Our cat is 5 months and eats non stop. How much dry food a day is enough? She's really fat!?

Answer 1

Hi Stephanie...proper servings are based on several factors: breed background, gender, weight as well as activity level. Servings are going to vary based on the type of food as many that contain the ingredients corn which will cause a cat to feel hungry all the time whereas a higher premium cat food will satiate the appetite and can be served smaller portions. Corn is used as a filler to help the kibble bind together.

Here's an article that talks more about this in great detail to better help proper feline nutrition and adequate servings.
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/family/cat-food/fullstory.html

....Although the best cat foods cost more due to their premium ingredients, experts note that premium cat foods are so densely packed with nutrients and calories (a good thing for animals) that your cat can be satisfied with smaller servings, which benefits your pet's digestion and weight, as well as your wallet. Because these foods contain less filler, your cat absorbs more of the food consumed as nutrients, so less is passed as waste. (see website for full details)

Ideally, a cat that is one years young who is active should eat about 1/2 cup a day in total.

Some cats are not able to control their overeating habits whereas others can. Cats by nature are not grazers and there are many cats who will eat out of boredom especially if they are indoor cats. If they are not expending more energy than they are consuming in calories they will gain weight steadily. Therefore, free feeding cats is not recommended in order to prevent cats from becoming overweight. Any vet can confirm this fact. If your vet indicates that your kitty's weight is within normal range then free feeding may be fine.

Here's an article by a vet about how free feeding cats and table scraps can lead to obesity in cats: http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/catweight.html (see section "FREE CHOICE FEEDING")
It begins by saying...THE main reason for feline obesity (as well as obesity in other mammals) is the consumption of too much food. Deny it all you want but it is a fact.

What we do…
Many cats are fed “free choice”, which means there is food available all the time and the cat eats whenever it wants. (Pretty unnatural for a true carnivore that evolved as a hunting machine!) Free choice feeding has probably been the biggest single factor contributing to feline obesity.

Also please consider reading the following article about why feeding table scraps to cats is not healthy: http://cats.about.com/od/catfoodandnutrition/f/tablescraps.htm

Answer 2

I can't answer the question because you didn't say how much the cats weighs. Usually cats can eat on demand without a problem. In other words, you can put out all of the food you want to and the cat will eat the right amount. However, some cats develop eating disorders. The "fat" may be a fur ball and may just make her look fat. It is best to take kitty to a competent veterinarian. Proper food is also important, the cheap stuff is hard on them. I recommend Iams brand. Generally, I fat cat is a healthy cat. I don't know what the youngest age a cat can get pregnant is, you may want to check on that.

Answer 3

This is off the information panel on a bag of Royal Canin kitten formula dry food. Your five month old kitten should be expected to eat about 8 ounces of dry food a day. She should also be getting some canned food to supplement this. Royal Canin is a premium brand cat food. If you are feeding something like Purina or Friskies, you can expect you cat to eat much more. At her age, dry food should be available to her at all times, along with a constant water supply.

The lesser brands are full of filler and cats need to eat more in order to ingest enough nutrition. At five months, your cat is growing rapidly, inside and out. Growth requires food.

Ultimately, you will find that, if you feed a high quality food, your cat will eat less (because they are getting sufficient nutrition). There will be less mess in your litterbox, because the higher quality foods are more digestable and more is absorbed and less excreted. There will be less odor coming from your litterbox.

A good comparison is dish detergent....let's say the store brand vs. something like Dawn. Use a cheap brand and you will have to use more. Use an expensive brand, and not only will your dishes be cleaner, but you will use less of the product to do the job.

Answer 4

You should just put food down for her for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. She can munch out all she wants during feeding time but that's it.

Having a fat cat is really unhealthy - and it will cost you a heap if she's eating too much too.

Just make sure the food you're feeding her is nutritionally excellent and she ALWAYS has fresh water. A couple of bowls around the house is good.

Answer 5

You need to read the daily intake suggestion on the back of the packet.
At 5 months old, she should only be eating 3/4 of a cup (85g) divided into 3-4 portions of dry food.
Then, she should also be eating 2-3 pouches of (wet) kitten food per day - less if the vet says otherwise.

I would suggest leaving all her food out (dry & wet) for 15-20 minutes and what she doesn't eat - either store in the fridge for later or throw out - making sure water is ALWAYS available.
She should be fed atleast 2-3 times per day - giving her food out in small portions throughout those 2-3 meals.

If you feel that she is very over-weight, go to your local vet and they should suggest some premium weight-loss food for her.

Answer 6

You should ask your vet at this point. If the cat is obese, she will need to be cut back on her food and maybe put on a special food. (eg weight control by Iams) A 5 month old cat will eat a lot; kind of like a teenager.

I have to feed my 3 cats a few times a day or one will eat ALL the time and then regurgitate. Last visit to the vet said that a combination of wet and dry foods was recently agreed as the "proper" food for cats. That changed from when I first got my cats....before wet food was a "no-no" because of sugar and teeth problems.

Answer 7

I have a cat which also likes to lick all the gravy and eat the jelly leaving behind the chunks. I found that if I only give him half the portion I usually do, then he'll generally finish what's in his bowl. You can then give him the other portion once he's finished it if he's still hungry. Try it and see if it works. Once he realises he's not getting the amount he used to, he should finish what you give him. Please don't feed him dog food though, he's a cat not a dog. Dog food is created for dogs for a reason. There's probably a lot more protein and nutrients in dog food than cat food because dogs are much larger, muscular animals.

Answer 8

At 5 months she should still be on a kitten formula. If she is fat at this age, there is probably something wrong. Is she fat? or are you just worried she might become fat?

The amount of food depends on the quality of food, as well as its base(main meat and rice etc)

EDIT: I also have to respectfully disagree with the post above me. Hard food can be a perfectly good diet for cats. The problem is low quality food. Which has ash magnesium (leading to urinary problems, mostly observed in male cats)and carbohydrates and fats that put on weight very quickly, and are generally unhealthy for the cat.

If you find a high quality food(I can specify this in further detail if needed), many of them now have no ash, no magnesium(or very very very very low) and things like cranberry to dissolve any potential NATURAL(not food related) issues.

At one point in time it was best to provide both dry and wet for your cat. Nowadays it is absolutely not necessary, PROVIDING you are giving them a high quality diet(DO NOT rely on commercials to give this information).

Answer 9

Time to control your cat's diet... You don't want it to have complications later on in life...

I feed my cats twice a day, breakfast and dinner. They're so used to it that now I have a natural alarm clock in the morning (George will sit on my chest and kneads me til I wake up!)

I usually mix can and dry food together, enough to fill up 3/4 of food bowl. They don't polish up everything at one sitting, so there's a little left over during the day to sustain til dinner.

Answer 10

depending what food you give your cat depends how much you should feed her. A lot of dry food bags will have suggestions about how much. I know when my cat was 5-6 months I was feeding her around a half of cup of dry food a day and that is it. For a treat sometimes I would feed her a little big of wet food on top of that but that is it. As she gets bigger and grows more you can feed her more then. I would suggest you check your cat food bad first though and see what they say.