Mary Allen
Every cat owner knows: that fur noses are difficult eaters. But not only what but also how much and when is fed is crucial for the health and well-being of your cat.
How much food does a cat need?
Apparently not as much as we think. Because about every second cat in Germany is overweight! Some errors about the eating behavior of house tigers are to blame:
- Misconception #1: My cat only eats as much as she needs!
- Misconception #2: My cat is never full!
- Misconception #3: My cat is always hungry and begging!
In fact, these fallacies are based on a misunderstanding. In nature, cats eat what they can catch. Up to 20 small prey like birds or mice per day. No possible meal is left out. After all, the cat does not know whether the next attempts at hunting will be successful. Our house cats also follow this urge and make a pilgrimage to the food bowl over and over again throughout the day. We keepers see this as a sign of hunger and make sure that our furry friends never find it empty. In fact, the cat seems to remind us to fill up in good time: if it sneaks around our legs and meows, we take that as begging and make sure we have more. Head rubbing and meowing are actually an expression of closeness. The cat wants a pat. But for us, in this case, love goes through the stomach. The cat doesn’t say no. She quickly took in more calories than she needed. The result: obesity!
To prevent this from happening, it is important to limit the amount of food to the cat’s actual calorie needs. An adult cat needs around 300 grams of wet food a day. However, this is only a very rough guideline. Because the right amount of food depends on many factors. The calorie requirement of the cat is decisive. This in turn is determined by height, age, weight, and level of activity. For example, young people who are outdoors have a much higher energy requirement than castrated seniors who sleep through the day at home.
If your cat’s calorie requirement is known, the amount of food is determined according to the calorie density of the food. Wet food contains a lot of important moisture, but fewer calories than dry food. Even inferior food with a lot of fillers has a lower calorie density than good quality food, of which correspondingly smaller amounts already cover your cat’s calorie requirements.
Table of feeding amounts for cats
Amount of wet food fed
| Cat’s weight in kilograms | Daily amount of wet food in grams |
| up to 2 kg | about 80-160g |
| 2 to 3 kg | about 140-230g |
| 3 to 4 kg | about 210-300g |
| 4 to 5 kg | about 240-350g |
| 5 to 6 kg | about 250-400g |
| 6 to 7 kg | about 280-450g |
| 7 to 8 kg | about 310-500g |
Amount of dry food fed
| Cat’s weight in kilograms | Daily amount of dry food in grams |
| up to 2 kg | about 20-40g |
| 2 to 3 kg | about 30-60g |
| 3 to 4 kg | about 35-70g |
| 4 to 5 kg | about 40-85g |
| 5 to 6 kg | about 50-95g |
| 6 to 7 kg | about 55-110g |
| 7 to 8 kg | about 60-115g |
This information is of course only a guide. They are based on average values and provide an initial orientation. You have to approach the right amount in each individual case. The first step is to calculate your cat’s calorie needs.
Calculate the amount of food/calorie needs of the cat
The cat’s calorie requirement depends on size, age, weight, activity, and whether the animal has been spayed or neutered or not. Kittens in their first year are growing and need more of the important nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous for optimum bone and muscle development.
In addition, romping and playing is an important part of this phase of life. That takes a lot of energy. While the energy requirements of animals certainly increase with increasing size, weight is a better guide for an initial estimate of your cat’s daily calorie needs. Because only by considering the type of weight can the calorie requirement be determined in such a way that it is beneficial to the health of the cat. In other words: that the ideal weight is maintained, excess weight reduced or underweight compensated.
