Cats need a well-balanced diet of mostly meat based protein and fats but what about the amounts? Here is how much to feed a cat!
Well-Balanced Diet
First of all, cats need a well-balanced diet of a lot of meat-based protein and fats. On top of that they need a certain amount of vitamins and minerals, such as taurine and oils. I wrote about this previously.
What to feed?
There is so much available right now for cats, that it is easy to get lost in the many shops that sell cat food. There is also a lot of controversial belief on what is healthy for cats, what is good for teeth versus what is good for their water-intake. And there are a lot of myths out there to get even more confused about it all.
Cats generally prefer wet food over dry food. Not because of the water contents, mind you, but because of the smell. The smell must have been added, but yes it is strong.
Dry kibble seems to be better for the cats teeth, because of the scratching effect on their teeth. Wet food has more water content (75% vs 30% in dry kibble). All in all, I feel they need less kibble than wet food. Probably because the tin consists of more water than nutrients.
Quality varies very much and you better learn how to read the label than to listen to any of the many opinions on the internet, so you can make your own opinion and decision on the matter.
I think it is more of a preference between your wallet and your kitties needy preferences. Cats are very opinionated and will let you know what they prefer in their bowl. If you got a kitten they say you have some form of influence, but I haven’t noticed it yet. Our current kittens are also very opinionated on what they prefer or not.
How Much To Feed A Cat?
As said before, this depends very much on how much nutrients there are vs the amount of water. Some of the brands come with a lot of carbs and little meat contents. This often means there is a lot of sugars too and so you are stuffing your cat with things it doesn’t need and might be potentially dangerous for them too.
All Cats Are Different And Have Different Needs
Than there is also the problem that all cats are different. Some are thin and have troubles staying on weight, while others are easier fat. Some cats are very good at staying away from the food bowl, while others eat all day long. For kittens its a totally different story and so it is for adults over 7 years old.
Cats with health problems also have to be careful and spayed/neutered cats have different needs than the ones that are whole.
General Advice
Generally spoken, a normal adult cat should not have more than 200 calories per day. So calorie counting is also an option for your cats. Well-balanced diets have measurements usually in grams. The special tables on the package material tells you how much to feed a cat. It shows a graph for how much gram for the weight of the cat and the age of the cat.
Be Careful With Over-Feeding
Over-feeding is an epidemic. Not all cats do it, but most cats also eat food laying about in their bowls during the day. The best way to go is by serving food on meal times, such as morning and evening and removing it when they left the bowl.
Over-feeding can lead to obesity and numerous diseases, such as joint disease, heart disease and diabetes.
Restricting food is also a problem, because it can lead to ‘mean’ cats when they don’t get what they want. A solution to that problem is to offer very light diet food that doesn’t contain much calories so that they can keep eating it pretty much all day long.