr. Callie Harris, DVM.
- Activity Levels: Cats who are active and playful throughout the day may need more calories than those who prefer to spend their time napping.
- Indoor vs. Outdoor: Indoor cats may not get as much exercise as an outdoor cat would, so they need fewer calories. Outdoor cats living in regions with cold winters may need more food in the cold months.
The best way to determine how much food your cat needs is to talk with your veterinarian. They can tell you how much food your cat needs based on the above factors.
They can also help you troubleshoot any problems that may arise, such as your cat eating more or less than usual.
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So How Many Calories Does My Cat Need
We are now ready to answer the ultimate question. First, you can look at the cans and bags of what you have been feeding your pet and evaluate how many calories it has been receiving so far. When you get the recommended number, you can compare them and see whether you will need to feed it more, less, or slightly adjust the diet.
The formula is based on the standard daily calorie intake for an average cat and its current weight, producing the amount you should feed it. This number is additionally adjusted by the lifestyle factor. Depending on it, the daily amount of wet or dry food to feed your cat may vary greatly, as the recommended calories amount may vary immensely based on the current weight and your future goals.
However, you can leave it out for now, its important to at least establish how much food it takes to keep your cat satisfied at its current weight without threatening its condition. And in a week, when you have followed this regime, you can weigh it again and see whether its losing or gaining pounds. Then, the lifestyle factor can be used to alter the calorie content based on whether you want to increase or reduce it.
If your cat suffers from serious medical issues, make sure to consult the vet, of course. Usually, though, the health condition may influence certain products and types of foods, as well as the preferred feeding schedule.
Activity Level And Metabolic Rate
Since were calculating how much energy your cat needs to get with food, its just as important to consider how much energy it spends during the day. So, the calories have to be adjusted in accordance with your pets lifestyle. Thats one of the reasons why kittens require on average twice as many calories per their body weight as grown-up cats. As a rule, they are extremely active, running around, exploring the world, and wrestling with one another.
Now, theres no need to overfeed your cat if it prefers to stay inside and just lie in different places. However, if your adult feline spends a lot of time outside or is simply more active and playful, you may need to increase the cat food amounts by 1.5 or even 2 times, depending on its metabolic rate. The same goes for breeding tomcats, who obviously require more energy.
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About Dr Pete Wedderburn Dvm
Dr Pete Wedderburn qualified as a vet from Edinburgh in 1985 and has run his own 4-veterinarian companion animal practice in County Wicklow, Ireland, since 1991. Pete is well known as a media veterinarian with regular national tv, radio and newspaper slots, including a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph since 2007. Pete is known as “Pete the Vet” on his busy Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, regularly posting information on topical subjects and real-life cases from his clinic. He also write a regular blog at www.petethevet.com. His latest book: Pet Subjects, was published by Aurum Press in 2017.
How To Help Your Cat Lose Weight
Cats used to being free-fed dont generally like the transition period between free-feeding and meal-prepped-feeding. Your cat will complain and beg for food when their food bowl is empty, especially if they arent used to seeing it that way. One way you can get your cat to exercise more is to hide bowls of food around the house. In the wild, cats would work off the calories by hunting. Hiding small portions of food around the house can help your cat work off its calories by looking for hidden food.
If hiding food every day sounds like a chore you dont want to add to your repertoire, consider getting a feeding toy. These toys have small holes in them, and the cats must bat the toy and roll it around to get the food out from the inside. These methods simulate hunting for your cat and allow them to work for their food much like their wild ancestors would have. If neither is doable for you, consider playing with your cat more! Chaser toys and laser pointers are a great way to get your cat moving. You can even get automatic laser pointer toys that you can set up to help your cat exercise even when youre away. But just like people, most cats would prefer some quality playtime with their humans over a robotic toy.
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Keeping A Cat’s Body Condition In Check With Monthly Weigh
Keeping a cat’s body condition at an ideal weight can help ensure a longer life span for your feline friend. By keeping a close eye on your feline’s weight, you can easily spot any changes in his or her health. The best way to understand your cat’s weight is to use a body condition scale. While veterinarians use this scale to evaluate your cat’s health, you can do it at home as well.
Using a specialized scale can be a hassle, but it’s the best way to monitor your feline’s weight. Cats tend to gain weight when they have a positive energy balance, which means they take in more calories than they use. Excess energy is stored as fat. A cat’s body will adjust its energy intake to balance out its energy use, so it’s important to monitor weight fluctuations.
Vegetarian Or Vegan Diets
As we mentioned, cats are obligate carnivores. They need a diet of mostly meat in order to get the right nutrients to keep them healthy and thriving, so a vegetarian or vegan diet isnt recommended.
Fetch by WebMD says that the amino acid taurine, for example, is found only in animal tissue. Lack of taurine can lead a cat to experience heart problems, blindness, and even death.
5. Unintentionally creating an unbalanced diet
Homemade and raw food diets for cats have become popular over the years, but if not prepared properly, they can lead to nutritional deficiencies.
Pierson says that pet owners need to balance meat with the right amount of calcium. A cat would be eating both the meat and bones of their prey, which provides a proper calcium-to-phosphorus ratio.
On the other hand, too much of certain nutrients can cause also problems. Diets heavy in tuna, liver or liver oil can result in vitamin A toxicosis and too much raw fish can affect vitamin B1 levels. The side effects can make your cat very uncomfortable, ranging from dry skin and joint pain to more severe conditions like seizure or brain damage.
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Incorporate Your Personal Schedule
You cant feed your cat if youre at work, so tailor your cats feeding schedule around your day. If you have a set workday schedule, then its easy to feed your cat once in the morning and once at night. If your schedule is a bit more hectic, a late-night or early-morning feeding once a day may better suit your needs. Regardless of your schedule, do your best to feed your cat at the same time every day.
