Feeding Guidelines 

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The amount of homemade food to offer your cat depends on a number of factors including age, activity level, size, breed and health.

Generally, plan for your cat to consume between 2-4% of its body weight daily.

You may need to experiment with the amount your cat needs (more/less food). The guidelines listed below will help you get started.

Please make adjustments as necessary for your cat(s) and their specific goals and veterinary care.

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Average to Larger Adult Cats over 10 lbs

Feed about ¾ cup to 1 cup (120 to 150 grams) daily

Divide this by the number of meals you feed your cat each day to get the per-meal amount

Example: 3 meals per day = 40 to 50+ grams per meal. Tucker is 14.5 lbs and eats 150-200 grams per day.

Average to Smaller Adult Cats under 10 lbs

Feed about ½ cup to ⅔ cup (60 to 90 grams) daily

Divide this by the number of meals you feed your cat each day to get the per-meal amount

Example: 3 meals per day = 25 to 30 grams per meal. Mia is 8.5 lbs and eats 75-100 grams per day.

Kittens ages 4-5 weeks to 1 year

If you are personally weaning your kitten at about 4-5 weeks of age, start with 10-15 grams per meal and offer it 4-6 times per day, if possible. As your kitten grows, you can offer more food per meal.

Kittens 8+ weeks: offer at least 20 grams or more 3-4 times per day. Never limit how much your kitten eats per meal so as not to cause an obsession over food. Kittens are growing and need to be able to eat until they are full.

Kittens 6-12 months: by this time, your kitten should be on a consistent eating schedule. Kittens are still very active at this age, so make sure you’re feeding enough. Starting at 6+ months of age, Mia was given 25 grams per meal at 3 meals per day (she was - and still is - on the smaller side).

Special Breeds and Needs

Depending on the breed (or special needs!) of your cat, some cats will require more food than recommended above for the average house cat.

For example, at 6 months old, our Maine Coon kitten Izzy was eating about 35 grams per meal + an extra late evening snack compared to 3-year-old “average to smaller” cat Mia at 25-30 grams per meal.

At 1 year old, Izzy was eating approximately 225-275 grams per day - this was broken into 4 portioned meals (about 30-40 grams each), plus a couple in-between meal snacks (about 25-30 grams each) and 2am and 5am snacks in the auto-feeder (with ice pack cartridges). “Snacks” = smaller amounts of homemade food.

If you have a special breed, you’ll want to be aware of the nutritional requirements for your cat.

Tips & Guidance

How to calculate the approximate amount of grams to feed per day

This calculation is a guideline to help with feeding amounts. You can adjust the amount as necessary for your cat’s specific needs or age. Please consult with your Vet if you have questions on the amount of food your cat should be consuming.

Take the weight of your cat in Pounds

Multiply that by 453.6 (grams per lb)

Take the total grams and multiply it by the percentage (.02-.04) for an approximate amount of grams per day to start with.

If you have a kitten, you may have to feed it more than the calculated amount.

Adjust feeding amounts as needed!

If your cat is still hungry after eating, give her a little more. 

 

If he never eats all of his food and leaves it sit (or if he is overweight), scale back a bit or use leaner types of meat. 

 

A kitchen scale definitely comes in handy for this! After a while, you may be able to “eyeball” it. To this day, we still use a scale to weigh each cat's food for every meal.

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If you need help with transitioning your cat to a homemade diet and palatability tips, click on Tips + Troubleshooting below!

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