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What and how much do you feed your kitten/cat


Little Bear

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Little Bear

Hi Everyone,


Just wondering what you feed your kittens/cats if you have them. Do you buy supermarket variety cat food or something from the Pet store? Or do you do the raw food diet? I know from previous vet visits that if you tell the vet you’re feeding them supermarket food they wrinkle their nose in disgust and say it’s like feeding them junk food.


Our 2 kittens are currently eating Hills Science Diet which is what they were on before we got them from the RSPCA in mid February. Is it actually nutritionally superior or is that marketing hype? It’s not cheap food ~ costing $52 a week for the kitten pouches atm (2 boxes of 12 pouches, each pouch is 85g of food). That doesn’t include the bag of dry food which is around $31 and lasts 3 to 4 weeks.


Looking at the composition listing on the pack of Ocean Fish wet food it says Meat and animal derivatives, vegetable protein extracts, fish and fish derivatives, derivatives of vegetable origin, minerals, egg and egg derivatives, various sugars, oils, fats and cereals. The pack of Tender Chicken lists the same ingredients.


In terms of feeding - I’m not feeding as much as is recommended on the box. I’m going based on their hunger levels as wet food sitting around and heat in QLD don’t go well together. Also, previous cat who lived to 17 years of age ate 85g food in the morning and at night for years and years before she passed away. Same for other cat who lived to 18 years. Understand kittens may have higher energy needs due to running around and being crazy lol.


So, if you’re a vet, or a cat owner would you mind sharing what you feed your pet and how much you feed of wet food. Do you think that the Hills Science Diet/Royal Canin is superior quality food or not? I have some of the old cat’s food ~ ingredients listed are tuna, white fish, prawns, gelling agents, colour for Dine Desire Tuna fillets and Prawns in a Seafood Sauce and there does appear to be corn starch, cereals and some fillers in the Gravy Lovers range.


Thanks :)

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  • lozoodle

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I have two cats. I have followed the vet’s advice and mine eat a bit of tuna in spring water and then the Royal Canin Oral dry food. They share a small tin of tuna in the evening but don’t eat it all at once. I give them a cup full of dry food at the same time. Sometimes I top it up in the morning if they are asking for it or the bowl looks low. Basically I let them self regulate and it seems to work, they are not overweight. They are 6 years old and we’ve been following this routine pretty much their whole lives although they started on kitten dry food.


We did try a couple of different wet foods in the beginning and the main thing I noticed is that the wet food stank, as did their litter trays in the aftermath! Mine are indoor cats so this is important to me. The diet they now follow leads to much more tolerable output!

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VictorineTheCatLover

Three pampered indoor only pussies here!


Free range on the kibble chalice with RC Indoor and they share a mini tin between them for breakfast and dinner. I buy all sorts but they really like the Aldi brand mini tins. We go through 14 mini tins a week between them.


**Edited to add some words**

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Do you mean you're giving them wet food and then throwing out the remainder if they don't eat it all in one go? I wouldn't do that; cats like to come and go. I doubt it's so hot in your house the food would go off after a few hours. If they want it all and get used to having to eat it all at once or miss out they might start gutzing it all at once and then vomiting.

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5 cats here and they are fed Black Hawk dry food. I buy the 15kg bag and it lasts around 5 months. Mine are self regulated feeders, we just fill the bowl when they complain that it is empty. They will on occasion get some wet food, maybe once a month or so, but they have happily lived on dry biscuits for years. We have a 14 yr old, a 12 yr old and three 10 yr olds.

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Mine get royal canin hair ball dry food twice a day and a whiskers wet food pouch in the evening. We started out with only the dry food but found that one was a bit constipated. I use a cheap wet food as they get all their nutrition from the dry it’s just to increase their water intake.

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My younger cat eats everything and anything, she's not fussy that one LOL.


My 16 year old has royal canin stage 2 senior dry food and whatever wet food we have around, she's quite partial to the spinach feta and lamb mousse "gourmet" cat tins from aldi :).

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nom_de_plume

Mine get 1/3 cup super premium dry food (Taste of the Wild or Blackhawk) per day. I buy the big bags online as it's cheapest.


They also get approx 100g (I eyeball it), pet mince each evening.


Chicken wings/necks once per week.


Occasional can of tuna in oil as one is a ragdoll and has furballs.

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5 cats here and they are fed Black Hawk dry food. I buy the 15kg bag and it lasts around 5 months. Mine are self regulated feeders, we just fill the bowl when they complain that it is empty. They will on occasion get some wet food, maybe once a month or so, but they have happily lived on dry biscuits for years. We have a 14 yr old, a 12 yr old and three 10 yr olds.

 

Omg can I move in with you

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My cat gets advance indoor dry food in the morning, and a tin of fancy feast at around 5 pm. He nibbles on the dry food all day long and eats the wet food all in one hastily inhaled time frame.

