What, When and How Much Food Should I Feed My Cat

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Cat Feeding Guide

What to Feed	When to Feed	How Much to Feed
High-quality dry cat food	Morning (7:00 AM)	1/4 to 1/2 cup
Wet cat food	Evening (6:00 PM)	1/2 can (3 oz)
Fresh water	Available at all times	Unlimited
Cat treats	During training or as a reward	1-2 treats per session

 Do you have a cat? Do you wonder what you should feed your cat? How much? How often? When? (0:07) Well, my name is Dr. Sarah Wooten and I have a veterinarian's opinion on all of this. And in this video (0:12) we're gonna talk about what, when, and how much to feed your cat. (0:18) So when it comes to cat food, there is about a million different choices out there for you.

So congratulations, you have lots of choices. (0:25) So what should you be looking for when you are choosing a food for your cat? (0:28) Well, a lot of people choose commercially made food, whether it is kibble or canned food or freeze drive. (0:36) It's convenient.

It's already formulated. As long as the label says certified to be fed as complete and balanced, (0:44) then it can be solely fed to your cat and they will get all their nutrition. (0:48) Some foods out there will have an AFCO statement on there and AFCO is American Association of Feed Control Officials, AAFCO.

(0:56) They have a statement on every single bag. Don't buy the food if it doesn't have the AFCO statement. (1:02) But some foods will say intended for supplemental feeding only.

And those foods do not have all of the amino acids. (1:09) Remember that cats are obligate carnivores. That means they must consume animal protein to get all of their amino acids.

(1:17) So we want to feed a diet that is certified to be complete and balanced by AFCO. (1:22) The second thing I look for in a food is the top three ingredients need to have an identifiable animal protein source in them. (1:32) So I don't want to see meat digest.

I don't want to see meat meal. I want to see an animal I can identify. (1:39) Chicken, turkey, lamb, salmon, tuna, whatever it is.

(1:43) I want to be able to notice it and say, ah, I know what that is. (1:47) And it needs to be in the first three ingredients. (1:48) What if you want to cook for your cat or you want to feed them raw food because you believe that that is better for their cat? (1:55) And I say great.

What I say about that is remember cats can get malnourished over time if they don't receive all of their amino acids and all their vitamins and all their minerals. (2:06) So if you're going to cook for your cat, get the diet formulated by a board certified veterinary nutritionist. (2:11) There's lots of websites online that can help you with that.

(2:15) And that's because they're going to formulate a diet for you that is completely balanced. (2:19) If you want to feed your cat raw food, that's fine, too. (2:22) I just say that you go to the FDA website.

(2:25) They have a whole page on how to safely handle raw food, especially raw meat, because it does contain the risks of bacterial contamination. (2:34) Those are the biggest risks and parasites. (2:37) So you want to make sure that you're safely handling that food.

(2:40) So if you're going to feed commercial, you know what to look for. (2:42) If you're going to cook at home, you know what to do. (2:45) Let's talk about when.

(2:48) So cats in the wild are crepuscular predators. (2:51) They are most active at dusk and dawn and they do hunt at night. (2:57) So in the wild, they're less active during the day.

(2:59) They tend to hide a lot and they're very active in the morning and in the evening, which fits great for meal feeding. (3:06) If you want to do meal feeding in the morning at dawn and at dusk, that is a very natural way to feed your cat. (3:12) That's how they might be eating in the wild.

(3:15) As far as other ways to feed your cat other than meal feeding, there's free choice, which is you just leave the bowl down and it's full of food all the time. (3:23) The problem with that is it can be difficult to regulate how much your cat is eating or to know how much your cat is eating because you're just feeding the bowl and not the cat. (3:33) And we do see a lot of problems with cats that are having obesity issues.

(3:38) It can be challenging multi-cat households. (3:41) So free choice is a choice, but it's probably not the best choice for a lot of households unless your cat is really good at regulating their own calories. (3:50) In addition to free choice and meal feeding, you have other options now.

(3:55) The big ones are setting up an automatic feeder that dispenses food at different times. (4:01) So some cats like to graze all day. (4:03) They like to have little bits of food throughout the whole day and they get cranky or they start to yell at you.

