How to Feed Your Cat to Stop Begging
Cats that get enough calories a day are hungry (in nature, you hunt for food while you have enough calories). Therefore, feeding a cat until it is full is almost always overfeeding unless it is an active growing kitten under eight months of age.
Naturally, cats eat several small meals a day while hunting and eating what they catch. Having a bowl of kibble allows for several small meals of a high-calorie food without any effort on the cat's part, it's a recipe for weight gain.
Domestic cats keep their appetites wild
Cats that receive your food have a lower daily caloric requirement than if they were to find it, pick it up, and eat it for a living. As they age, cats experience a significant drop in activity and metabolism, without any decrease in appetite. This makes it harder to maintain an ideal weight over time.
Your cat may have taught you to feed him Cats often identify behaviors and acts that are a clue to feeding them and try to get the handler to engage in them. A good example is feeding cats as soon as you get out of bed in the morning. Cats often try to wake people up in the morning to feed earlier and earlier...
Another example is the cat running around the kitchen every time the fridge is opened, because that's where they know you keep canned food. A hungry cat often tries to do silly things irritating people. at home or participating in other destructive behaviors. Being busy is good because it makes the cat more active, which helps burn calories, but the rest of the house often doesn't appreciate the nature of the business. When feeding a cat in response to these behaviors, the cat is encouraged to act in this way.
One of the hardest things to do is make a cat hungry without rewarding the associated behaviors. Choose between dry food, canned food, or both In general, it is not necessary to offer cats various flavors and textures. They become very good at training their owners to add something else to the mix if the cat is reluctant to eat what they are given. Very, very few cats need stimulation to eat. The opposite is usually a goal.
Be careful feeding your cat dry and canned food.
The fastest way to get and keep an overweight cat is to feed your cat canned and dry food. Even if a cat has just finished stocking up on dry food, most will easily wrap whatever canned food is offered (or vice versa). It is difficult to regulate the amount of each type of food so that the cat receives the correct amount of calories.
Feeding recommendations from your local vet
Only canned foods are my first choice. For an adult cat, start with ½ to 4.5 ounces. You can twice a day and without additional food. This is the starting point and will likely need to be toned down.
For small cats, 3 oz. can (Fancy Feast format box) twice a day may work better. This amount is also specific to cats and generally needs to be adjusted up or down. Feeding canned food seems to create the best balance between calories and feeling full, and food seems to help the cat more than dry food.
Recommendations for owners who choose dry food
Kibbles can be fed, but must be made with careful measures, with specific meals, and no snacks. Today's dry foods contain much better ingredients that will allow.
Using a kitchen scale to measure the weight of dry food is much more accurate and repeatable than using a volume measurement, so the amount is much more consistent from day to day and from person to person. Measuring by weight can also allow for much smaller adjustments to daily amounts of food than can be done precisely by volume (a 9 percent change in a quarter cup is almost impossible to make accurately by measuring volume). You can buy a good food scale for around $ 55 at Target or Bed, Bath and Beyond.
Weigh your cat to ensure a healthy rate of weight loss
Regardless of the diet, limiting access is essential. And a scale for accurately weighing the cat is useful. Digital human scales can be used to weigh the person with and without the kitten. Monthly pesos at the same time of day are sufficient.
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