I have two cats, one weighs about 4.4kg and a smaller kitten (5months) no
idea how much he weighs but about half the size. They get 3 or 4 sachets of
high end cat food per day, (between them, not each!)and dry food is always
left out for them to nibble on. The have (and love) a water fountain, so I
know they drink plenty of water. They are both to the best of my knowledge
healthy, with shiny soft coats and are gaining weight as they should at
their ages. They have been visited at my request by the breeder, partly
because she has been so good, giving advice and help when needed and partly
so we can let her see how well they are doing and how happy they are in
their new home. She is such a nice lady it is a pleasure to keep in touch,
and I send photos regularly too!

Oscar is a four year old DLH.  She weighs between 9 and 10 pounds.  Until
early December, she has always eaten as much dry food as she'd like, and I
have no idea how much she actually ate.  She also received snacks of a few
forkfuls of tuna when I cracked a can for myself, and very occasional packaged
treats.  She has no known health problems.  Oh, the dry food was always Nutro.

After reading a bit on feline nutrition and talking to my vet, I decided to
switch Oscar to canned food.  I wasn't impressed with Nutro's canned
ingredients and quickly settled on Wellness.  Because Oscar much prefers dry
to wet, giving her dry to nibble on won't work; she'll eat the dry and ignore
the wet.  I started her on a 5.5oz can a day, split into two meals.  She never
came close to finishing her meals, so I switched to feeding her 1/3 of the
5.5oz can twice a day.  I really wish I had an idea of her former eating
habits (other than observing that she never ate much at a time, a kibble here
or there), because her eating right now seems ... streaky.  She'll empty her
bowl a few meals in a row; then for a few meals it seems like she's barely
touched the food.  She's losing weight slowly, but she was slightly, er,
padded before this diet change, so I'm keeping a careful eye on her.  If it
seems she hasn't eaten in a while, I feed her some treats, but not enough to
constitute a meal.

Since changing to canned food, Oscar seems to have become more alert and
playful.  This is a subjective observation, but it does seem that she is more
energetic and doesn't loll around the house as much as she used to.  She's
acting a lot like I feel when I've forced myself onto a healthier diet.

Oscar has never been one to chow down.  Any time I put food down for her, she
will sniff at it, walk away, and repeat the process a few times before
deciding (if at all) to eat it.

<snip>

Hi,
My kitten gets Iams dry kitten food, about 1 cup per day, depending on his
appetite.
He is 4 months old, and is very active and playful, and looks healthy to me.

I am thinking about giving him the canned type food. Is it really better for
them? Why is that?

Can anyone suggest good brands?
Should I wait until he is a year old before switching him?

Justin

I probably won't be much help.

All of our cats are free fed on dry food. And then they share one can
of cat food at night as a treat. (3 cats and the dog gets the can
without about a tablespoon worth).

Chase is 4 years old, long and lean, just under 10 lbs. Half Siamese,
half barn cat. He has always looked perfect, no health problems.

Kira is 10, Balinese, smaller, about 8 lbs, more fluff than anything.
She has been heavier a couple short times, usually after the
introduction of another pet. But she seems to settle back to normal on
her own. Her health has been great. One emergency trip to the vet for
constipation or blockage, and one for anal gland problem.

Maynard is 18. Half Siamese, half barn cat. He used to be long and
lean, 9-10lbs in his prime. He is currently 8 1/2 - 9lbs and pretty
good. He has been hard to keep weight on the last few years, but has
been better since switching to two new foods that he likes more. He
has always been healthy. He had one respiratory infection many years
ago, and an abcess two years ago. He has one blob of fat, about the
size of half a grape, sliced the long way, that is behind his left
shoulder. It seems to be the only fat on his body, and it has been
there for probably 8 years or so.

In the past, we have had a couple cats who were overweight. Two
siamese who were a bit plump. They were fed the same way - free
feeding kibble, just not as active.

As for actual amounts, I really don't know. We have 6 types of cat
food available, and we just fill them as they run low. The main 4
foods are in larger feeders. The last two are Maynard's food, and Kira
eats a little of it too. I keep those two mixed in a small bowl, about
a 3/4 cup, and they tend to go through that in about a day. Maynard
doesn't eat anything else (except the canned treat, and my food). Kira
will eat a little of that and a little of all the others. Chase eats
anything but Maynard's. He sniffed them once and just wasn't
interested.

