How much food do you give your sphynx?

[zinchik]

Just reading yet another article on Sphynxs..

http://www.petinsurance.com/healthzone/pet-articles/pet-breeds/Sphynx-Cats.aspx

:
"More proof that the Sphynx is not low-maintenance: He has an extremely high metabolism. Therefore, he will consume more food than the average cat. "

I am feeding her 2 small cans of wet food twice a day and place about 1/8 cup of a dry food daily. Lets say she is 10-12 month old right now, almost a year old and just has been spayed. She seems to be asking for more all the time, but I dont want her to go overweight.
What would be the proper amount is Sphynx really needs more than average cat?

Thank you

 

[Inflamed]

Though they eat more it's hard to say how much more... Every sphynx is different so you should just see what works for Kika. My boys get 50 grams dry and half a can of wet a day. It also depends on the type of food, high quality means feed less and vice versa. There should be a recommendation on the packaging too to give you an idea.

Btw it's fairly normal for cats to scream for more food as they never know when their next meal is in nature!

 

[Caloci]

Vito weighs just over 4 kg. On the bag of food it says to feed 3/4 - 1 cup of food per day. I give him 3/4 cup most days and if he seems hungry I give him more. He gets some wet as well, but he doesnt really like it that much. There is almost always some food in his dish, so I figure if he needed more the dish would always be empty. He is a good weight for his size and is not skinny or fat.

I would say guage your cat by his looks. The vet can help you with a healthy weight or appearance if you need it.

 

[NYYoda]

Yoda is 8 months, 7 pounds still (no weight gain in a whole month). Neutered. He eats 2 small cans for kittens of wet and sometime half of third can. He has unlimited dry in his plate and he will just leak it a bit.
I dont think he eats a lot. Sometimes if I stay next to him he will eat more, if i walk away from kitchen - he will follow me and stop eating.

 

[zinchik]

Yoda is 8 months, 7 pounds still (no weight gain in a whole month). Neutered. He eats 2 small cans for kittens of wet and sometime half of third can. He has unlimited dry in his plate and he will just leak it a bit.
I dont think he eats a lot. Sometimes if I stay next to him he will eat more, if i walk away from kitchen - he will follow me and stop eating.

Thanks.. she emptied both her plates today - dry and wet food. Probably need to give her some more.

Kika is 10 month and 5 pounds :\ very miniature -- when we got her she was approximately 8 month and under 4 pounds poor girl.
My problem is - she used to eat everything that Juliet were leaving on the plate -- and it was about 3/4 of small can a day.. now Juliet is gone and Kika was spayed last week -- everything happen at the same time and I am not sure what kind of adjustments I should make or what to expect. But i want to keep girl healthy..

 

[NYYoda]

I just go with the flow... Yoda has almost unlimited access to food, but he would not eat much, compare to my previous cats.

 

[Hairless Blessing]

Just reading yet another article on Sphynxs..

http://www.petinsurance.com/healthzone/pet-articles/pet-breeds/Sphynx-Cats.aspx

:
"More proof that the Sphynx is not low-maintenance: He has an extremely high metabolism. Therefore, he will consume more food than the average cat. "

I am feeding her 2 small cans of wet food twice a day and place about 1/8 cup of a dry food daily. Lets say she is 10-12 month old right now, almost a year old and just has been spayed. She seems to be asking for more all the time, but I dont want her to go overweight.
What would be the proper amount is Sphynx really needs more than average cat?

Thank you

I keep dry food out always, then, I give Izmae about 1 tablespoon of wet
2 or 3 times a day. She won't eat more wet than this, she will leave it.
Then, she will grab a few dry morsels through the day and night.
She is no where near fat. She is a long, lean, little priss. Sphynx do need more food
because of their high metabolism, and body temp. So, I don't want
to think Izmae might be hungry and can't get anything to eat. But, if she started having a weight issue, I would cut her back, unless it was health related and I needed to do something else. I hope this helps you.

 

[wright878]

We leave dry food out all the time for Abby. We don't feed her anything else, well except treats! We tried canned food, but she didn't like it. She is 8 and 1/2 pounds at 8 years old.

 

[Jess&Luke0601]

I free feed my 7 month old, Brodie, dry food every day and give him a heaping tablespoon of wet food in the morning and another heaping tablespoon of wet food in the evening. He begs for more wet food sometimes, but mostly is content with that set up.

 

[gothicmist]

i can't free feed, my boys eat the whole container until it is gone.

I have been doing 1/4 of a cup at nite, 9pm. and splitting a 1/4 of a cup in their auto feeder for 4 am so they leave me alone. and then splitting another 1/4 of a cup at 7 am when the husband gets up. i worry they aren't getting enough the vet said that 1/2 a cup a day was enough but i just dont know. sigh. haha. they act like they are starving all the time.

does your cat always act hungry if they are on a schedule?

