How Should We Feed Our Cats?

What quantity and how often we should feed a cat depends on many factors. Cat’s age and health condition are necessary to consider when we are considering how often to feed a cat. For example, kittens’ nutritional needs are far greater than the need of an adult cat. For that reason, we may decide to feed a kitten by serving 6 to 7 meals a day or let the food available all the time. Basically, there are two schools that advocate different types of feeding cats. The first one believes that cats are finicky eaters, which should have open access to food during a day. On the other hand, the second school believes that let the food at cat’s disposal 24 hours a day is not a good idea. According to them, many cats are not very good at counting calories and usually, they take more calories than they need. They recommend serving two meals a day to an adult cat. At dawn and at the dusk would be ideal. These are the times when cats in wild are most active. To find out more about how we should feed our cats, the article “Feeding Your Adult Cat: What You Need to Know” gives us the following explanation.

As for feeding times and amounts, here are a few things to keep in mind.

“There are equations you can use to predict the energy needs of a cat,” Larsen says. But many things — including climate, activity, and the cat’s metabolism — affect that.

You can simply evaluate your own cat by looking at his or her silhouette and touching the belly from the top and sides, she says. If you can’t feel ribs, you may need to adjust how much you’re feeding your cat. If you want more guidance, you can find body condition scoring systems online.

Bough agrees that it’s difficult to evaluate the exact amount of food a cat needs. “You can start by weighing your cat and looking at the product packaging,” she says, “But watch your cat and work with your vet to determine how much your cat should weigh.”

Larsen recommends twice daily feedings. Bough says, “As a general rule of thumb, we recommend that cats be fed twice daily using the portion control feeding method. To do this, start by dividing the amount suggested on the label of your pet’s food into two meals, spaced eight to 12 hours apart. You may need to adjust portions as you learn your cat’s ideal daily maintenance amount.”

Fortunately, many veterinarians advocate the combined approach. This approach merges the practices of the two schools. They suggest offering two basic meals but left some preferably dry food between the meals that a cat may nibble. In any case, the best approach is the one which works for a particular cat. Therefore, before we decide how we should feed a cat, we need to be aware of her habits and make sure her health will not suffer.