I get so confused by the guidelines.. She is a little over 9 pounds. Right now I have the 3 oz cans. I do sometimes buy the 5.5 oz cans. I don't want to over or under feed and I read below that the manufacturers recommendations are not accurate.
How much canned to feed?
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I'd start her on one 5.5-6 oz can per day and monitor her weight (a baby scale is a good investment) every 2 weeks. Adjust accordingly until you are able to keep her weight stable (assuming she's a good weight now).
This assumes she's an adult, if she's a kitten just give her as much as she'll eat in 15 minutes 3 meals a day.
This assumes she's an adult, if she's a kitten just give her as much as she'll eat in 15 minutes 3 meals a day.
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I have always had dry food available for them in one of those food containers that the dry drops down as they eat. A vet said feeding only dry food can contribute problems in the urinary tract, especially the cheaper varieties. Kermit had urinary stones but our other two older ones never did. We have bought Purina varieties mostly. I would avoid cheap of any kind....High ash content?
As for canned, I use 9 lives pate mostly. Marble (2yrs) who was skinny when we found her and is now getting a little plump, (she is a small cat (6lbs?), and Kermit (9yrs) get about a third of a can (5.5oz can) in the morning. Eliza (18yrs now, is fed several times a day while the other two get a morning meal as above and can snack on dry at will. I open one can one day and a new can the next day. The third day they get the contents of both cans. (1/3 each). Easy for me to keep track of.
Since they are all indoor cats they don't burn up a lot of calories. I wish Kermit would play more with Marble but he seems to be the one chased and he ends up going to our bed (Sanctuary - from when our late CC picked on him--he could get rough).
Kermit is spoiled and a polite beggar so he might get a piece of fish or burger or when times are good, a piece of RibEye like last nite.
If the budget allowed I would probably go for the better products like Science Diet but we seem to have done alright with the above brands. Hope this helps.
As for canned, I use 9 lives pate mostly. Marble (2yrs) who was skinny when we found her and is now getting a little plump, (she is a small cat (6lbs?), and Kermit (9yrs) get about a third of a can (5.5oz can) in the morning. Eliza (18yrs now, is fed several times a day while the other two get a morning meal as above and can snack on dry at will. I open one can one day and a new can the next day. The third day they get the contents of both cans. (1/3 each). Easy for me to keep track of.
Since they are all indoor cats they don't burn up a lot of calories. I wish Kermit would play more with Marble but he seems to be the one chased and he ends up going to our bed (Sanctuary - from when our late CC picked on him--he could get rough).
Kermit is spoiled and a polite beggar so he might get a piece of fish or burger or when times are good, a piece of RibEye like last nite.
If the budget allowed I would probably go for the better products like Science Diet but we seem to have done alright with the above brands. Hope this helps.
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just a reminder, our cats have the dry available and do snack at their will tho we don't know how much each one eats. they seem to only snack tho...no gluttons tho Kermit would end up being 39lbs if we let him.
That is a lot of food...how has her weight been? If you've been feeding that much for a while and she's not getting fat, then maybe that's what she needs. The 5.5-6 oz per day is just a starting point...needs vary amongst cats, some more....some less.
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