 

[jussiolavi]

Fiona could eat all day everyday! I give her about 50% more food than the recommendation is, for "normal" cats on the label of the cat food I feed her. She has gained a little pit of weight since she has been with me which is a good thing. She is very thin but not under weight. I don't want to make her gain the weight too fast. Slowly is better at least that is what the doctor said.

She has been driving me crazy this evening because she has her spaying tomorrow so I can't give her any food. Now she is sleeping LUCKY ME!

 

[andyhoi]

My Maeby is a small boy and I free feed him dry food and 1/4 can wet food a day. I actually worry about him not eating enough since he's quite lean but I he doesn't seem to be gaining or loosing weight so he must have it all balanced.

 

[Boonecat]

They do need to eat more than the average cat. I just free feed dry to all my cats & give wet every other day. My Sphynx also gets a tablespoon of wet with his 500 mg of Lysine in it. I give him a small amount of it separately to make sure he gets his full dose of Lysine daily.

 

[Monchchichi]

Hudson eat's 6-8 oz of raw a day, as well as his meaty bones a couple times a week.

 

[Fluffy]

My bambino eats like a pig ,,, what ever he can find it gos In!! The Sphynx get throu at least a bowl a day each if dried and then has as much wet they want twice a day. None are overweight and I prefer to keep them on the "trim" side ;-)

 

[argentum]

My problem is with what and how much to feed our sphynx.

We have a 1 year-old, castrated male sphynx, Turbo, who weighs 5.8kg (=12.786811 lbs), I suspect he's around a kilo overweight (=2.2 lbs). His father is big too. I used to have dry food out for him all the time, but he wasn't quite in control of his eating habits, so I had to give him food based on a schedule so he wouldn't eat himself silly.

When he was a kitten he got wet food and dry food everyday and was otherwise very healthy.

Ever since his castration, we've been moving towards a more controlled diet and gradually started giving him adult food. Now he only gets adult food.

Now he gets around 60-70g of dry food a day. I split this into three parts, 25g at around 5:30 (when I get up to go to work), 25g at around 14:30 (when I get back from work) and 15-20g at around 19:30. I give him raw chicken breast around once or twice a week whenever we're having chicken ourselves, sometimes he gets raw fish, though he doesn't like it that much. All the raw meat he gets is alongside his normal daily meals. I give him canned wet food around one a week, sometimes once every two weeks. Sometimes he likes them, sometimes not.

The reason I'm concerned is that on his yearly check-up, the doctor measured his temperature to be 36.5 C (=97.7 F) and to my knowledge that's too low. The doctor figured that if he's been otherwise normal, it might just be that he's feeling anxious about being at the check-up.

All else is normal, except since the check-up, he hasn't been pooing as regularly (used to do it once a day) and when he poos, they're like rocks!

He's always been very playful and active, except when we're not home. He jumps super high and loves to run throughout the house and great speeds. He loves hide-and-seek and fetch games. For the past couple of days, it's been around -30 C (-22 F) outside and we feel the cold inside as well. Our indoor temperature is usually around 24-26 C (~75-78 F) and now since it's so cold outside, we just can't get the house to be warmer than 20 C (68 F) and that's cold even for us adults who wear many layers of clothes, so I imagine Turbo is having a horrible time in his bare skin that's only covered with his shirt.

We heat our house with our fireplace that warms up the whole house and keeps it warm for many days. And Turbo loves sleeping on top of the fireplace where it's the warmest. Now, even the top of the fireplace is much colder than he's used to.

So that's the story.

And then for what seems an eternity, the mother-in-law has pestered us and complaining that we don't give him enough food. So, I thought that maybe I'm missing something that they notice.

That's why I'd really like someone's opinion on the feeding part. What, if anything, am I doing wrong, and how should I correct it?

 

[laurelizarris]

My problem is with what and how much to feed our sphynx.

We have a 1 year-old, castrated male sphynx, Turbo, who weighs 5.8kg (=12.786811 lbs), I suspect he's around a kilo overweight (=2.2 lbs). His father is big too. I used to have dry food out for him all the time, but he wasn't quite in control of his eating habits, so I had to give him food based on a schedule so he wouldn't eat himself silly.

When he was a kitten he got wet food and dry food everyday and was otherwise very healthy.

Ever since his castration, we've been moving towards a more controlled diet and gradually started giving him adult food. Now he only gets adult food.

Now he gets around 60-70g of dry food a day. I split this into three parts, 25g at around 5:30 (when I get up to go to work), 25g at around 14:30 (when I get back from work) and 15-20g at around 19:30. I give him raw chicken breast around once or twice a week whenever we're having chicken ourselves, sometimes he gets raw fish, though he doesn't like it that much. All the raw meat he gets is alongside his normal daily meals. I give him canned wet food around one a week, sometimes once every two weeks. Sometimes he likes them, sometimes not.

