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Cat feeding
We have a four year old maine *** (prolly a mix but thats what the vet says she is). She's around the 18lb mark.
We feed her a grain free wet and dry food that she loves. We were feeding her half a 5.5oz can of wet a day and filling her treat ball with dry food in the evening. We feed the same time every day - 11am -12pm for wet, dinnertime for dry.
We ran into issues with her gobbling her wet food down like there was no tomorrow (and her dry food too) and throwing it all up 20 mins later. I tried splitting it into smaller portions more frequently but it didn't really help. As you can imagine, I'm sick of getting on my hands and knees to clean our cream carpet but also... it can't feel that great to her.
I recently changed it up to see if we could eliminate the throwing up. I now give her quarter of that tin per day. She has a larger metal food bowl (I want to say its maybe 6-7 inches across and 3 tall) that I leave dry in all the time. I basically just pour food in an even layer til I can't see the bottom anymore... maybe quarter inch? And fill it again the next day when I give her the wet food.
We've been doing this a few days now... close on a week and she's not been sick since (yay!) but I don't have lots of experience with cats and H doesn't either. She seems happier that foods always there (I guess there was some worry over not getting another meal... kinda unfounded, she's been with us for all but her first 8 months but you never know) I guess I just worry she may be overeating or undereating.
Even when she was being sick all the time she wasn't losing weight so she managed to keep enough down. I don't know - do you think she's eating too much? too little? She's a not massively active house cat. She has spurts where she'll run laps when she's high on catnip or play with a ball but she's more of a lap cat. Any advice welcome, thank you.
Re: Cat feeding
Eating dry food at will is perfectly OK for cats, as long as they don't overeat! I've had a few vets recommend it. We feed ours dry food at will and they are all healthy weights, but they are also very active indoor/outdoor cats. She may be overeating if she throws up undigested food often, although this can happen if they eat too quickly as she was doing before. If she throws up hair or partially digested food, then those are other issues. If she starts getting fat, you may have to limit her food intake. This is a good weight chart, please remember maine coons often look fatter than they are because they're big and fluffy: http://www.realage.com/pet-health/cat-diet-and-nutrition
If she is not getting sick and a healthy weight, feeding at will is perfectly fine.
Wet food is not necessary for a healthy young cat who is sustained on a dry food diet. My after dinner cookie is not necessary for me either, but I sure do enjoy it! We feed each of our cats a small spoonful of wet food twice a day for their enjoyment. If it makes her sick to have too much, just don't give her so much!
Also, there are a lot of trends that come and go with dry food. Certain foods are nutritionally superior, but if they aren't agreeing with your cat or are making her fat, it's best to switch to something else. As someone who has had cats my whole life, I choose not to buy the more expensive ones. A frugal veteranarian recommended Purina Kitten Chow followed by Purina Original, and that's worked for us. I have found that some cat foods taste too good, and make them overeat. We try to give them stuff that's a little more bland to discourage overeating.I hear there are some advantages to grain free food, but as that vet recommended, we prefer just to use food with a low ash content and not many preservatives. No matter how expensive a food is or what's in it, if it's causing your cat to get sick or overeat, it's probably not the best for you. There are plenty of quality cat foods on the market, many of which are surprisingly affordable.
Thanks, all the info you gave was really helpful - thanks for letting me know your cat feeding routine too!
It's really difficult to tell from sight with Penny (I'll upload a few pics). I mean, I can feel her ribs and hips when we cuddle. From sight she looks awfully fat with a hangy down belly but the vet who went in to spay her nearly killed her, moved a few organs around and now she has a flappy abdomen. Sometimes she looks really skinny and other times she's all kinda fluffed up and comfy looking. Not sure if that makes sense
We haven't been doing it long enough to notice weight changes but I'll definitely keep an eye on it. As for the ash content thing.. thats a little scary. Had no idea about that!
Cats, especially females, have fat pads on their abdomen, and sometimes they're disproportionate to the rest of the body (kind of like when you see a person who is not overweight but has a really big butt or something). My girl had what looked like boobies when she was heavier, but still a healthy weight. They swung back and forth when she walked and looked silly when she sat down, but the vet said she was fine. Your cat doesn't look overweight from pictures, but obesity is common in indoor cats. You can monitor her weight by getting on a bathroom scale yourself ($10 at walmart if you don't have one), then getting on with her and subtracting the difference. If you start to notice significant weight gain, then you might opt to change her diet or take her to a vet for advice.
Also worth noting is that many cats tend to be thin when they're young and fill out as they age. My cats were all long and lean and leggy the first couple years, then started to really fill out around 3-4 years old. Even my boy who always looked like he was starving because he was so active is now covered with a couple inches of fat!