A calculation of the daily calorie requirement depending on the type of weight can be made using the following formulas from FEDIAF (European Pet Food Industry):
Calculate calorie needs by weight type
| weight type | Calories needed |
| normal weight | Cat weight high 0.67 x 100 kcal |
| overweight | Cat weight high 0.40 x 130 kcal |
| underweight | Cat weight high 0.75 x 100 kcal |
Example based on an overweight 7 kg cat:
7 kg 0.40 x 130 kcal = 283.13 kcal/day
This gives you a good guide to the daily amount of calories that will keep your cat at a healthy weight. However, there is another important factor that determines your cat’s calorie needs: your calorie expenditure. And crucial for this is above all how active your cat is. For example, young, non-sterilized outdoor cats are significantly more active than older, sterilized house cats. The following table provides good guidelines:
Calculate calorie needs based on activity level
| activity | Calories needed |
| High | 80 calories per pound of body weight |
| normal | 70 calories per pound of body weight |
| Small amount | 60 calories per pound of body weight |
Example based on a normally active 5 kg cat:
70 kcal x 5 kg = 350 kcal/day
The question of whether it is purely an indoor cat or an outdoor cat has a very decisive influence on the activity level of cats. Of course, there are also active indoor cats that like to romp and play a lot. A cat’s energy expenditure as it walks around, marks, interacts with other cats, and much more. a. makes several strenuous attempts to hunt a day, the calorie requirements of a purely indoor cat can never come close. This must be reflected in a correspondingly lower amount of feed. Otherwise there is a risk of obesity. On the other hand, free roamers must also be observed closely. If their hunt is successful or if the neighbor feeds them too, less will end up in the bowl at home.
Convert calorie requirement to amount of food
The amount of feed required is calculated by dividing the daily calorie requirement by the calories contained in one gram of feed. Wet food usually contains 0.97 kcal per gram. With dry food, on the other hand, the energy density is usually 3-5 times as high and is just under 3-5 kcal per gram. How many calories a food contains can be found out easily online , if it is not already noted on the packaging.
Formula: (Daily calorie requirement) divided by (kcal per gram of feed) equals the amount of feed required per day.
Example wet food:
350 kcal : 0.95 = 368.42 g/day
Feeding recommendation
In order to make our work easier as owners, the manufacturers of wet and dry food give feeding recommendations on the packaging of their products. Based on the weight of your own cat, you can read off the amount of food that you should feed per day.
Manufacturers arrive at these values by comparing the calorie density of your food per 100 grams to the average calorie requirement of a cat of normal weight for its age, size, and average activity level. The feeding recommendations can only serve as a guide.
If one of the variables included in the calculation deviates from the average, you have to approach the right amount of food. If you also feed another type of food or spoil your cat regularly with snacks, the main food must be corrected downwards accordingly.
How many grams of wet food should you feed a day?
As the name suggests, wet food contains a large amount of water. This is good for the cat, which generally does not shine as a heavy drinker. But it also means that the calorie density per 100 grams is comparatively low. This is reflected in the required amount of feed. In addition, the quality of the wet food has the greatest influence on how much of it you have to feed per day.
Poor quality wet food
Poor quality food, such as *Whiskas 1+ for example, comes with the recommendation of two 100-gram sachets for a 3kg cat, 2.5 sachets for a 4kg cat, and 3 sachets for a 5kg cat kg.
High-quality wet food
In contrast, the manufacturer of the high-quality wet food Catz Finefood Classic does not provide general quantities and recommends 3-5% of body weight as a daily ration. For a cat weighing 5 kg, this means a maximum of 250 grams of food per day, compared to 300 grams of lower-quality food. The difference is due to the higher energy density of the quality feed: Fillers and additives such as grain and sugar are not used here. This not only provides a larger portion of proteins and usable energy per 100 grams of feed. It also benefits the health of your loved one. Starting with digestion through to the long-term effects of an unbalanced diet.
Good to know:
High-quality feed is also worthwhile for you. Because this way you not only save veterinary costs. Since high-quality feed is almost completely utilised, there are fewer residues to be excreted. To put it plainly: the cat litter stays cleaner longer and needs to be replaced less often! So the supposedly more expensive feed pays off.
How many grams of dry food should you feed per day?
