How many times a day to feed the cat and what food? This question is quite common and often asked. Before you get an animal, you need to familiarize yourself with the general rules:
- Feeding should be done twice a day. Moreover, if the pet is completely healthy, he will eat as much food as he needs.
- For drinking, you need to use running water and put it in a place accessible to the cat. When choosing a bowl, it is necessary to prefer a fairly wide one, as some favorites do not like it when the mustache touches the edges of the dishes.
- Pregnant and recently born cats need to be fed at least five times a day.
- In the event that the animal began to tear undigested food, it is necessary to reduce the amount of food offered.
- If the cat’s daily diet consists only of dry food, then he should drink three times as much liquid as the amount of food consumed. If the pet is given moist or natural food, then drinking will need less.
- If you stop taking the normal amount of water, you should remove the bowl away from the tray / kitchen, and it is best to put several plates in each room. You can also try replacing your existing dishes with a wider one.
Cat food
Most owners use the usual dry food as the main type of food for their pets, without even thinking about the harm done. This type has a lot of advantages: for example, it does not deteriorate, animals eat without problems and there is no need to waste time cooking. However, along with these advantages there are too many shortcomings that can entail serious consequences. Veterinarians advise how to feed domestic cats for their proper and healthy development. Subject to these recommendations, animals will live a long, and most importantly, healthy life.
In modern times, manufacturers have developed a variety of types of food for pets, which differ in cost and composition. Such an assortment allows you to choose the most optimal option.
Dry food
Conditionally dry cat food can be divided into two classes: economy (Kitekat, Darling, "Vaska", "Meal" and others) and premium (Happy Cat, Pro Plan, Hills, etc.).
Cats are happy to eat cheap varieties not because they are very tasty, but because of the special substances that are addictive. After prolonged use of such species, it is very difficult to transfer them to normal nutrition, but this must be done. If you read the composition of such feeds, you can see that it includes soy, additives, various kinds of dyes and flavor enhancers. It is worth noting that the ingredients from a cheap series are very difficult to digest, therefore, in order for the animal to receive a sufficient amount of nutrients, you will have to increase the daily dose. Cats, eating dry varieties, should drink water three times more than the usual daily diet. However, it is unlikely that the pet will do this through force. In turn, a lack of fluid in the body will lead to terrible and sometimes fatal consequences, for example, urolithiasis.
Premium feeds are three times more expensive than economy grades, but this price difference is fully justified, they have more meat, vitamins and offal. They contain enough calories and have good digestibility. They include a minimum amount of dyes, soy and additives.
In some pets, the body has individual characteristics that differ from others, for example, in a British cat. If some rarely relapse associated with dry food, then animals of this breed may have problems with digestion and hair. Therefore, when deciding how to feed a British cat, you need to carefully approach the choice of a product of a particular company.
Wet food
The optimal and more useful form for feeding cats is wet food. Compared with dry varieties, it does not have so many side effects. You can also highlight another advantage of such food - saving time on cooking.
When choosing wet food for your pet, you need to consider that cheap species do not have enough nutrients and are saturated with various additives.
Natural nutrition
The best food for a cat is natural. It should be understood that the word "natural" does not mean those dishes that people eat. Salt, spices, oil and other food additives are very harmful to animals.
Those cats that eat only such food live longer and have fewer health problems. There is only one drawback of this type of food: it is necessary to add vitamins and balance them correctly in the diet.
The daily rate should be based on poultry, beef, vegetables, oatmeal and rice. If desired, offal (heart, liver) can be given raw, before that scalding with boiling water. Cutting them finely is not necessary; let the cat develop its teeth and jaw. To avoid constipation, you need to regularly add cereals and vegetables to the diet.
If the cat has an urolithiasis, giving the fish is contraindicated! Healthy individuals are also not recommended frequent feeding of such a product, it can be introduced into the diet no more than 1-2 times a week.
Concentrated milk should also be excluded from the main diet, as in most cases it leads to indigestion. No need to feed the animal with bones, pork and chicken skin, otherwise there is a high probability of developing various diseases.
A healthy diet, or What can not be fed cats
The health of our pets is more dependent on the chosen way of eating, the quantity and quality of products. These criteria are the most important, and their observance is mandatory. Even when you want to pamper your pet, you need to find out if such a treat will cause fatal harm to his body.
Before considering the question of how many times a day to feed a cat for its full development, it is necessary to find out what kind of food is contraindicated for him.
- As already mentioned, pork and bone will only cause harm. Why? Bones are able to damage the stomach, esophagus and clog the intestines. And pork can provoke the occurrence of an infectious disease, in addition, this kind of meat is too fat and is difficult to digest.
- Fried, fatty, salty, spicy, smoked should never be given to a cat! The use of such products will lead to an upset stomach and metabolic disorders. As a result, feeding these products will make the animal look bad and develop chronic diseases.
- Sweet is contraindicated. Sugar, sweets, chocolate, cakes - all this will lead to severe diseases of the coat, teeth and a decrease in immunity. In addition, chocolate contains theobromine, from the action of which the cat is able to die.
- Potatoes are not digested and cause an upset.
- All legumes are not digested, cause fermentation and bloating.
- Spices and salt will not benefit, which is why in no case do you need to salt and use spices in cooking for a cat.
- Vitamins and medicines intended for humans are not suitable for animals. They will cause poisoning. In some cases, the use of various drugs in pets may be denied by the kidneys or heart failure. A weakened cat can easily be killed with a tablet of the pain medication used by the owner.
Amount of food needed
To say how many times a day to feed a cat is very difficult, since everyone has different organisms. That is why you need to correctly calculate the daily dose, starting from some factors.
Weight
If the individual is of average build, then she will need no more than 60 calories per kilogram of weight. If it weighs a little more than 3 kg, then it should receive about 210 cal. To calculate how much food a pregnant cat needs, you need to add 25% to the amount that she received earlier. Animals over 7 years old should be given no more than 50 calories per 1 kg of weight.
Age
It is only logical that kittens need more food than adults. Therefore, those who are not yet six months old should be fed three times a day. Older pets will have enough two meals a day. It is such a regime that must be maintained until the very end. Changing it is allowed only if the cat is sick, and he needs to adhere to a special diet.
So, there is no exact answer to the question of how many times a day to feed a cat. The main thing is that he does not overeat. And then no pet health problems will arise.