Our two Bengal cats , about 11 years old, recently had some teeth and gum work done. They had eaten nothing but kibble all their lives, but had to put them on canned food after this.
They seem to love it, and have been giving them about two and a half to three 5.5 oz cans a day. Just wondering what the right amount would be. There is a formula based on their weights (one 15 lbs and the other 13), but that was way off for the kibble, so wonder about the canned. They seem to suggest about three cans a day for these weights.
I expect they’d eat more if we gave it to them, but don’t want them getting fat. Any suggestions as how much to give them?
Also, been giving them a can in the morning, about half a can at noon, and another can in the evening. When do you feed your guys? I’d like to get to just twice a day. Any opinions on that?
Boris gets 1 can of Fancy Feast a day. They are 3 ounces. He lets the 5.5 ouncers sit too long. He also has access to a bowl of dry all day. He is a little fat but lazy is a big part of it.
I think you’re feeding about the right amount, maybe a bit less than they need. Do they usually eat it all or is there some left over?
I agree, though, about the imprecise formula on the can – near as I can tell for my 14-pound-but-should-be-12-pound cat, I should be feeding about 1 and 3/4 of a can a day. I give him about a can and a half a day, and there’s usually some left over.
My vet has recommended that he be on canned food only because he needs to lose weight (I have no idea how he’s supposed to lose weight on canned food because he’s a hog about eating it and acts like he’s being starved to death when you’re even 5 minutes late in feeding him).
I feed him in the morning when I get up and at night when I get home. That schedule doesn’t seem to bother him; like I said, he doesn’t eat everything in the dish anyway.
Thanks. So, that’s a can a day for each. Now ours are getting one and quarter a day, for pretty big cats, so maybe I’m in the ballpark. I’ll cut back a little and see if they decide to attack me.
My cats get about 6 oz. of wet food a day each. That’s 1/3 of a 12.5 oz. can in the morning and 1/3 of a 5.5 oz. can in the evening. I was feeding them each one small can a day, but this is way cheaper. I’d have gone over entirely to the larger cans, but the logistics of splitting it up into reasonable serving sizes and storing it day to day would have made my head explode. Since two of the cats are pretty big and the third is kind of small, I end up fudging the amounts so that it’s probably about 6.5 oz. for each of the larger two and 4.5 for the smaller one. The hungriest cat (and that varies) usually goes back in and cleans everyone’s plate if they left anything.
Despite the lack of precise measurements, all three cats have lost a little weight over the year they’ve been on the food, and they’re all looking like they have hints of a “waist” now. The largest has gone from about 13 lbs to a little over 12 lbs, the middle one is down to 10.5 from 11, and the littlest one is just over 6 lbs - she hasn’t lost more than a couple of ounces, but that’s appropriate.
I think Bengals are pretty active, but it does seem a lot. My vet advised me against giving cats wet food anyway (if that helps). He also mentioned a recent study in the USA had shown that cats who get the Rolls Royce food - as in top price stuff- live, on average, two years longer. I have no cite.
We’ve got a young Bengal who, oddly enough, doesn’t much seem to go crazy over his canned food. He has dry available to him constantly, and at 4PM the menagerie (another cat and 2 dogs) get their daily wet food ration. For him, that’s about a heaping tablespoon of either turkey or beef kitteh chunks. In his bizarro world, he doesn’t like any fish or chicken or liver. Sometimes he inhales it, but mostly he leaves a morsel or two behind.
Active? How about psycho? Taz is nosy to an extreme I’d never have imagined. He gets into everything, checks out everything, climbs in and on everything, including me in bed in the middle of the night. He is, by far, the most interesting cat we’ve shared our home with.
But if he pees on the love seat one more time… :mad:
I used to be owned by a Bengal. If you’ve seen pictures of FCM’s guy mine looked very much like him. They’re gorgeous kitties.
I honestly don’t remember how much I fed him, though he did eat kibble and not canned food, prior to a nasty bout of urinary problems that landed him at the vet for several days with a catheter (poor fella got blocked up). After that, the special food he was on put weight on him like nothing I’d ever seen. I had to cut his food waaaay back, if I’d fed him as much as the bag suggested I’d have had a 25-pound cat on my hands!
