How much raw?

[MelissaAlice]

Only 6.6 lbs - she's a tiny girl ....half pound of raw per day seems like a good place to start. If she doesn't eat it all then you know you can cut back right away, and if she does eat it all then just weigh her in 2-3 weeks and see where her weight is then.

I wouldn't fret if she gains a little weight because it's very normal once cats get past kittenhood and they get spayed that they tend to gain a little extra weight.

I could give her 10lbs of food and she'd force herself to eat it; turning down food just isn't in her nature

Sh's well out of kitten hood; she's a 3yr old retired breeder. She was spayed over a year ago so I think she's pretty much settled into her comfort zone as far as that's concerned.

I will just really have to watch her for the first month and see what happens.


My Goodness I don't know what I did before I found the lair!!

 

[momdeeze]

Late reply here but my boys who eat only raw (due to kibble induced diarrhea) eat 12 - 16 oz. per day. They are 9 & 11 pounds though.

 

[Condo commando]

Reading these threads it's like I'm starving my girls but they look good to me. One weighs something over 9 pounds and she gets 6 ounces of homemade raw per day. She's not very active, more of a couch potato. She even has a little pouch so I'm like that's enough for you. The other one only weighs something over 8 pounds and she is very active (hyperactive imo). This one I used to give 6 ounces per day but recently changed it to 6.5 ounces because I think she can gain a little weight and still be fine, but it's not like you can see her ribs or anything. She's just very active and burns off a lot of calories.

On weekends they share a can of sardines for a treat. Only other thing they get is to lick the bowl when I make cat food which is every couple of weeks. I don't give them table scraps.

So like I said I give them homemade raw. I add 1 cup of water for every 2 pounds of meat. I think this is one of the mysteries of commercial raw foods is that we don't know how much water they've added (or for that matter other cheap fillers). I think my food is maybe more calorie intense? I was trying to figure out how it can be some cats eat twice as much and they don't weigh twice as much....mystery to me.

 

[Xandria]

I think like humans, cats also have different metabolism levels resulting in different body types/shapes.

 

[MelissaAlice]

Elfie seems to tap out at about 4oz a day. I was worried that would eat and eat and eat but she seems truly full. If you knew her you would know what a miracle this is.
She ever ignored my french fries (her favorite food) last night to enjoy her turkey dinner!!!

What amazes me most of all though is how quickly I am seeing results!
Less then a week ago I have yellow/lightbrown poop full of mucus and blood and last night for the first time in about 6mths she had a fully formed poop that was the proper colour, still a trace amount of blood but given the severity of the flare up she was in the middle of I'm not surprised.

I actually scooped her up and started doing the poop dance with her!!
I am over the moon excited and elated!

 

[Calicocious]

It really can vary cat to cat. I have petite girls too around 6.8 and 6.75 lbs respectively. Mine are still young and pretty active so they eat around 3 oz each meal twice a day. I make a homemade too.
I found the online calculators pretty useless too. They need to make a sphynx specific one. They eat and burn through so much more food than other breeds. Those starting out feeding raw have a hard time figuring out how much to feed and how much to budget for. I know I had a hard time when I first started. It was a figure it out as I went kinda thing.

 

[sdc1110]

I have been trying to figure out how much raw to feed my new baby but everything seems to very. The first night I brought him home, I put down 4 oz and he ate about 3 of them. Then the next morning I put down another 4 oz and he ate like an ounce of it. I offered it to him again later in the day and he ate another ounce and then for dinner he ate 2 ounces. This morning, I put down just 2.5 ounces for him to eat (its been all night since he ate, about 12 hours), and he ate 2oz of it. He seems to be wildly inconsistent on how much he is wanting to eat, but I don't want to keep wasting food, but I don't want to not give him enough either. Suggestions?

 

[Condo commando]

First thing I would say is to feed them on a set schedule so they are hungry when it's chow time. If you are home during the day I would do 3 feedings.

If you scroll back in this same thread I posted a link to Max's House which has a handy table of how many calories to feed kittens depending on their age - you can use that as a starting point.