What To Feed Your Cat Wet Food Or Dry Food
Another important factor in answering How much should I feed my cat? is considering what youre feeing your cat. The foundation of a healthy cat diet is flesh-based protein like meat, fish or poultry. Dry food should be high in animal proteins, and low in plant proteins . Carbohydrates should make up no more than ten percent of the mix of cat food ingredients.
Wet foods should consist predominantly of meat with as few by-products and fillers as possible.
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How Much Food Should I Feed My Cat
See files for Cats
Cats are carnivorous animals that prefer to eat several times a day instead of once, as if they did in the wild. In addition, they do not eat more than what they need. Even so, the amount of daily cat food depends on several factors, such as age, size, physical activity or personality of the animal. It is our responsibility to provide them with a balanced and high-quality diet to avoid them becoming overweight, or on the contrary, malnourished.
AnimalWised will show you just how to properly feed these pets depending on what stage they are in life. Remember that the daily amount of food for an adult cat will be different than that of a kitten or senior cat.
How Much Should I Feed My Cat Cat Feeding Guide For Wet And Dry Cat Food
How much should I feed my cat must be one of the most commonly asked questions I hear at the vet clinic. While the answer will be as individual as your cat, with a few simple steps, you can find out how much canned or dry food your cat should be eating each day.
There are several things to consider when working out the amount to feed:
- How many calories are in the food I feed my cat?
- What is my cats weight?
- How many Calories does a cat need?
- Is my cat in perfect body condition?
- How active is my cat?
- Has my cat got any special needs?
OK, so that might sound a little complicated but trust me here, it is not so tricky!
Spending a little time working out the correct amount of cat food to feed will greatly benefit your cat.
Article Contents
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How Much Should I Feed My Cat The Basics
The answer to How much should I feed my cat is based on many variables, including a cats weight and a cats age, whether youre feeding wet cat food or dry cat food, the cats activity level, and whether or not she is pregnant or nursing.
The brand of food youre feeding also makes a difference when were answering the question How much should I feed my cat. A dense, high quality dry cat food will contain more nutrients by weight than a low-quality food, and thus require smaller portions to deliver the same amount of nutrition for your cat.
Many cat owners allow their cats free access to dry food, supplemented by canned food once or twice a day. A dry-food-only diet is not necessarily a bad pet diet if youre feeding high quality food, but it does require that you encourage your cat to drink a lot more water to compensate for what shes not getting in canned food.
How To Convert Calories Into Portion Sizes
Once youve determined how many calories your cat needs every day, you need to figure out how much of their food will provide those calories. Thankfully, manufacturers are required to list a foods caloric content on the label. On wet food labels, it will be written as kcal/kg and kcal/can. On dry food, it will be written as kcal/cup. Don’t be intimidated by the lingo in nutrition circles, a kcal is the same as a calorie.
Divide your cats caloric needs by the foods caloric content . The answer will let you know how much food your cat needs each day. To figure out how much food to feed at each meal, simply divide the daily amount of food by the number of meals you plan to offer each day.
For example, lets say your cat weighs 10 pounds and is very active. According to the chart above, your cat should consume 346 kcal/day. Now, imagine they are on a diet of Tiny Tiger Pate Chicken Recipe Grain-Free Wet Cat Food. Let’s take a look at the label:
Since the calorie content of the wet cat food is 95 kcal/can, you would determine your cat’s daily portion by dividing 346 kcal/day by 95 kcal/can.
346 kcal/day ÷ 95 kcal/can = 3.64 cans of Tiny Tiger Pate Chicken Recipe Wet Cat Food per day.
If you feed two meals per day, divide 3.64 by 2 to find out how much to feed at each meal: roughly 1.82 cans per meal.
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Cat Feeding Guidelines: How Often Should I Feed My Cat
Every pet owner wonders if they are taking good care of their pet , with questions about feeding being one of the number one concerns. Cats are mercurial much of the time they often do what they want and can switch between being a cuddler and a distant loner in a second. Talk about mixed signals! It makes it hard to determine their basic needs, like how often they need to be fed.
How Much And How Often You Should Feed Your Cat
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Many cat owners, myself included, love a big chunky cat.
Maybe its because they seem cuddlier when they are in the mood to cuddle that is.
Or perhaps we feel more loved when they are begging for food or purring as we feed them.
But in reality, as cute as they may be, excess weight isnt healthy for our cats. Studies show that pets on the leaner side live longer than their heavier counterparts. Also, cats with a healthy body weight will suffer less from issues like arthritis and other illnesses.
The best way to show love is by managing your cats weight to help them live a long and healthy life.
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Lets get started on some basics of how you can help your furry friend lose weight and keep it off.
One of the first things I suggest is consulting with your cats veterinarian. They can guide you on how much weight your cat needs to lose, how much to feed them, and how to establish an exercise routine for your cat.
It is recommended just like it is for people to have your cat get a complete physical exam and possibly blood tests to be sure there are no underlying medical issues before starting a weight loss program.
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Feeding Wet Cat Food Vs Dry Cat Food
Most veterinarians recommend that cats eat primarily wet food. The higher water content in wet foods can help treat or prevent kidney and lower urinary tract disease as well as obesity and all its associated health problems. High quality wet foods tend to contain more meat and protein and be lower in carbohydrates than dry foods, which better matches a cats nutritional needs.
The chief benefits of dry foods are their lower cost and the fact that they are the best option when food needs to be left out for extended periods of time. If you choose to feed dry, opt for a quality, high protein cat food, like Solid Gold Indigo Moon with Chicken & Eggs Grain-Free High Protein Dry Cat Food, and try to maximize your cats water intake. If your cat likes to drink from running sources of water, consider purchasing a kitty water fountain like the Catit Flower Pet Fountain.