What to feed your adult cat

While adult cats will only need feeding a couple of times a day (not like a crazy kitten who needs three or four feeds a day), once Felix finally reaches adulthood you might want to reassess what to feed your adult cat.

21 Mar 2016 By Leanne Philpott Comments

How often and how much you feed your cat really comes down to what sort of cat you have; a cruisy (read; lazy) cat who lies around all day will need less food than a mental mog who’s not happy unless he’s chasing a bird, or a plane or a piece of string.

Let’s not forget the seasons either. We humans can tend to eat more in winter—the excuse being the extra fat keeps our bodies warm—and similarly cats can use up more energy keeping warm in winter and trying to cool themselves down in summer. The trick is to keep in mind your cat’s energy needs.

How much to feed your cat

You don’t want a fat-cat catastrophe on your hands. To avoid this you need to avoid over feeding your cat; the general rule is that adult cats should be fed twice a day.

However, there are different cat-feeding methods including:

Portion control feeding—This is a common method that involves measuring out the food (based on the recommendation on the pet food label) and giving it to the cat as one or two meals a day. This method helps prevent the likelihood of a fat cat.

Timed feeding—Again food is measured out but the cat has a specified period (say, 30 minutes) to eat the food before the bowl is taken away. This method is good if you’re serving up wet food and you don’t want it lying around stinking your home up for hours on end.

Free feeding—Kitty gets all the food it wants, whenever it wants—and given that cats are natural grazers, this would probably be Felix’s first choice of feeding method. In most instances a large amount of dry cat food would be left out (wet food would go off).

Different strokes for different folks; everyone had a different schedule so it’s not as simple as one cat feeding method suits all. The trick is to choose the method that suits you and your feline friend best and stick to it.

What about a treat for my cat?

If Simba has been a super duper good cat, then perhaps a treat is in store but take into consideration the fact that cat treats (like human treats) are laden with calories. Limit treats by just giving them on occasion, not daily. Really, the best treat you can give a cat is no treat!

21 Mar 2016 By Leanne Philpott Comments

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