I am wanting to take kitty off of dry food. (weight, feline)

[Pikantari]

Kitty Katty has dry food in his bowl all day and we give him wet food in the morning and at night. Of course he always has water.

I am thinking of weaning him off of the dry food all together. I am wondering how much wet food he should be fed in a day.

He is a 7 year old cat and he is...big. He weighs 17 lbs. Any ideas?

[subject2change]

The formula I have read is 13.6 calories per pound of cat, plus 70 calories. The minimum a cat should eat, say for a weight loss diet is 15 calories per pound. There are calories for many brands of cat food here, although I don't know how recently this was updated. The company website for the food he eats might tell you, or you could email them.

http://www.petobesityprevention.com/...ouch_Foods.pdf

Of course the cat's activity level plays into this. It's a little bit of trial and error.

[no kudzu]

I have a 17 lb Ragdoll who I feed little bits all day. he eats about 3/4 of a 5 oz can of wet food plus a bit of dry in his bowl at night so he won't wake me up at 0 dark thirty to be fed (but he usually does anyway!) If you feed him only twice a day and he has no trouble holding food down then you might start with half a day at each meal and see if he leaves anything to dry out. Do you think he needs to loose weight or is he just a big guy like my Langley. He is not fat- just a hunky Ragdoll and they are big ole floppy cats.

[Pikantari]

Originally Posted by no kudzu

I have a 17 lb Ragdoll who I feed little bits all day. he eats about 3/4 of a 5 oz can of wet food plus a bit of dry in his bowl at night so he won't wake me up at 0 dark thirty to be fed (but he usually does anyway!) If you feed him only twice a day and he has no trouble holding food down then you might start with half a day at each meal and see if he leaves anything to dry out. Do you think he needs to loose weight or is he just a big guy like my Langley. He is not fat- just a hunky Ragdoll and they are big ole floppy cats.

I would say he is overweight. When he runs, his stomach swings from side to side, if that tells you anything.

We adopted him in April. He is not terribly active. He runs through the house like a cat out of hell, heehee, every once in awhile, and plays at night with the laser. Other than that, I would venture to say he is a bit lazy.

It really doesn't seem like he overeats. Sometimes his bowl gets "empty" which means you can see a small bit of the bottom of the bowl. I think my SO switched him to a different food. I had him on Iams and he switched him to Wellness, and I really don't think he likes it at all. A lot of time seems to go by before we have to put food in the dry bowl as compared to before.

The only meat that he can keep down, as in what we eat, is chicken. I tried to give him beef and he just couldn't take it. BF tried again and he just got sick again. Soooo... every once in a while he gets the chicken as a treat.

I have yet to try him on raw. I had cats in the past who were on a raw food diet and they could have taken it or left it.

[Pikantari]

Originally Posted by subject2change

The formula I have read is 13.6 calories per pound of cat, plus 70 calories. The minimum a cat should eat, say for a weight loss diet is 15 calories per pound. There are calories for many brands of cat food here, although I don't know how recently this was updated. The company website for the food he eats might tell you, or you could email them.

http://www.petobesityprevention.com/...ouch_Foods.pdf

Of course the cat's activity level plays into this. It's a little bit of trial and error.

Thanks for that info. I feel a little ignorant here, but I don't understand if that amount is per day, per feeding, or what.



Right now his current activity is sitting on his other humans lap just -a- snoozing away.

[subject2change]

That's per day. There's a lot of good info here:

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition :: healthy cat diet, making cat food, litter box, cat food, cat nutrition, cat urinary tract health