Thread: how much to feed this beast?

In one of my first posts on this site it concerned feeding & in it I said that in the nearly 40 years of working at a vets we never had any overweight cats until dry food hit the shelves,as boss always points out a cats natural diet is little furries,little furries contain a lot of moisture,wet food contains....! Also they don't have food on tap out in the wild,when they are hungry they hunt it.We have a lot of overweight moggies come through work & the biggest percentage are fed dry,get them onto wet & it is not very long before you have a moggy with a figure again,also since dry foods urinary problems have increased too but luckily not so much in MC's because I think we give the better makes plus that seems to be one of the areas where they are very dog like,drink a lot,where as a normal moggie doesn't tend to,another thing we now see is diabetic cats,that also was a no no until fairly recently but once again obesity has thrown another problem into the pot,shouldn't complain really because it keeps us busy but not really fair on the animal.Feeding is always going to be a very motivated subject but I am sure on here we all do what is best for our cats whichever regime we use.....x

I used to be all for raw food and nothing else until my supplier sent a dodgy batch which gave my lot food poisoning and caused dietary problems in all of them that was to last for 3 months.....

I now feed James Wellbeloved biccie, pretty much free feeding although if they are being piggies then the bowl doesn't get refilled. They then have raw minced rabbit twice a day and occasionally applaws wet food or Pets at home purely wet food - I would never feed a dry only diet and I have noticed that even though they do get wet food too, they all still drink a lot. They also wee a lot though so I guess it balances out!!!

None of mine are fat or overweight - the females are far more lean and slender than the males and I find that the males are just solid and stocky. I can still faintly feel ribs and spine and hips when I stroke them firmly.

I try not to worry too much about the guidelines as I find that sometimes it is too much and sometimes not enough - if your cat is a good weight then the feeding regime is obviously fine. If they are slender or scavenging for other food then I would say up the amount a little, but not too much. Having said that, mine have biccie down most of the time and yet I still find them on the worktop licking the crumbs and investigating the dishes in the sink....!

Thanks. He has leveled off a bit on clearing every bit of catfood he can find around the house so perhaps he is more at the wt he needs to be. I think I need to get a better catfood....we had iams for a while, then ran out and grabbed a bag of purina. he does get about half can of canned food a day. Won't eat any 'people' food so far....no chicken, or fish....cooked of course...i couldn't do the food thing.

He is due to go in and meet his new vet very soon so we'll see what she says about his weight. Its kinda hard to tell if he is 'fat'....even when he was thin, he has such a big bone structure and is just so 'solid'. Now with his fur grown back and many lbs put on....hard to say?? if he is just really big or if some of it is overwt...?? He is an awful lot of fun to have around...helps me with all my projects.