The reason I'm concerned is that on his yearly check-up, the doctor measured his temperature to be 36.5 C (=97.7 F) and to my knowledge that's too low. The doctor figured that if he's been otherwise normal, it might just be that he's feeling anxious about being at the check-up.

All else is normal, except since the check-up, he hasn't been pooing as regularly (used to do it once a day) and when he poos, they're like rocks!

He's always been very playful and active, except when we're not home. He jumps super high and loves to run throughout the house and great speeds. He loves hide-and-seek and fetch games. For the past couple of days, it's been around -30 C (-22 F) outside and we feel the cold inside as well. Our indoor temperature is usually around 24-26 C (~75-78 F) and now since it's so cold outside, we just can't get the house to be warmer than 20 C (68 F) and that's cold even for us adults who wear many layers of clothes, so I imagine Turbo is having a horrible time in his bare skin that's only covered with his shirt.

We heat our house with our fireplace that warms up the whole house and keeps it warm for many days. And Turbo loves sleeping on top of the fireplace where it's the warmest. Now, even the top of the fireplace is much colder than he's used to.

So that's the story.

And then for what seems an eternity, the mother-in-law has pestered us and complaining that we don't give him enough food. So, I thought that maybe I'm missing something that they notice.

That's why I'd really like someone's opinion on the feeding part. What, if anything, am I doing wrong, and how should I correct it?

Hi there, now i dont feed ANY raw food, however i'm sure i've read on here that you shouldn't mix raw food with regular cat food as they digest at different speeds...

As for his rock-like poop, he might not be getting enough water in his diet i.e. drinking water, or wet food. Or it could be the raw/regular food mixing i suppose.

IMO the simplest diet you can give is part dry food and part wet food. So maybe swap his evening meal for a packet of wet food (if he will eat it of course). Or maybe swap half of one or two meals for half a packet of wet?

If you're up for it, you could go to a completely raw diet, theres lots of people on here that swear by it and tons of threads to give you all the information you could want!

Is he actually overweight for his size? or just a large Sphynx? They do have a tendancy to look a little porky with their pot bellies...

Not much you can do about the cold other than make sure he's got plenty of blankets or maybe a heat pad/heated bed to curl up on.
Hope this helps a bit

 

[argentum]

Hi there, now i dont feed ANY raw food, however i'm sure i've read on here that you shouldn't mix raw food with regular cat food as they digest at different speeds...

As for his rock-like poop, he might not be getting enough water in his diet i.e. drinking water, or wet food. Or it could be the raw/regular food mixing i suppose.

IMO the simplest diet you can give is part dry food and part wet food. So maybe swap his evening meal for a packet of wet food (if he will eat it of course). Or maybe swap half of one or two meals for half a packet of wet?

If you're up for it, you could go to a completely raw diet, theres lots of people on here that swear by it and tons of threads to give you all the information you could want!

Is he actually overweight for his size? or just a large Sphynx? They do have a tendancy to look a little porky with their pot bellies...

Not much you can do about the cold other than make sure he's got plenty of blankets or maybe a heat pad/heated bed to curl up on.
Hope this helps a bit

Thanks for the quick reply. I could try what you suggested: cutting two of the dry meals in half and giving wet food in their stead.

What did you think of the amounts of food? That's the part I have the most concern for.

He's around a kilo overweight for his size, so he should lose a little bit of weight, but that's not something I'm too worried about as long as he doesn't get any bigger. He'll have a sister to play with soon, so any extra calories he gets are probably going to burn away.

 

[laurelizarris]

Thanks for the quick reply. I could try what you suggested: cutting two of the dry meals in half and giving wet food in their stead.

What did you think of the amounts of food? That's the part I have the most concern for.

He's around a kilo overweight for his size, so he should lose a little bit of weight, but that's not something I'm too worried about as long as he doesn't get any bigger. He'll have a sister to play with soon, so any extra calories he gets are probably going to burn away.

Ok, well i dont know what food you use, but going off royal canin, an overweight cat of between 5 and 6kg should have 60-70g, so exactly what you're feeding him! So substituting half of the dry, for half of the recommended daily amount of wet food.
Going from the charts im using: 2 pouches of wet and about 30g dry per day would be fine for an overweight cat.

But obviously play it by ear, and check your own food. If hes not losing any weight, give him a bit less, and vice versa

And having a friend to play with will most definately burn off some of that extra weight!

 

[MillaNN]

My two kittens (4 months old) are free fed dry food and go through approx. 200 grams per day (6 oz). They also get wet food twice per day, around 200 grams (6 oz) divided on two meals and two kittens. They seem happy with this set up and are in great shape.

