Some raw feeders are guided by their cat when it comes to how much to feed. Whilst this is okay in theory, it really only works if you have a cat who only eats as much as their body requires at each meal and walks away from their food when their tummy is full. If you have a greedy cat with an insatiable appetite, then you need to strictly measure and monitor your cat’s food.
It is generally recommended that you feed between 2% and 4% of your cat’s ideal bodyweight every day, split into two meals.
Every cat is different though, so when determining how much raw food to feed your cat you need to take into account factors such as their:
- age
- current weight
- appetite
- metabolism
- activity and exercise levels.
For example, a senior cat who lives indoors and spends his day napping in the sun and walking only as far as his food bowl and litterbox, is going to require much less food than a young and healthy active cat who spends his days playing and running outdoors in the fresh air.
Image: Benjamin Watson via Flickr
The Pawesome Cats family live indoors and range in weight from 5kgs to 6.4kgs (11 to 14 pounds). The two brothers have healthy appetites (let’s be honest – they LOVE food) but are very different in terms of their activity levels and metabolism. Max is active and athletic, always running up and down the hallway and up the cat tower, whereas Charlie is slightly overweight and more of a couch potato. He’s happier relaxing in a sunny spot or watching the birds outside the window.
Our Raw Feeding Guide
The table below is a guide, based on feeding 2% bodyweight of an adult cat.
To make meal times easier in our multi-cat household, we prepare and freeze all raw food meals in advance in 55 gram portions. Regardless of their weight, all the cats are fed exactly the same amount which is based on 2% bodyweight of a 5.5kg adult cat – 55 grams in the morning and again at night.
What this means at our place, is that the girls (who each weigh 5kgs and theoretically only require 50 grams per meal) often walk away leaving a mouthful on their plate and Max eats the leftovers. Charlie would love to help eat the leftovers too, but with IBD and a chicken allergy we are extra careful about what he consumes.
Image: Cloudtail via Flickr
Monitoring Your Cat’s Weight
To some degree you can assess your cat’s weight based on how they look and feel but we recommend weekly weigh-ins to monitor your cat’s weight, especially when you first transition to a raw food diet.
The easiest way to weigh your cat at home is to stand on the scales yourself, pick up your cat and then calculate the difference between your weight and your weight when holding your cat. Based on the scale readings you can adjust the amounts you feed your cat.
You may need to feed your cat slightly more if he is looking a bit lean and has lost weight or reduce how much you feed your cat if he is putting on weight.
How do you determine how much you feed your cat at each meal?
This is so helpful. Our three cats all fall into the indoor, couch potato crew. Two of them are over 16 and Rosie is about 7.
I hope to someday get all my cats on a raw diet.
Great advice ! It’s good to know the average amount of raw food per cat, it’s easier to adjust to each cat later. Purrs
We haven’t been weighed for ages – maybe it’s because we don’t put on weight as we spend quite some time outside climbing the fences and playing chase!
This is important information! With raw food, it’s hard to know where to start with feeding amounts, especially if you have cats who will eat as much as you give them (we’re looking at you, Ashton!). Ashton has a slower metabolism and lower activity level, so and her raw food is so nutritionally dense that she has really packed on the weight with the same amount of food that suits Newton fine. So there really is a surprising amount of variation between cats.
My human actually gives Binga and Boodie MORE food than me! That’s because even though they’re older seniors, they are pretty active and as oldsters, they don’t metabolize protein as well as they used to. I’m kind of jealous – but I am smaller in general (only 7.5 pounds compared to their 9.5 – 10 lbs.), I guess they do need the supplements. Basically, my human knows that if any of us is losing weight and we seem fine otherwise, she needs to give us more food.
We were just discussing this! Erin needs to know about this!! Thanks!