I need advice on cutting down food portions

[lizzielou742]

I took Sophie in to the vet this morning to get the sutures from her spay taken out. They weighed her - she weighs 0.3 lbs. more than when she got spayed two weeks ago! :eek: Of course, she did get into her food bag yesterday (see this thread (http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60076)) but still, going from 6.1 lbs to 6.4 lbs in two weeks is a lot.

Anyway, I have to cut down her food. I'm supposed to keep her on the kitten food, but reduce it from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup a day. Currently, she and Tito each get 1/4 cup of food at 7:00 am, and another 1/4 cup at 7:00 pm. Tito's only supposed to be on 1/3 cup as well, but...well...I feel so guilty only feeding them 1/3 cup. :o It seems like too little! But, I'm going to really cut it down this time.

How should I go about this? Do I feed 1/6 cup twice a day? If so, where do I find a 1/6 cup measure? Should I just give them 1/3 cup once a day? I'm worried about that - the two of them wake me up by pouncing on my head at 6:30 am every morning, wanting their breakfast. I'm afraid if I only feed them once a day, their pouncing will get worse and I'll never sleep. Should I feed them in the evenings?

:( I just feel like 1/3 is such a little amount. I don't feel so bad for Sophie (she never even quite finished her whole 1/2 cup anyway) but Tito acts as if I'm starving him now, and I'm about to cut it down more! :( I don't know. I'm sorry for rambling. If anyone could try to read this and make some sense out of it, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[catfancier]

What kind of food do you feed them?
I feed my cats 1/8th of a cup each per meal, 2 meals a day (1/4 each). Initially I did it so they would lose a little weight (they weren't much overweight but even a little is too much), and now I keep it up as maintenance. I was feeding them Iams, but when I get another job at a clinic, I think I will change them to Hill's. At the moment I'm feeding horrible supermarket food, but they enjoy it and are still happy, healthy and active. Their weights are very steady.

I know it seems like a small amount (1/4 cup each/day!), but it's enough for them, and they're pretty active inside-outside cats.
Also, I have a Hill's measuring cup that I have cut down to the 1/8th mark, so now I just get enough food to fill the scoop and no more. It's a good idea getting one if you don't have one - any clinic should be able to give you one if they have them in stock!

[Craftlady]

I feed 2 cups (give or take) to 3 kittys during a normal day. I use a large soup spoon when measured out it equals 1/3 cup (3 spoon fulls). Also depends on the size of your food. Nutro that I feed has big pieces so little goes a long way. Smaller the food piece size obviously the more that will go into a bowl. 1/3 measuring is about 25 pieces of food using Nutro.

The better quality food less calories/fat. Unfortunately the store rt brand at our house put weight on and Science Diet Light did also. However, Nutro has not. The less byproducts the better.
If it starts out with "corn byproduct, beef byproduct" your getting allot of fillers (SD uses byproducts).

I am dealing with Eleanor who thinks all the food is hers. :)
If between her and Skinny the two bowls get eaten and Thumper has slept through the meal time , she gets 2 soup spoon meal for herself. :)

The quality of food has allot to do with weight along with portion.
In my opinion and experience.

I encourage play and exercise.