Feeding a cat is one of the most important topics for anyone who one day decides to have a small or large furry friend. One of the main questions that worry all beginners is the daily amount of food that needs to be given to the cat so that she is fed and grows healthy.
What do you think? Do you know how much a cat should eat every day?
How to calculate the right amount of food?
Before filling your cat’s bowl with food, it is advisable to evaluate all the components: her age, habits, lifestyle and of course physical data.
The needs of an adult cat are different from those of a kitten who is only a few months old. In addition, you need to determine what you are going to feed your cat: Check here for more details about best cat product at love cat stuff.
Dry Food or Wet Food?
If a cat eats wet food, the required portion should be about 40 grams per kilogram of body weight, for example, an animal that weighs 4 kg should eat 160 grams of wet food per day.
However, it should be noted that the cat’s diet should not include only wet food – in total it should not exceed 20% of the total.
If a cat is fed dry food, the required amount of food is about 40 grams per kilogram of weight, but the total is divided by three, because dry food is more concentrated than wet food, and a cat will need less to get the same serving.
So be careful not to refill the bowl every time it starts up; cats have a habit of eating whatever they find in their dishes just to empty them, but this is fraught with diseases such as obesity, as happened with the cat Bazooka, who was fattened to a state of 16 kg by an elderly owner!
Cat food throughout the day
How much and at what time of the day should a cat eat?
An adult cat should eat at least three times a day. This is especially true for cats that eat dry food – they are advised to divide the daily portion into several meals throughout the day.
In any case, the first rule to follow is, of course, to follow the instructions given on the packaging of cat food.
A kitten under six months old needs a lot of energy, so he does not need a large amount of food, he will rather be happy with more frequent snacks – four to five times a day.
Other factors should always be taken into account:
A cat living in an apartment leads a more sedentary lifestyle, and living on the street, on the contrary, burns much more calories and spends much more energy, as a result, she needs more food.
The advice we will give you is to always feed your pet at the same time and in the same place, away from the toilet and in a secluded corner, as cats are known to be creatures of habit.
Sterilized cat. What to do?
When it comes to feeding a pet, it is necessary to know if he or she has been neutered or not; most domestic cats are spayed.
A neutered cat differs greatly from its non-neutered counterpart in lifestyle and metabolic rate, partly due to changes in mood, partly due to hormonal imbalances. The cat may spend much more time eating or persuading the owner to give her food.
It is necessary to make it a rule to feed such a cat with special food for neutered cats (such food is enriched with vegetable fiber, necessarily contains sodium and is low in calories) and give it two or three times a day.
The rest of the time, keep it out of the reach of the cat, so as not to seduce her and not risk her health and figure. For a sterilized cat weighing 4 kg, which prefers to fall asleep well-fed and spend about 200 kcal of energy per day, an 85g can of wet food and a 30g dry portion will be enough to get enough.