At home, Tiger (14 year old female) and Otto (5 1/2 year old male) pretty
much eat only wet food.  I split a 5.5oz can (Wellness or Science Diet,
sometimes we have Petguard) between them in the morning.  I used to split
another in the evening, but they usually left half of it sitting in the bowl
so now I split a 3 oz. can between the two in the evening.  After dinner
they get a CET chew, which they love.  I recently got them a couple of
containers of Halo's freeze dried chicken treats, and it's like cat crack.
I can no longer go to the fridge without both of them instantly appearing at
my feet.  Otto will sit in front of the fridge and do little meows at it.
I've posted in the past about the way Harriet at work acts about these
treats and now I've brought the problem home.  These cats need a 12-step
program!  Anyway, both cats at home have been doing well with this plan.
Otto was reluctant to switch to the wet at first but when he realized that
he was getting less and less dry food each day he adapted.  Now he's very
excited when he sees me getting a can of food and he eats without any
problems.  Every once in awhile at night they'll just seem hungry.  Otto
will meow constantly when I go to the kitchen, Tiger will sit in front of
her empty bowl looking sad.  I'll give them a tablespoon or so of Science
Diet dry and they both seem much happier afterward.  They don't get it too
often, though.

At work we have Harriet (7 1/2 years old) and Stinky (6 years old), both
females.  It's harder to manage their food, because there are a bunch of
different people taking care of them.  I usually don't get to work until
noon, so someone else feeds them breakfast.  Monday-Friday I'm in charge of
dinner, and various people do both meals on the weekend.  Since there are so
many caretakers, they get mostly dry food.  People used to just fill up
their bowls and when I got in, I'd have to empty the bowls.  For the last
few years I've portioned out their morning meal into ziplock baggies with
the day written on them.  They're kept in plastic containers, so whoever is
in first each morning can just grab the appropriate bag and dump it into the
bowl.  There's (I think) 1/4 cup of dry food in each M-F morning bag.  I
think I put a little more into Harriet's, as she's not crazy about wet food.
For dinner, Stinky gets 1/2 of a 5.5oz can of Science Diet Light and Harriet
gets 1/4 of the can.  Stinky LOVES wet food and would be happy just eating
that.  On the weekends, they just get dry food because the people at work
are too stupid to know how to open a can.  Plus, it would mean they'd have
to wash the wet food bowls and I'm not sure any of them know what a sponge
is for.  So, it's just dry for them on Saturday & Sunday.  There used to be
one person who worked Saturdays who would give them wet food for dinner but
she's not working any more.

In order to encourage Harriet to eat more wet food, I sprinkle some Cat
Crack on it and it's been working.  At first she'd just lick the crumbled
chicken off the surface but she's been eating more & more of the food.

--
Liz

I am feeding Wellness canned food.  Each cat gets 1/3 of a 5.5 oz. can twice
a day (that is, a total of 2/3 can per day for each cat).  In addition, I
divide 1/2 cup of Wellness dry into 2 bowls about twice a week.  That is to
give my furbabies a "treat" rather than part of their "basic" plan.  Both
cats are in great condition -- active, healthy, glossy fur, etc.  Duffy
weighs slightly more than 8 pounds, and Holly weigs about 9 pounds.

One problem with your question is that the answer should be based on
calories and nutrients in the food being fed.  In other words, weight alone
cannot tell the whole story.

MaryL
(take out the litter to reply)

Photos of Duffy and Holly:      >'o'<
http://tinyurl.com/8y54 (Introducing Duffy to Holly)
http://tinyurl.com/8y56 (Duffy and Holly "settle in")

IMHO with an overactive thyroid she would be skinny.  Are you certain of
that diagnosis?  MLB

I haven't weighed my cats, so I'm guessing at the weights here. The smaller
one is about 2 kg (4 to 5 lb?), but she is perfectly proportioned - she is a
very petite puss. i think she had a rough start in life and that stunted her
growth. The larger one is a bit lighter than a small bags of spuds, so I'd
guess that she's about 4.5 kg (9 to 10 lb?). She is overweight at the moment
and could do with losing say 500 g. She normally does slim down in the
spring and summer when she's more active.

Between them, they get through a 400 g can of cat food a day (sorry, no idea
what that is in ounces), split into 2 meals - half a can in the morning half
in the evening. Sometimes I replace one of the meals with some dry cat
food - about a handful each. But they don't tend to eat it unless it's Co-op
own brand - I've no idea what's so special about that stuff!

I feed both my 3.5 year olds one full can of Friskies wet food a day
(split between morning and evening). Plus, there is always a bowl of
dry Purina Indoor Formula chow around. They are both healthy, happy,
and not over- or under-weight.  I think the key is that they have full
riun of the hous, lots of windows, and get a lot of exercise.