Dry food consists of concentrated nutrients. It, therefore, has a higher calorie density than wet food. Accordingly, less has to be fed. The manufacturer Venandi Animal, for example, gives the following feeding recommendations for its premium feed *Our prey cattle on its packaging:
| weight of the cat | Daily ration for neutered and/or house cats | Daily ration for active cats |
| 3kg | 30-40g | 55g |
| 4kg | 35-50g | 60g |
| 5kg | 40-60g | 75g |
| 6kg | 45-65g | 85g |
| 7kg | 50-75g | 95g |
Compared to wet food, you can get by with much less food. In this case, the small amount of feed can also be explained by the high-quality ingredients. The feed consists of 80% animal protein and 20% vegetable protein and does not contain fillers such as grain and harmful sugars.
Feeding dry food may sound tempting. You fill the right amount in the bowl in the morning and know that the cat is well cared for. Or not?
Feeding dry food – you should definitely know that!
As efficient as dry food is in terms of calorie density. It also comes with downsides. And several at once. On the one hand, the dry food lacks any moisture. Therefore, if your cat is fed mainly with dry food, it must drink a corresponding amount. That in itself wouldn’t be bad. Unfortunately, most cats are not only afraid of water when bathing. Free-ranging cats take in a large part of their fluid requirements from their prey, i.e. with their food. Accordingly, they drink little water. They maintain this habit even when they don’t have to hunt for their own food.
But while wet food contains a high moisture content, dry food lacks it entirely. On the contrary: the dry chunks of food bind the liquid in the stomach. The cat does not drink more because of this. To make matters worse, when cats drink, they’re drinking fresh water. And that means for many fur noses: water in motion. For picky house tigers, a simple water bowl means they consume even less water than they already do. Kidney disease can result. A drinking fountain can help. But it is better to take into account the natural eating habits and to provide the cat with wet food. This has another benefit that is less obvious than dehydration. In our article: “Cat not drinking” you will learn why cats are such bad drinkers and how much liquid your cat needs to stay healthy.
In addition to water, high-quality wet food consists largely of chunks of meat. However, the valuable proteins in dry food are formed into the typical chunks of food with carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, however, cannot be used sensibly by cats. In the absence of the right enzymes, the enzymes used to break down proteins are used to digest carbohydrates and are no longer available for the utilization of the proteins and vitamins that are actually important.
The result: creeping malnutrition that remains undetected for a long time and can lead to serious organ problems. High-quality wet food contains no carbohydrates. It comes as close as possible to the prey of wild cats and is a better choice for this and other reasons. You can find out what other reasons speak for wet food and against dry food and how the changeover works in our article “Cats only eat dry food”.
Amount of food: When and how often to feed the cat?
When keeping animals, it is always good to get as close as possible to their nature. One also speaks of species-appropriate attitude. With domesticated animals like the cat, this is relatively easy. Because this animal has been adapted to life with humans since the Bronze Age. Unlike the dog, however, the cat was not and is not bred with a specific task in mind. On the contrary, it was their natural efficiency as scavengers of mice and other pests that made them useful enough for humans to bring them into their homes. However, the more the social aspect of keeping cats came to the fore, the more people moved away from the cat’s natural diet. Today we city people have to feed our cats and are faced with the question: how much and how often should I feed the cat? And with what?
When to feed cat?
We have already answered the question of what: wet food takes care of your darling in a similar way as a mouse would. Minus the hunting experience. You have to take care of this in the sense of species-appropriate husbandry through play and activity. Looking at nature is also worthwhile when it comes to when and how often you need to feed your cat. Cats are hide hunters. They lie in wait until a potential prey animal gets close enough to be caught with a large leap. The problem with this: This jump costs a lot of energy that doesn’t always pay off. Not every hunt is crowned with success. In order for the cat not to run out of energy for the next necessary hunt, it needs to be lucky 15-20 times a day and eat something the size of a mouse or a small bird. Calculated over a 24-hour period, she has to record a hunting success approx. every 1.5 hours. It is obvious that she never misses a prey opportunity and, failures included, will spend all day in the wild foraging for food.
