How much should a big cat eat?

[Sleepwalk]

Silas is a pretty big guy... he weighs 11 pounds, and that's with a missing leg. He's lean and fit right now, but I was a bit curious about his diet. The vet told me to go by what food label says (he's still on the shelter's kibble right now), so I am giving him a cup of food a day, in the morning when I leave for work. When I come back in the afternoon, he always acts hungry, nosing his bowl around and meowing.

I worry about him, since he's still recovering from his amputation. I don't want him getting too little food and feeling weak or anything, so I usually give him some more. I asked a friend at work who has cats about it, and she says she just fills the bowl when it's empty and lets the cats eat however much they need. But... her cats are so fat that at least one of them can't really jump anymore, and they have all four feet. The last thing I want to do is let Silas overeat until he has more mobility problems than he already does.

So yeah. Is there a decent system to figure out this sort of thing? Do you think he's really hungry in the afternoon, or is he just being a little beggar?

[doodlebug]

What kind of food are you feeding him...it makes a difference whether he's getting a food with most of it's protein coming from animal sources or if he's eating a lot of filler.

If he's eating a high quality food, he probably only needs about 1/2 cup. If it's a lower quality food then a cup is probably about right, but the extra calories will lead to weight gain. First thing to do is to go to feeding 2 meals a day...split his food in half, don't give him more. He's just gorging and then later he's hungry. Ideally, the best diet, especially for weight control, is a wet food diet.

[Sleepwalk]

He's on Purina Complete Forumula right now. That's a good idea, splitting it up... Should have thought of that! Silas is my first cat, I'm much more used to dogs-- and my dogs, at least, had bowl a day and were fine with it.

I plan on switching him to wet, but when I tried to make the conversion, his tummy wasn't very happy with the arrangement. But I have a whole other thread on that, haha.