What is the proper amount to feed an adult cat?

Question

One friend told me a cup a day another said half a cup. I'm concerned that my cat is getting to an unhealthy weight. She eats IAMS Indoor cat food if that helps.

Answer 1

First weigh your cat. There are usually directions on the back of the bag, or you can even call your vet and ask them about a feeding schedule.

I have 2 cats that were free fed and both are between 12 and 15 pounds at 1 year of age.
The vet put them on a diet of 1/4 cup of food twice daily. They are doing better and playing more.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

Without knowing enough about your cat that seems more then sufficient. I have dry kibble out at all times, and since I have multiple cats, the amount they eat each day varies. So I maintain the level so it never quite runs out, but also so there is not a huge amount there. It is adjusted twice a day. They also have a fountain for water, as well as a bowl. And before I prepare my dinner, they each get a small amount of canned food, which they eat up completely. If one doesn't the others will finish it. I don't give each one of them that much canned food, however. Less then an ounce per cat. None of my cats are overweight, and all are healthy. So I really let them guide me.

Answer 3

Cats eat when they need to. My cats have access to food 24-7. If a cat is denied food when needed, it's system can shut down. I feed canned twice a day and only enough that they eat it at that time. They have kibble to munch on the rest of the day. If your having weight problems try a low fat weight reducing diet food. They will eat it and not gain the weight. As for IAMS, I, personally wouldn't feed that to my neighbors tomcat! My wife works at an animal hospital and that food seems to screw up blood testing results and have killed a few cats due to the invalid readings which caused a misdiagnose.

Answer 4

Hi there...generally a healthy adult indoor cat shouldn't eat more than 3/4 to a full cup in total a day. It also depends on the breed and their activity level as well. Very active cats need the full cup whereas less active a little less. Free fed (food that is left available at all times) cats tend to be overweight more than those who are fed a measured portion twice a day.

Most cat food available on the market is sub-standard even though they spend a considerable amount of money on advertising. Royal Canin is one of the better brands which is competitively priced against IAMs and the like and is available in most pet stores. It doesn't contain the ingredients, corn, corn meal or soy all which are bad for a cats diet. These are in almost every commercial cat food products (IAMs, Science Diet, Whiskas, etc) if you read the ingredient label. Here's a direct link for Royal Canin and long-haired breed cat food: http://www.royalcanin.us/catfood/indoor_u.html

Those ingredients are used as binders which are preservatives that hold the dry food together so they don't crumble inside the packaging. Unfortunately these carbohydrates are also unfilling to a cat so they are always hungry too whereas the premium brand foods satiate a cat's appetite better so you can even feed them less than the recommended amount that an off shelf commercial brands. There are even better brands of cat food, however if price isn't any concern they would be better suited to meet a cat's nutritional requirements:

Nature's Variety Prairie: http://www.naturesvariety.com/content.lasso?page=1352/content.la...
Innova EVO: http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=%2F%2Fproduct%5B%40id%3D%272%27%5D
California Natural: http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=%2F%2Fproduct%5B%40id%3D%2772%27%5D
Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul: http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/
Wysong: http://wysong.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=WOTTPWS&Category_Code=FD
Wellness: http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/cats/index.html

When one decides to change brands of cat food it must be done gradually. Changing food suddenly with any cat will cause stomach distress as well as diarrhea in cats. You will need to gradually change her food to the new brand over a course of several weeks. How you do this is to take 3/4 of the old food and mix it together with 1/4 of the new food for one week. Then 1/2 of the new with 1/2 of the old for another week. Finally, 3/4 of the new food mixed with 1/4 of the old for a week before finally 100% of the new food. Please keep in mind that some cats absolutely just don't like some brands of foods either so you may need to consider another brand and then again gradually mix the old kind with the new one to help her adjust. It just cannot be done any other way without making the cat very sick.

Long-term medical care will cost more when a cat eats sub-standard food. Just like humans if we eat junk food all the time eventually we will have health problems which will require expensive medical care too.

Answer 5

I feed my cats all they want. I don't know how old your cat is but maybe it needs another kitty to play with - or some sort of excercise.

Answer 6

It should have the recommended amount written on the bag somewhere. I don't use Iams, so I dont know. Use the minimal amount if it is overweight.

Answer 7

hmm...if it an outdoors cat, you shouldnt worry too much about weight problems. with indoors cats though, measure how much it eats in a sitting and give the cat that much twice a day. with out doors cats, it doesnt matter much if they are fed too much because they get tons of exercise doing their rounds searching and marking their territory and fighting intruders.

Answer 8

there should be something on the bag of dry food because it goes by the cat's weight

Answer 9

depends on the size of your cat, read the side of the can or bag that you are feeding your. or ask your vet,

Answer 10

weigh your cat and look on the back of the package