Our house cats still have this survival instinct. That is why they also visit the feeding place regularly throughout the day and eat. They don’t stick to fixed times. And even as the owner, you don’t have to look at the clock to see when the next meal is due. After all, the prey outside does not present itself on the hour on the hour.
“In nature, the prey doesn’t present itself on the hour, either. Because of this, there is no exact time to stick to.”
How often to feed cat?
Anyone who observes their cat eating quickly comes to the conclusion that it is constantly hungry. If you take a closer look, you might be worried because the amount of food actually consumed with each meal seems infinitesimally small. But: In comparison between the calorie density of a mouse and a portion of cat food, the little that corresponds to the small prey. So if you want to feed your cat species-appropriate, you don’t have to keep mice in your home. Feeding several times a day in small portions that add up to the required daily ration is best.
Since most people also have other things to do than giving out small portions of food twenty times a day, mixed feeding has proven itself for many keepers. A larger portion of wet food in the morning and evening, the rest of the day there is a bowl of dry food available for self-service (also called feeding ad libitum or free feeding). Since wet food quickly becomes unappetizing in warm temperatures if it sits all day, this seems to be a good way to get as close as possible to the eating habits of cats. However, not all cats know when to stop. In addition, we have already discussed the disadvantages of dry food.
For some, the urge to prevent periods of hunger is so overpowering that they eat until there is nothing left. If a well-meaning holder then fills up, it quickly becomes too much. If the cat gorges and throws up, it will remain hungry until its human returns. In addition, you feed larger amounts of dry food, which is not very beneficial to the cat’s health.
Therefore, *automatic feeders are the better alternative. These can be programmed to dispense a proportion of the daily ration several times a day. There are feeders for dry food, but also for wet food. Even with cooling for warm days. Tip: Anyone who gets an automatic feeder should try it out while they are at home. This is the only way to ensure that the cat actually gets what it is entitled to.
“It is best to feed your cat small portions several times a day, which add up to the required daily ration.”
Amount of food for kittens and pregnant/lactating cats
Kittens up to the age of one year grow at a rapid pace. They also practice important behaviors when romping and playing. All of this consumes energy, more so than in older cats. Pregnant and lactating cats also have an increased energy requirement. During pregnancy, the mother cat needs an extra 50% of her normal calorie requirement, twice as much when nursing, and even 2.5 times as much from four puppies. Special food for mum and babies ensures the right composition. The feeding recommendations give an indication of the right amount.
However, kittens have their own rules when it comes to the amount of food. An example: How much do cats eat at 12 weeks? 12 weeks is a turning point in kitten nutrition. By this point, the little ones should have constant access to food. Free feeding makes sense and is desirable here, and empty bowls can be refilled without a guilty conscience.
Because kittens between 10 and 12 weeks put 90% of their energy into their growth. An undersupply during this time would be very dangerous. From the 12th week you can slowly reduce the daily ration to five, later perhaps to three meals a day. Using a feeder and programming it for several smaller meals is a viable solution for both humans and animals.
Conclusion
Several small portions throughout the day come closest to cats’ natural diet. The times of feeding play a subordinate role. It is important that the small portions add up to the required daily ration. However, it is not possible to say in general terms how much food a cat needs.
Important factors for calculating the required amount of food are, for example, the age and activity of the cat. Less active indoor cats, for example, need less food than active outdoor cats. But the composition of the feed also plays a major role in the amount of feed. Inferior feed usually requires more feeding than high-quality feed. And then it also depends on whether the cat is fed wet food, dry food or a mixture of both. Pregnant and lactating cats and kittens are also an exception and have an increased energy requirement. As you can see, it is not that easy to find out how much food your cat really needs. It is best to calculate the energy requirement using our formulas and also pay attention to the feeding recommendations of the manufacturer. In this way you can slowly approach the right amount of food for your cat.