# do calories matter?



## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

My girls are plump, and I've been trying a bunch of different grain-free wet foods. I checked calories on some of the cans in the cat food cabinet today and found that there's a huge variation in calorie counts. Weruva, the regular Wellness line, and BFF don't provide calorie counts (neither does Fancy Feast, for that matter). The numbers are per 0.5 oz, because it was easier to calculate that way than figuring out 3 oz v. 5.5 oz. Math isn't my strong suit, but I think these are pretty accurate:

Blue Wilderness chicken & trout: 12.5
Halo Spot's Stew, chicken & beef: 13.6
Felidae Pure Elements (chicken, lamb, oceanfish...): 14
Wellness Core turkey & duck: 17
Felidae: 17
Evo: 19
Hound & Gatos rabbit: 19.7
Hound & Gatos chicken: 19.7
Wellness Core chicken: 19.7
Blue Wilderness chicken: 22
Blue Wilderness turkey: 22
Halo Spot's Pate chicken: 25.2
Halo Spot's Pate whitefish: 25.2

I know not feeding dry, and feeding grain-free will help weight management, but how much difference will the calories make? Is it the same as for humans?


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## LakotaWolf (Aug 10, 2012)

Yes, calories are important ;} They're not the end-all, or the only consideration you want to take into account in choosing a food, but they are important.

Looking at the protein and fat %s are also important.

Some brands are sneaky and they won't tout their caloric counts about, but usually they have them somewhere on their websites.

Nutrition Information - Weruva (this is the brand I feed my cat.)

So on this chart, you would be able to see that the average non-fish-based Weruva food is ~7.6 cal/0.5 oz

Weruva foods are actually a bit lighter on the caloric content than other grain-free foods I've encountered, so they may actually be a great choice for weight loss. 

I've read reports that say an adult cat should be getting 20-30 calories of nutrition per pound per day, which comes to anywhere from 170-270 calories a day for an average 8ish-pound cat. This is, of course, for maintenance of CURRENT weight, so you'd want to reduce the calorie amounts in order to achieve weight loss.

(Older kitties may only need 15 cal/lb. a day.)

This is sort of a loose and free system that really needs to be adapted to the individual cat. One of your best bets would be to invest in an animal scale so you can look at the minute changes in your girls' weights per day. You can try restricting their caloric intake a bit and see if they lose weight in a few days.

Cat Food Nutritional Information
This is a great reference for a huge number of canned-food brands that may help you with a better overall look at a food's calorie, fat, and protein content.

Remember that the %s on the back of a cat food can aren't really good ways to determine how "much", amount-wise, of a particular thing (i.e., protein) that your cat is getting. You have to convert the percentage into "dry matter basis" to really find out how many grams of fat or protein your kitty is consuming in a can of food.


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## lovetimesfour (Dec 1, 2010)

There is a huge difference. Weruva is only 84 calories for a 5.5 ounce can where Wellness is 220 for their grain free chicken.

One of the reasons feeding a variety helps maintain a healthy weight.

I have the calories of the brands I feed all written down (by 1/8 can) in the back of my cat journal.

Fat and carbs matter too, and also the cat. 30 calories per pound, I really don't know where those numbers come from, and if everyone went by that there would be a lot of overweight cats. Maybe there are. My cats are not overweight, I can't stand to see a fat cat. 

My 8 year old cat who is 10 pounds 5 ounces eats 95 calories a day to maintain her healthy weight. She is an active cat. My 6 year old cat who weighs 9 pounds 8 ounces maintains on 130 calories a day. She is not very active. My 2 year old 7 pound cat eats 180 calories a day. (I keep track of everything they eat, in a cat journal) She runs all day and night long.

I feed all grain free, fruit and vegetable free foods. But I often wonder about the calories values the pet food manufacturers give us....

I use a Salter baby scale and weigh the cats weekly.


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## Galathiel (Feb 6, 2012)

I have a 1 1/2 year old Persian that eats around 200-225 calories a day. She is very lean and very active. I know the calorie count (by can) of everything I feed and I try to never feed less than 200 calories a day ... for her. Because she was funny at first about textures (not loving pate), I mix two or three foods together and have it divided up into 4 days worth of feedings.

Calories are important to know because if I were feeding her some of the lower cal stuff (Weruva, Natural Balance Platefuls etc) she couldn't eat enough to maintain her weight (she is a slow eater and couldn't eat the amount necessary to get her minimum necessary calories in unless the food is more calorie rich).


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## cinderflower (Apr 22, 2012)

yes  it's pretty similar to humans, except it's harder to come up with how many they use. average is based on an active cat (or an average cat--i don't know where they get it) at 30 cal. per lb. 

i've seen people say their cats eat only about 100 calories a day, and others probably use more than the 30.

you can get calorie counts for almost every food online, and if you don't know about one, email the company and they'll tell you.

the best indicator is probably how much or little you can feed them without them gaining weight or being starving constantly.


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## scottd (Jun 28, 2011)

Tina is 14lbs and she gets about 225 calories per day. That's about 16 calories per pound. I let her eat as much as she wants but she always eats close to this amount.


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## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

Geez. I've never paid attention to the calories before. Then again, I don't pay much attention to them when I eat either. I check carbs, fat, and saturated fat. 

I'm not surprised Weruva comes in so low. I like that it looks like something that might be edible by a human, but it also has a lot more liquid than in many other canned foods. Margaux likes it after it's been smushed in a processor, but I've tried 3 different flavors and Celia won't touch it.

I'm looking at the fat content too, and again there is a huge variation. So I'll have to work out the calories/protein/fat thing. 

Lakotawolf, thanks so much for the links! They'll be really helpful to me. 

It's true that ultimately, you really don't know how much your kitty is consuming. Plus, since mine lick all of the liquid off first and stop eating when the texture gets too dry, they're most definitely not getting anywhere near what the numbers are.


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## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

Ak! I had a whole reply ready, and apparently I was timed out and it's gone. So for right now just a quick thanks to Auntie Crazy for the info!


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