The best thing to do is find out how many calories are in the can. All foods are different and 200g of different foods can vary widely in calories. Cats are generally supposed to get between 20 - 30 calories per pound depending on age/activity level. So an older, VERY sedentary cat would get 20 calories per pound (so if he weighed 12 pounds, that's 240 calories). Whereas a very active younger cat might need 30 calories per pound (so if he weighed 12 pounds, that's 360 calories). Just like with people, cats have different metabolisms based on age, weight, and activity level. So, a couple of questions:
1. How old are your cats?
2. How active are your cats?
3. How much do they weigh?

There's a good website with a lot of nutritional info posted on most brands (it is a little out of date, but a great starting point). If you don't see your food on here, I recommend contacting the manufacturer and asking how many calories there are in a tin. Dry foods usually list the calories on the bag, but canned foods do not, for whatever reason.

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

 

Vet had my cats at 25kcal per lb. That keeps them at a good weight at their activity level and body type. So how much of any brand of food depends on what the calorie content is.

 

My cats are of average activity, both weigh 11 to 12 lbs. I feed them 3 oz (about 85 grams) 2 times a day. They get a very small amount of dry for a night time snack. That's it.....very rarely do they get a treat. They seem to be satisfied, but are always willing to eat if offered. I stick to a pretty strict schedule so they know when it's time to eat and don't bother to ask otherwise.

 

Rather than go by recommended amounts I go by the cat's activity level, age & shape. My four are all fed different amounts ranging from 180gms/day for Tyion who is a year old and VERY active to 105gms/day for Coco who is 3 1/5 years old, lazy and (was) obese - after being on diet biscuits for years. Lisbeth gets around 150gms/day and Effie 120gms/day. I've found that it's been easier to get their weight right since we transitioned to Raw. I watch their shape and increase or reduce their intake by 5gms/meal (they have three meals/day) until I'm happy. I usually see a difference in their shape/weight within a week.
They aren't hungry and never beg for food on these amounts - which are lower than the 'recommended' amounts for raw fed cats, but it's working for us. Coco is losing weight nicely on our new regime - around 50-80gms/week which is around 1% or her original weight so is a perfect & safe rate of loss.

 

Thanks for the advice guys.

I assumed when I feed them a bowl of dried food that it was 100g roughly the same as when I give them tinned, but in fact I weighed an average portion I give and it only came to 50g. So thats 150g per day food total. Should I be feeding them more dried food then? I just wonder if it will fatten them up too much. Or is it better to feed them more tinned like I said instead.

 

Wet food is better for cats than dry (there are SO many sources to back this up - it's better for their kidneys, liver, etc.). And dry food typically has far more calories and carbs than wet. So if your cats like wet, I would take them off dry all together. Again, you can't compare apples to apples here. 100 grams of butter has more calories than 100 grams of broccoli, right? You should find out how many calories are in the wet food you're feeding, and base your feedings on that rather than just quantity/volume, taking into account your cats' weight, age, and activity level.

 

Hi, our two cats are between 3-4 years old one is 9 lbs (4kg) and the other one is 14-15 lbs (6kg). I feed them around 6.25-7 oz (180-200 grams) of good quality wet food per day per cat plus some treats here and there. Both have healthy weight for their body type, average activity and they are both strong healthy cats. Hope this helps.

 

My conversion is slightly off the other cat is about 7 kilos.

 

Thanks NOLA, seems my baseline wasn't too far off after all

 

You're welcome. My smaller cat is a little piggy. She begs for human food too. It's her personality. She will eat until she throw up. That's why we don't do free feeding. I also make sure every now and then that I can still feel their ribs and they still have waist

 

Take a look at this link http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/healthy-weight-management-for-dogs-and-cats/

 

My cat weighs 14 lbs. and eats one only 5.5 ounce can of food per day.

That seems low according to what I've read: he's a lazy inactive indoor cat, so supposedly he should get 20 calories per pound of weight daily, so at 14 lbs. that would be 280 calories. But the canned food I give him says it's only 180 calories per can, and the can itself recommends 1 1/2 cans per day for a cat of his weight.

But one can per day is all he wants to eat, and I figure my cat is smart enough to know if he's hungry or not. He doesn't like to eat a lot at one time, so I give him a quarter can first thing in the morning, then another quarter can at noon, then another quarter can around 5 p.m., and then the last quarter can at 8 or 9 p.m. Sometimes he asks for a little dry food with the last feeding - I'll put down the bowl of canned, but he'll deliberately walk past it and sit by the container of dry food and stare at me pointedly. When he does that, I'll take just a handful of dry food and mix it in with the remainder of the canned, and then he'll eat it all. (He has me very well-trained, as you can see!)

After that last feeding, he refuses to eat any more food, whether dry or canned. He's clearly not starving, so I figure he knows how much he needs, regardless of what the "feeding charts" say.

 

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I think I lot of it can be through experimentation. Cats do rarely overeat, so if your cat is of a good healthy weight then its often a good idea to listen to how much he wants to eat, especially if he's burning it off quite a lot through exercise.