# How much food should a 10 year old be eating?



## MissBoots (Apr 28, 2011)

I divide a 5.5 oz can of Natural Balance LID into 4 portions through out the day, and she never eats all of every serving... I'd guess she's taking in 2-3oz a day. Is that okay? She's 14lbs and has been slowly losing weight from 17lbs the last 6 months, via more exercise. When I feed her dry (I haven't in over 2 weeks) she would eat 1/2 cup dry Wellness indoor a day and a few bites of wet.

She went to the vet last Thursday for some tests. Pancreatitis. Diabetes. Senior panel. etc. Because she was puking every morning at the same time, 6am-ish, for a month. I think it was due to switching her food from Natural Balance to Wellness, when I started to switch her back to 50/50 her puking went to every other day, and the vet gave her anti-puking stuffs. I stopped giving it to her even though it said to do it for 5 days I only did it for 2. She really doesn't like it. She hasn't puked and it's been since saturday. She coughed up a HUGE hairball Saturday. After that she's been back to her old self only begging for crunchies. Okay that kind of got side tracked. Is 3oz of wet being consumed enough for her? She doesn't seem hungry after I feed her, only before when she starts begging for crunchies.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

3 oz of wet is all she eats for the day? No that's not enough...a 10 lb cat needs about 5.5-6 oz per day to maintain (and that depends on the cat's specific metabolism...it could be more or less). 

Are you trying to maintain her weight at 14 or get her to lose more?


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## MissBoots (Apr 28, 2011)

I'm just trying to give her anything she'll eat. We want her to lose weight, but not starve her to be skinny. Everyone tells me she'll eat until she's full, and it seems pretty right with how she acts after she's done eating her few bites. I can walk by the kitty pantry and she doesn't run over. Every time she runs over I give her more wet food. I'm not limiting her to how much she can eat. How do I get her to eat more? My vet told me she should eat 5-6oz a day for a healthy weight/weight loss.


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

Okay, let me see if I've got this right.

You had her on all Natural Balance wet, but then started switching her to Wellness dry. And you think that's what started her puking. And when you starting giving more Natural Balance again, she stopped puking as much. And now she's on 100% Natural Balance.

I think it could be that being an elderly cat, she just can't handle dry food as well any more. I don't know if all Wellness is grain free, but if it had grain in it, it could have been upsetting her stomach. And that on top of a hairball could have been blocking her up a bit.

Is there any particular reason she's on L.I.D.? If not, I might try some other flavors and she what is tastiest for her. You could also _try_ some grain-free dry and see how she does on that. (Like I said earlier though, she may be sensitive to it and throw up, but I know most cats are addicted to dry and can be enticed to eat more with it.)

My cat is also on the road to losing weight, so I know how that is. These are the things I have to do to make sure he eats enough to not lose weight too fast:

+Put the whole can on the floor.
He seems to find it 'fresher' this way and gobbles it right up.

+Heat up cold food.
Either in the microwave, or with water, it helps make cold food more tasty.

+'Refresh' the food.
I put some down in a bowl in a pile so it's easy to eat up. As soon as he looks done, I pick it up, mush it back into a pile and add fresh to the top.

+Watch your cat eat.
It may not hold true to all cats, but the ones I've had seem to eat more if I'm standing nearby while they eat.

+Add treats
Whether it's their favorite dry food, or a tasty table scrap or an actual cat treat, push them into the food to make them have to eat their way to the tastier bits.


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## MissBoots (Apr 28, 2011)

She was on Natural Balance dry and wet. I switched her to Wellness dry and wet. Wellness when switched had grain, the Wellness wet was grain free. The NB she was on before had grain. She's now on 100% Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet (which is grain free). I gave her a tablespoon of NB LID and she puked it up within a few minutes. 

I'm kind of scared to give her normal NB wet... but I'll see how she does on it.

Thanks for the tips.  I've noticed she DOES eat more when I'm next to her. I know she likes the venison. LID only has like three flavors. When I'd feed her grain free Wellness she'd gobble it up. I'm just a little weary of giving her Wellness wet. She was only puking when I was giving her dry. When I switched to a wet only diet it slowly started to stop.

Today once again was no puke! And she even followed me to the bathroom before getting on my jammies like she used to with her "Is it mimis now?" face. Mimis=beddy bye. I'll give her some Wellness grain free tomorrow all day and see if there's any puke the following day.


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

May I ask why you are weary of giving her wet food? Didn't you say she was only puking when giving her dry?


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## MissBoots (Apr 28, 2011)

MinkaMuffin said:


> May I ask why you are weary of giving her wet food? Didn't you say she was only puking when giving her dry?


I'm not weary of giving her wet food. I feed her only wet food now. How is that weary? I just don't want to give her anything with grains in it hence me switching her wet food to LID and Wellness grain free since I wanted her on an all wet diet. The last month I've been slowly decreasing her dry food and last week she got on an all wet diet. After I switched the puking started to slow down, and then stopped completely when I took her off Wellness grain free wet. What's not to understand? I gave her some wellness grain free last night to see if she'd puke, I'll be giving her that for a few more days to see if it had any influence in her getting sick. I know 100% that the dry was making her sick, but was it the only factor? I don't know. I hope it was. Test results from her labs should be back tomorrow.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

Some cats just can't eat some brands. My guy can *NOT* eat dry food. Even if it's grain free he brings it right back up. I used to have him on Natural Balance LID and after about 6 months he suddenly couldn't eat it anymore. I don't know if they changed the formula or what but he would throw it up as well.

So far I've had the best luck with the EVO 95% formulas. I lower the cost with tossing in a can of California Natural a few times a week. Recently I got a case of fussie cat for free and while it's not that great of a food and it's a seafood flavor he seems to keep it down so he gets a can of that every few weeks to stretch out his food even further.

Is the protein source in the wellness the same as in the NB LID? Meaning are both chicken or beef or turkey? PErhaps she formed an allergy to whatever flavor wellness she was eating. My guy developed an allergy to chicken so I have to carefully read labels as lots of companies like to slip chicken into other flavors or cat food(example: NB's regular Salmon flavor has chicken in it now).

Once they rule out anything medical  It will hopefully be easier on you just to shift wet foods around until you find something she's happy with.


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

MissBoots said:


> I'm not weary of giving her wet food. I feed her only wet food now. How is that weary? I just don't want to give her anything with grains in it hence me switching her wet food to LID and Wellness grain free since I wanted her on an all wet diet. The last month I've been slowly decreasing her dry food and last week she got on an all wet diet. After I switched the puking started to slow down, and then stopped completely when I took her off Wellness grain free wet. What's not to understand? I gave her some wellness grain free last night to see if she'd puke, I'll be giving her that for a few more days to see if it had any influence in her getting sick. I know 100% that the dry was making her sick, but was it the only factor? I don't know. I hope it was. Test results from her labs should be back tomorrow.


I said that because of this


> I'm just a little weary of giving her Wellness wet. She was only puking when I was giving her dry.


 It made it seem like you were afraid of All wet. You hadn't quite explained that removing her from the Wellness wet had seemed to stop her puking.

I second that she may be allergic to some ingredients.

Also, have you tried Merrick's Before Grain canned food?


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## MissBoots (Apr 28, 2011)

I've only had her 2 months so I haven't been switching her food around too much. One thing she does love and keeps down is Newman's Own Chicken Liver patte junk. Ingredients aren't bad, and it's grain free. She just inhales it! I'll be buying a few more cans of it tonight during my walmart trip. I'll give her a can of Merrick's and see how she does. Right now the canned food seems to be working, wellness and nb. Still no puke after 3 feedings in a row of Wellness wet. It must just be the dry. I even gave her the dry she used to be eating and in a matter of seconds it was back up and back into her bowl, where she insisted on eating it again (but don't worry, I took it away before that happened!). It's just weird that she was fine on that food then over night she started puking. Today so far she's eaten 2oz, being only 2pm, that's pretty good for her. She'll eat more around 4 after her nap. I've noticed she only eats around 1oz at a time... even if I offer her the whole can.


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

Cats do like to only snack a little and come back, so you might want to try my freshen up method where you give her a bit, then when she's done, mush it back into a pile and add some fresh on top and see if she eats a bit more.


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## MissBoots (Apr 28, 2011)

Thanks for the help. I went to Petco today (I actually volunteer there with the cats), and got her some Solid Gold canned food... It has very little grain in it. She ate nearly 2oz in one sitting, which isn't much like her. I got a few other brands to try to entice her to eat more. Hopefully she'll like the variety since LID doesn't have much of a variety, just four flavors.


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

I'm very happy for you both. ^^


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## MissBoots (Apr 28, 2011)

She ate the whole 3oz can.  

Now to go get some more of that brand. Haha. I guess she loved it.


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

Yayy ^^


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## MissBoots (Apr 28, 2011)

I gave her some of NB Venison LID, she ate most of it (about 1.5oz), and then I just gave her 3oz of Merrick's before the grain stuff, and she ate about 1 oz. Basically between last night and tonight, she's eaten around 6oz if I round it off.  Thanks for the suggestion with Merrick's. She seems to really like it! Maybe variety is all she really needed. Another bonus? She hasn't puked since Saturday morning (when she coughed up that huge hairball) still! Even with all the new wet food brands being fed. She's been bringing me her toy wand like she used to before she started to puke.


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## MissBoots (Apr 28, 2011)




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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

That's my cat's favourite toy too


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