Printable View
New to our maine coon cat...It seems if I try to go by how much the cat food bags Say to feed him, it is just not enough. Does that just not apply to Maine Coon cats?? Just how much ought an 18lb and counting couple yrs old cat eat? (not sure how old he is ....between 2 and 3 the shelter said..but he was so much smaller...too too thin.)
You need to go by the weight guidelines more than the general cat guidelines, what food is he eating?
As Samantha says, go by weight guidelines when available but also if you think he was underweight when you got him then a little extra might be good. Have you considered free-feeding your new beast until he gets a reasonable build ?
From what I have been reading and hearing from others MCs can either be like Labradors and eat until they explode *or* they will happily graze many times a day and stop when they are not hungry. I expect this behaviourly difference is based on how they grew up as kittens and also how secure they feel.
FYI The James Wellbeloved web site has a weight chart for their food: Cat Feeding Guidelines | How much to feed your cat | Feeding Kittens | Feeding nursing queens | Feeding senior cats
This will be different for each brand / type however!
We never used to have fat cats — and I personally don't understand why anyone thinks a fat cat is cute. But we now have one moggie who I think is a pig masquerading as a cat. He only gets three-eighths of a cup of dry food a day and doesn't seem to loose any of his fat. It doesn't help that my wife and daughter (the cat is technically my daughter's) don't think he is but a little overweight — maybe. :sad2:Quote:
Originally Posted by candes
(My daughter who works at an animal hospital agrees with me that the pig masquerading as a cat is definitely overweight, so I think I'm in good company.)
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.:winkwink: