This is a question that a lot of cat owners ask ” I’m never sure how much food to feed my cat” and it’s a difficult one to answer. It’s all too easy to get it wrong and overfeed your cat especially if they don’t have set mealtimes.
There can be quite a few factors that are involved in how much a particular cat needs to maintain a healthy weight, including their age, size, how much exercise they get, metabolism and genetic background. This makes it very hard to say exactly how much your cat should be eating as it will vary and there’s no hard and fast rules that will work for every cat.
When to Feed?
Like many cat owners, you may currently be “free feeding” your pet and letting them eat throughout the day from a bowl that never really gets empty. This means their food is down all the time and they can come and go as they please. If the bowl gets empty, it’s usually filled up again with this type of feeding so it’s very much an “on demand” approach to mealtimes.
If your cat’s food bowl is filled up whenever it gets empty, it’s hard to know exactly how many calories your pet is really eating and this is why the “free feeding” approach is one of the big factors in why more cats are becoming overweight.
You can get some idea by measuring and noting how much you give your cat over the course of a few days and if they don’t eat everything, how much is still left in the food bowl at the end of the day. If they’re overweight, you’ll know that this amount is too much and should be cut back.
A better approach is to only offer feed at set mealtimes during the day, and to provide just enough feed to stop your cat being hungry but not to overfeed with extra calories they don’t need. You may decide to have two larger mealtimes or break it down into three or four smaller mealtimes at more regular intervals. Your cat may baulk at this idea to begin with if they’re used to “free feeding” but it’s a lot easier to gauge and control their real food intake.
When Is It Too Much?
Your cat’s weight is perhaps the best indication of whether you’re overfeeding them (or indeed, underfeeding in some cases) and if they’re overweight it’s often fairly easy to see and feel.
In an ideal world, you don’t want to be able to see your cat’s ribs and backbone as this is a sign that they’re underweight. On the other hand, if you can’t feel them at all when you pick your cat up, this is also a negative as it means they’re overweight.
You may need to do some trial and error in cutting back on your cat’s food to see if they start making progress in losing weight on their new feeding plan. Weighing yourself holding your cat and then weighing yourself should give you an idea of how much your cat weighs and you can then track any weight loss and make sure that they’re not losing weight too quickly.
Your vet can help you to work out how much to feed your cat based on their age, size and other factors so it’s a good idea to speak to them if you’re not sure how best to change their feeding routine or have any concerns about doing so. Vets will also be able to accurately weigh your pet, while some vet nurses will be able to offer weight clinics to help your cat lose weight.