(4:09) Or develop other issues if you are not making sure that they have some sort of snack all day long. (4:16) So you want to do portion control and that's where an automatic timer feeder could really be helpful to you. (4:22) In addition to that, there are also no bowl feeders, which are my favorite because it's a way to feed your cat that is even more mimics their natural hunting behavior.

(4:34) A lot of these no bowl feeders will have little tiny mice that you can stuff the food into and then kind of, you know, toss them or hide them around. (4:42) There's lots of different systems out there, but basically it turns mealtime into hunting and playtime and that is really good for your cat's brain. (4:51) These indoor cats often get bored.

(4:53) So if you can make mealtime more exciting or interesting or stimulate their mental and make it challenging, that's a really wonderful way to engage your cat. (5:02) In addition to the no bowl feeders, there's also puzzle feeders that you can put the food into and the cat has to figure out how to get the food out of there. (5:11) Lots of commercial products.

(5:13) There's videos on YouTube that tell you about ways to make your own. (5:17) So lots of different options there. (5:19) Just use what works best for you and your cat.

(5:22) If you just want to go simple and you just want to feed them in the morning and at night. (5:26) Well, congratulations. (5:28) That actually kind of mimics of when they'd be hunting and eating anyways.

(5:31) So that would be the when. (5:34) Now let's talk about the how much this is the part that pet parents really have the hardest time with, I think, because your average house cat does not need to consume any more than about 250 to 320 calories. (5:51) And so 250 for, you know, like your six, seven pound guys, 320 for, you know, maybe your 13, 14 pound guys, 20 pounders.

(6:00) They eat more, but your average cat only should be eating about 250 to 300 ish calories per day. (6:08) But if you look at the average cat food, they are upwards of 400 to 450 K calories per cup. (6:16) And so you end up not being able to feed your cat very much of the kibble because it's so energy dense.

(6:22) This is different than what they eat in nature, which is tends to be low calorie, high moisture, high protein, high fiber. (6:28) Now we've got them inside and we're feeding them this delicious food that's calorie dense. (6:34) But now we have another problem.

(6:36) It's a big problem, obesity and obesity causes all kinds of secondary health problems. (6:42) So the how much to feed your cat is a very important part of this whole equation. (6:47) So if you have an average sized cat, you want to make sure that they do not get overweight.

(6:53) So the best thing to do is to ask your veterinarian exactly how much to feed your cat and ask them in Kelly calories. (7:00) So you know how many calories per day. (7:03) You can also ask them how much of your food to feed per day.

(7:07) So make sure you know what the brand is and the product and everything. (7:10) Tell your veterinarian, your veterinarian can do a quick calculation and tell you exactly how much to feed, (7:14) either in cups, kitchen measuring cups or better grams. (7:20) Now, stay with me here.

(7:21) I understand you don't want one more thing to do, but if you weigh your cat's food out every day, (7:27) that is an extremely accurate way to do it. (7:30) And if you think about it, even just one or two kibbles extra per day can lead up over time. (7:35) If it doesn't seem like it's enough that Stacy eating your cat meat, they're yallying for more.

(7:40) Ask your veterinarian for solutions. (7:42) One solution is to take part of their daily calories and convert it into canned food that you give morning and night. (7:48) And then the dry food is just kind of more out there for grazing.

(7:52) But when it's gone for the day, it's gone. (7:55) Even if they've got you up at 2 a.m., it's gone for the day. (7:58) I like adding canned food into the diet, feeding a mixture of dry and canned because the canned food is super high in moisture and it's super high in protein.

(8:07) So it helps them feel fuller for longer and they get that extra hydration. (8:11) So there you have it. (8:12) You've got the what to feed them.

(8:14) You've got the when to feed them and you got the how much to feed them. (8:18) So now the ball is in your court to make sure that your cat is fed a high quality nutrition, not too much of it, and is fed in a way that fulfills their needs to be a cat and helps them to live an enriched life. (8:33) Thank you so much for watching.