 

[maxtmill]

Hello All! I am just recently feeding my cats twice a day. One of my guys evidently had an intolerance to the food they were getting, & had terrible diarrhea. After a vet check & stool sample, he is on special food for now. This situation forced to me stop free feeding, which has been a real blessing - the cats each get a full bowl of kibble twice a day & can eat for about 1/2 to 1 hour, after which I pick up the bowls. That way, Spencer doesn't get into the offending food! This has resulted in the cats eating heartily twice a day, & about half as much poop to scoop each day. This led me to believe that they were eating too much before & not utilizing it, since there was so much poop in the boxes. Everyone looks & acts great. I am loving it! No more diarrhea & less poop!

 

[Snowball]

Yoda is 8 months, 7 pounds still (no weight gain in a whole month). Neutered. He eats 2 small cans for kittens of wet and sometime half of third can. He has unlimited dry in his plate and he will just leak it a bit.
I dont think he eats a lot. Sometimes if I stay next to him he will eat more, if i walk away from kitchen - he will follow me and stop eating.

Gosh Pebbles does the same exact thing! When I stand right next to him, he will eat his dry but when I walk away, he will stop and follow. He loves his wet and I used to feed him two cans of wet and a shot glass of dry but the vet says it's too much food and he has a pouch, (cause he's neutered) so he went from eating two cans to one can and sometimes no shot glass of dry food. Pebbles is not fat. He has a lean body, like you can feel a thin layer of skin on his ribs and he has that lean body shape but because he has that stupid hanging pouch, or what a lot of people call it, "Spay Sway", the vet told me Pebbles will get fat and get diabeties if he continues to eat the way he does.

I'm still trying to figure out what a "proper diet" is to a cat. What types of wet food is good since Pebbles hate dry and how to get him to excercise his butt off to lose that pouch.

 

[Snowball]

i can't free feed, my boys eat the whole container until it is gone.

I have been doing 1/4 of a cup at nite, 9pm. and splitting a 1/4 of a cup in their auto feeder for 4 am so they leave me alone. and then splitting another 1/4 of a cup at 7 am when the husband gets up. i worry they aren't getting enough the vet said that 1/2 a cup a day was enough but i just dont know. sigh. haha. they act like they are starving all the time.

does your cat always act hungry if they are on a schedule?

This new vet that I am seeing says the same thing! Half a cup a day is enough but Pebbles begs and begs and begs for food. He looks and feels lean but because he is neutered, he has a pouch, like Spay Sway kind of pouch. His abs hang down, lol. I told the vet I made sure there's an 8 to 10 hours time span in between before I feed Pebbles but she says it's too much. She said at the rate I'm going, Pebbles will end up being fat and get diabeties. I am looking for a new vet that understands Sphynx but is not getting any luck around where I currently live at. The other state I was living at, the vet there understands Sphynx and know they eat a lot. This vet doesn't understand so I haven't taken Pebbles back to her but I did cut his food down to one can a day. Can you believe it? Those really tiny cans and it's one a day instead of two a day.

I feel bad for Pebbles because he's probably starving his behinds off. I've spoken to a lot of cat owners and they say one can a day is fine but that's only for a "normal" kitten, but for a Sphynx that is still growing? I don't believe that's enough. People think kittens are 0 to 4 months and anything after 4 months is considered a cat. They forget 9 months is also considered a kitten but yeah, I understand all Sphynx owner's pain about how much to feed their babies.

 

[123456]

This new vet that I am seeing says the same thing! Half a cup a day is enough but Pebbles begs and begs and begs for food. He looks and feels lean but because he is neutered, he has a pouch, like Spay Sway kind of pouch. His abs hang down, lol. I told the vet I made sure there's an 8 to 10 hours time span in between before I feed Pebbles but she says it's too much. She said at the rate I'm going, Pebbles will end up being fat and get diabeties. I am looking for a new vet that understands Sphynx but is not getting any luck around where I currently live at. The other state I was living at, the vet there understands Sphynx and know they eat a lot. This vet doesn't understand so I haven't taken Pebbles back to her but I did cut his food down to one can a day. Can you believe it? Those really tiny cans and it's one a day instead of two a day.

I feel bad for Pebbles because he's probably starving his behinds off. I've spoken to a lot of cat owners and they say one can a day is fine but that's only for a "normal" kitten, but for a Sphynx that is still growing? I don't believe that's enough. People think kittens are 0 to 4 months and anything after 4 months is considered a cat. They forget 9 months is also considered a kitten but yeah, I understand all Sphynx owner's pain about how much to feed their babies.

one can means 200g or 400g?

 

[GoldHazel]

one can means 200g or 400g?

@Suki the member that you are looking to answer your question hasn't been active here in over three years.