Mary Allen
How much food does my cat need per day? There are as many answers to this simple question as there are cats. We explain how to determine the right amount of food for your cat!
If cats are fed by eye and feel, or if they always get food when they want, dangerous obesity can quickly develop. It is therefore helpful to know the optimal daily amount of food for your cat and to use it as a guide when feeding. That doesn’t mean you have to follow it to the gram but rather acts as a guide to providing your cat with a balanced and healthy diet. But how do you know how much food the cat needs in a day?
Every Cat Has An Individual Food Requirement
The optimal amount of food cannot be determined in general terms. Every cat has its own energy needs. If the cat consumes more energy than it uses, its body weight will increase. If she uses more energy than she takes in, her weight drops. The feeding recommendations on labels are therefore to be understood as rough guide values: the individual amount of food varies from cat to cat and should always be calculated by yourself to be on the safe side. This requires two values in particular:
- the daily energy requirement of the cat
- the energy density of cat food
- In order to determine the correct amount of feed, the energy requirement must first be calculated, in order to be able to calculate the correct amount of feed in the second step.
Determine the Cat’s Daily Energy Needs
The energy requirements of cats are subject to various factors and cannot be pressed into a rigid specification. Even the ambient temperature has an influence on eating behavior. The most important factors are:
- age
- race
- activity level
- castration
- body weight
- metabolism
For example, old cats usually have lower energy requirements because they are no longer as active as an adult, fit cats. Neutered, older, or less active cats require up to 30% fewer calories than an unneutered, younger, and active cat. In such cases, it is best to ask your veterinarian for individual advice. He knows your cat and you can describe the situation to him in detail and assess what amount of food is suitable for your old or sick cat.
For a long time, energy requirements were calculated linearly, as it was assumed that a large cat would automatically need more energy. This method of calculation is now obsolete. The FEDIAF (European Pet Food Industry) guidelines recommend calculating metabolic body weight with different exponents based on the cat’s weight type. The formulas for this are:
- Normal-weight cat: bodyweight 0.67 x 100 kcal = daily requirement in kilocalories
- Overweight cat: bodyweight 0.40 x 130 kcal = daily requirement in kilocalories
- Underweight cat: bodyweight 0.75 x 100 kcal = daily requirement in kilocalories
Determine the Right Amount of Food for Cats
Once you know your cat’s energy needs, you need to find out how many calories are in 100 grams of their food. Many manufacturers provide this information next to the feeding recommendation. The formula for the daily feed amount is:
Example: Let’s say a normal-weight cat weighs 3.5 kg. First, calculate your daily energy needs. This is 3.50.67 x 100 kcal = 231 kcal.
Suppose the cat eats a wet food that has an energy density of 85 kcal per 100 grams. Then you do the math (231 x 100) / 85. That’s about 272 grams, which this cat needs every day to meet its energy needs.
Dry food and treats as part of the daily feeding allowance
Most cats are not only fed wet food. Supplementary feeding with dry food is quite common in many cat households. There are usually treats as well. This must be taken into account in daily feeding: If the cat is given dry food in addition to wet food, this also counts as part of the daily ration and the amount of wet food must be reduced accordingly.
But beware: dry food and treats have a much higher energy density than wet food and can be real “fat eaters”! 100g of dry food and 100g of wet food have completely different energy densities. The values must therefore be calculated individually for each type of feed. Then you can combine them so that together they meet the cat’s daily energy needs.
The Always Full Dry Food Bowl
You should refrain from feeding only dry food and from always full dry food bowls: Cats apparently have difficulties regulating their energy intake according to actual needs when they are offered food with a high energy density. Especially with indoor cats, this is often the trigger for dangerous obesity.
You can fill the dry food bowl with the calculated amount at the beginning of the day. The cat then has access all day long and can eat when it wants to. But the following applies: If the daily ration is used up, the feeding bowl remains empty!
An exception to the rule is kittens in the first year of life, pregnant and lactating cats: they can always eat as much as they want.
Observe your cat and approach the optimal amount of food while using the calculated values as a guide. If you feed your cat optimally, it will neither gain nor lose weight. If you want your cat to lose weight or gain weight, it makes sense to seek advice, for example from your veterinarian or a nutritionist.