If you are planning to own a cat as a pet or recently adopted one as your pet. You may be very careful regarding cat food and must be trying to get all the information about how much cats should be fed. This is one of the most common concerns of every cat parent about what and how much to feed their pets. This is also a question to think about if one has recently changed their cat or kitten’s food. Because no one wishes to feed extra food to their cats or not even less food than required.
Every cat has different nutritional requirements based on its age, lifestyle, health, life stage, size, and weight. Whether you are feeding dry cat food or wet/canned food to cats, one needs to ensure that you are feeding a well-balanced diet. It should also maintain proper hydration in the cat’s body. This is very important as cats belong to predators' families, they don’t drink much water on their own, which can make their bodies dehydrated. Thus, ensure that they don't become dehydrated as it may lead to serious health issues.
Thus, it is very important to get complete knowledge about what to feed your cats, how much to feed them, whatnamount and way to feed cats, etc. It is recommended to consult with the vet once to get an idea of what and the right amount to feed cats, and what can be altered with kitten and cat food as per their nature, age, life stage, health, etc.
Basics about feeding cats:
It is important to feed cats proper nutritional food to make them healthy and happy. However, with that, one should also need to take care by maintaining proper well-balanced food amounts so that they should not end up being overweight or not even obese (having nutritional deficiencies).
If your cat is having extra body fats they are at increased risk and might suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes, musculoskeletal problems, heart problems, skin disease, and a potentially deadly liver infection called hepatic lipidosis. Thus, it is essential to feed appropriate amounts to cats to maintain a healthy body so that cats can have overall health in check and happiness.
Along with maintaining an appropriate balanced diet for cats, one should also need to take care of the period of feeding cats. When it comes to the basic nature of cats, they are very sensitive and don’t like many changes in it. So if your pet is new and such changes might create stress for them. Thus, one should try to keep the food and schedule consistent will ease her growth and keep her intestinal upset at gulf. Along with this, it is also important to make sure of the calorie count of the food intake as cats' calorie requirements are different from that of humans.
Factors affecting feeding cats:
Age: Kittens experience fast growth and evolution that require a lot of nutrients and energy. With the growing age of kittens, kittens over 10 months of age, kittens can be switched to adult food to get the required nutrients.
Size: Cats may vary in body skeleton size. Like, smaller-framed or “petite” cats need less food than that larger-framed, or “big-boned” cats.
Activity Level: Cats who are very active and who do a lot of exercise burn more calories than that cats who lay down as they burn low calories. Every cat has individual physiology thus, a cat’s resting metabolic rate also be higher or lower.
Indoor VS Outdoor: It is found that outdoor cats burn more calories as they are physically active than that indoor cats.
Health status: Certain diseases modify the style and quantity of protein that should be included in a cat’s food. Some infections impact a cat’s metabolic rates forcing them to burn more calories.
How much-wet food or dry food should cats be fed?
After determining the number of calories and appropriate food that should be fed to cats. Another point to think about is what to feed cats to maintain proper calories and maintain overall health in check. Whether you feed wet food or dry food to cats, it should maintain proper health and keep them hydrated enough throughout the day.
To calculate considerable food to provide a cat at each feast, try to split the daily portion of food by the number of feeds you intend to deliver each day. Dry cat food is a great option to select if you have to leave your cat at home for a long time as it will be crunchy and it is safe to be kept out for a long period without refrigeration. It is made with crunchy textures and flavors that cats love to have it. But with dry cat food, pet parents need to take care of the water intake of cats as dry cat food has less water included.
Canned food or wet cat food contains much amount of water and is ample to keep cats hydrated enough throughout the day if cats are eating canned or wet food. However, canned food can’t be kept open without being refrigerated as it is high in moisture content and spoiled if kept open. Thus, it is recommended to discuss with the veterinarian once which food needs to be fed to cats and in which amount it should be fed based on their age, health, weight, life stage, etc.
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Frequently Asked Questions:
- How much to feed a cat?
When you bring a new cat or kitten as your pet, you’ll often need to persist in feeding them on the same plan and timeframe, along with the type of food they’ve grown habituated to their breeder. However, as per your cat’s growth, you’ll require to modify the feeding technique accordingly.
- How to measure cat food?
It is important to follow veterinarians' guidelines on how to feed your cat and in which amount it should be fed. Every cat food packets include complete feeding instructions that should be provided as per the cat’s age, size, breed, etc.
- Does it make any difference in feeding dry cat food or wet cat food?
It doesn’t matter if one is feeding dry cat food or wet cat food to cats. It all depends on the cat's body's nutritional requirements. However, with that, it is important to ensure a well-balanced calorie intake of both types of food. As it is crucial to make sure that cats should not over-eat or eat less than the required nutritional requirements.
Read more: How Long To Wait Before Bathing Your Cat After Applying Flea Medication?