"Mary" <crazyaboutfelines@yahoo.com> wrote
[snip]

My three four-year-old cats were never very
interested in canned food, but then I didn't know
when they were kittens that it was a good idea
to feed them at least some canned food.  Now
I'm trying to get them to eat some and they do,
but not much.  Mostly they eat dry food (SD,
Euk, Wellness, Sensible Choice).  I cycle through
the different foods.  Amount varies, maybe
1.5 - 2 cups daily.  Canned: They will eat some
SD Savory Cuts Chicken & Gravy twice a day.
It takes about 3 feedings to finish off a 5.5 oz can
and there is always some left over in their bowls.
I tried just about everything else but that's the only
canned food that I found acceptable they would
eat.  One cat is skinny by nature (you can easily
feel her ribs), weighing about 6 lbs; the other two
are solid - not fat, weighing about 11 lbs.  All
spayed females.  Zero health problems.

The two kittens share two 3-ounce cans of kitten
food (mostly Nutro with an occasional Wellness)
over four daily feedings, plus about 1/2 - 3/4 cup
of dry food (Nutro, SD, Wellness) fed in 1/8 cup
amounts over the course of a day.  The neutered male
kitten is a bit chubby at 7 lb 4 oz, but I'm not too
worried at this time.  The spayed female is a good
weight, slender but muscular, weight about 6 lb 4 oz.
(Both are Burmese.)

Both kittens were diagnosed FeLV+ at 3 mos of
age; the male was recently diagnosed with ringworm
(he's being treated and is improving).  Otherwise they
have good appetites, are normally active, normal
stools, healthy to all outward appearance except for
weepy eyes, but that seems to be common in
Burmese and Tonkinese (I have both) and usually
clears up by adulthood.   Heck, it might be an
allergy to mountain cedar, which is common for
all mammals (including humans) around here.  :)

Gail
Happily Owned by Lao Ma, Ephiny, Minya,
Mattie and Harry

My cats get a half-can (~3oz) of wet food twice daily (Friskie's is all
they will eat) and free-feed cat chow all the time. They have been fed
this same diet their entire lives, with different trials of cat chow
now and then.  manily have fed Nutro products.   Currently eating Nutro
Natural indoor formula and Purina One mix.

Each cat has really only had one ailment - Mimi (14 lbs, tortie) has
eosinophilic granuloma that she has had since I adopted her 14 years
ago (hasn't had a flare up in 4 years), Peewee (22 lbs, huge black
moggie, age 13) had one incident of hairball blockage in his intestines
just over a year ago, which I nursed him through.  I took him off of
hairball maintenence diet and the problem has resolved. He developed
ringworm when we stayed at an extended-stay motel when we moved in
2003, which I finally got under control.   No other health issues.
Both are a little on the heavy side, but I don't care.  If they were to
get sick, the weight difference could mean the difference between life
and death. (I went through major illness and had I not been a bit
overweight I would have died.)

-L.

Mimi:
http://groups.msn.com/idontmindsCompanionAnimalConnection/shoebox.msnw?action=Sh
owPhoto&PhotoID=6

Peewee:
http://groups.msn.com/idontmindsCompanionAnimalConnection/shoebox.msnw?action=Sh
owPhoto&PhotoID=8

Mary,
I can relate to your concern about an overweight kitty. My 3 year old male weighed 17.8 lbs until I recently had success with a new diet. I am certainly no expert on feline health but that sounds like far too little food for a cat that size. It sounds to me that the problem is not necessarily the amount of food you're feeding but the type of food.

Since my cat has a large frame my vet calculated his ideal weight to be around 14 lbs. We had to get the weight off of him fairly quickly to reduce his risk for urinary blockage (he had three in four months!). My vet suggested Royal Canin Calorie Control (the company used to be called Waltham's). He gets half a can 4 times per day (2 full 5.8 oz cans). The diet was designed to help him lose 3-4 lbs in 90 days and he's doing very well. He's way ahead of schedule and he really enjoys the food. He's losing weight and is never hungry. Aparently the diet has a great success rate and involves computerized individual assessment of your cat's nutritional and weight loss needs. The diet is well balanced and is specially designed to make sure that the cat is receiving all the nutrients he needs for healthy weight loss and to make sure that it is fat and not muscle mass the cat loses. The food is not really any more expensive than any other quality cat food. I highly recommend talking to your vet about this. Here is the link to the website.  

http://www.walthamusa.com/Learning%20Center/CC38.html

Please feel free to ask if you have any more questions. Best of luck.

I have three cats, approx 10, 12 and 14 lbs.  They get Wellness canned,
twice a day.  At each of three mealtimes, I split a 12.5 oz can four ways,
serve three portions (with obvious minor adjustments) and refrigerate
the fourth; and serve the leftovers at the fourth mealtime.  So that's
three 12.5 oz cans every two days.  

None that I know of (knock on wood).