I try not to leave out too much dry because the kids feed him in the morning and they don’t think “oh there’s heaps left” and it gets stale.


When we got him from the pound, they said they just feed with whatever they are donated so to start with whiskas and move on from there.

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We feed half a sachet morning and night (often full sachet if he's still hungry, but a full sachet all at once it's guaranteed to be wasted). Currently he's enjoying Purina Felix. He used to eat Whiskas sachets but he was wasting a lot.


We also do decent dry food whenever he wants, but he prefers it fresh.


He also eats a lot of scraps from the boys' dinners.

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Little Bear

Thank you everyone for your responses. @Lurker - At the moment they have half a pouch each in the AM and a pouch each in the PM. I don’t throw it out and less it’s been there for more than 3 - 4 hours uneaten - hasn’t happened yet. Biscuits topped up when needed. Fresh water available. Both kittens are indoors only.


I was asking how much people feed as the box states they should be eating a lot more than I give them. I prefer self regulation too - Hungry, eat. Not hungry, don’t eat. According to the box they should be on 3 and a half pouches a day PER cat. Seems excessive. Can’t seem to find any info though as to whether this is if you just feed them wet food only and no dry food as I presume that would affect the amount.

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Mine only have dry and the occasional tin of tuna. I have 5 cats and I don't feed a certain amount. I just fill up their bowl when I notice it's getting low.


I don't suggest you do this btw. Mine are all extremely fat.

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Mine only have dry and the occasional tin of tuna. I have 5 cats and I don't feed a certain amount. I just fill up their bowl when I notice it's getting low.


I don't suggest you do this btw. Mine are all extremely fat.

 

I used to do this and it worked quite well. But then the younger cat came along who is an ex stray with no off button when it comes to food. For a little cat, she is mighty round and squishy these days :lol:


And to think the lady at the rspca said she wasn't really motivated by food... bullshit she isn't! This cat knows how to jump up, unlock and open doors by the handle to access food. I intended on making her an indoor cat but she soon showed me who's boss and now just casually lets herself in and out as she pleases.

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Mine loath fish flavored things and will only eat the odd scrap of real fresh caught fish. Otherwise anything fish related they turn their nose up at.


They usually get the grainfree cans from the supermarket because it's the only wet food that doesn't make their litter box stink out the house. Between the two adult cats they get 1/2 can. They get that around 5pm. They have a bowl of dry food that is topped up every morning and graze when hungry. I usually buy a bag of this: https://www.petbarn.com.au/ivory-coat-chicken-kangaroo-specialty-6kg and a bag of this: https://www.petbarn.com.au/probalance-healthy-weight-cat-food-3-5kg and mix them together for the fusspots. That lasts about 8-9months. (I buy online because there isn't really any place bar the vet to get it here and their mark up is ridiculous). My two are basically strays though. As in we literally found them abandoned on our property as 3-4 week olds and kept them. They get cooked turkey, fish, chicken, raw bits of bacon when I'm cutting it up, the odd bit of mince every so often. Actually they go spare over turkey.


Either cat is what I would cat fat. Mango (male) might be a bit chubby not not really. Shadow is just perfect for her size (she used to be very thin, but has filled out and looks healthier). They are brother and sister but completely different builds. Shadown is a sleek short hair and Mango is a short hair fluffy ginger tom.

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Rainbowbear

We have a gravity feeder and it is always full of dry food which they help themselves too all day, we have to do it this way as 1 cat (who is 12) has never had an interest in food and just plods along and snacks when he feels the need (I'm guessing I never see him eat!) while the other is a piggy and would not leave any left for the snacker otherwise. Lucky he is very active and seems to burn what he eats as he is not overweight


Both are indoor 100% of the time so other then the active one catching the occasional fly (or food scrap he has helped himself to) that's all they will eat neither has shown and interest in wet food

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3 cats here and they get supermarket dry food only (Optimum or similar), with occasional creamy treats. I fill up their bowls whenever they tell me they're not happy with the amount that's left in there.


I used to feed wet food but I found that it often just sat there and went off. They don't really like fresh meat of any kind either. I even tried them on a very small piece of lobster last week and they all just had a sniff and left it sitting there, so it got fed to our labrador the next day.

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Our two year old cat has access to supermarket dry food all day - only eats it when desperate.

He gets half a pouch in the morning then a bit of mousse style food hand fed in the evening (bonding time with DD).

He loves a small treat or two here and there.

Definitely not overweight.

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I chop and change between premium supermarket dry food and hills science diet, which she gets for breakfast and dinner, and whenever she yells at husband (I personally think she’s slightly too fat). She won’t eat dry food, or any brand wet food I have tried (including science diet) and is fussy with fresh meat too. I should start offering her tinned tuna occasionally as she does like that, had totally forgotten about it.

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