Deciding how much food to feed your cat on a daily basis can often be a tricky decision to make. Different brands will offer different advice depending upon your cats
age, but it can be confusing to decide just how much your cat needs.
To help give you a more detailed insight into just how much you should be feeding your cool cat, we’ve created a brief ‘how to’ guide that will explain just when and how you should be feeding your kitty.
Adult cats
When your cat is between 1 and 8 years old, they are officially classed as an adult cat and so their appetite will need to be reflected in the amount you are feeding them. Most cool cats like to be fed a full meal (1 pouch) twice a day, although you can limit it to once a day if your cat has a smaller appetite. You can then regulate their diet to ensure they don’t get too podgy with a daily ration of dry food that they can graze on when necessary.
Kittens
Because Kittens have smaller stomachs but are little balls of energy, they need to be fed a small amount of food little and often. We’d normally recommend 1 adult pouch spread over 3-4 smaller amounts, or when their food is getting low. Because they are constantly growing, it’s imperative you feed them a nutrient rich diet such as the real meat, nutrient rich food provided in one of our kitten food subscription plans.
Older Cats
Once your cool cat becomes 8 years old or more (getting old now), they are officially considered senior. Whilst this doesn’t necessarily mean that their appetite will reduce and many will require the same amount as an adult kitty, it’s important to adjust the amount of food (especially dry food) that you provide to reflect their changing tastes and nutritional needs.
How to get your cat to eat
Cats are clever little creatures; they will often make us work to make them eat. In some cases, they may not like the food offered to them and will wait until something alternative they like is provided until they eat. In these instances, it’s important to ensure they are fed a high quality, real meat rich food that will meet their fussy feline tastes.
In addition to this there are a number of clever ways to encourage your kitty to eat, even if they’re not a fan of eating. Offering small amounts of food rather than one large portion will be less overwhelming for their little minds and will encourage them to start eating (whilst keeping the food fresh).
In addition to this you may want to try slightly warming their food (without making it too hot) as this will increase the scent and make the food more appealing to them. In the wild, big cats are often led to their next meal by their sense of smell, and this is no different with our domesticated pals.
Is my cat eating too much?
Ensuring your cat doesn’t eat too much and is kept constantly active is essential in making sure that they don’t become too podgy. Prevention with the correct cat food diet is always better than cure, so much sure from that you’re regulating their food from an early age and you should avoid any issues with weight.
If you’re still following the basic rules of how much your cat or kitten is being fed and they’re still growing too big, it’s important that you seek the advice of a vet or cat nutritionist as there could be underlying health conditions causing their weight problems.