# how much should my 7 month old be eating?



## sickmiller (Oct 31, 2003)

Hello,

I have a seven month old male cat (picture here: http://drop.adamanddanielle.com/colonel7months.jpg). He developed a tiny bit of a belly and i want to make sure that he doesn't start out his life overweight. I have been feeding him one cup a day, half a cup at 8am and another half cup at 6pm. The thing is, he eats his entire portion within 15 minutes of giving it to him. Is this okay? If i let him graze freely from a bowl, he will eat about 1 2/3 cup per day. He still has plenty of energy (too much!) and a great coat, so he certainly seems to be getting the necessary nutrients.

I am feeding him a general-purpose, medium-priced cat food. I am a Peace Corps volunteer living in a not-so-developed-or-pet-friendly-country so the usual premium or kitten foods aren't available here.


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

He's a beautiful cat!! No doubt he's well-cared for. At seven months, he's still going to grow some more. I don't think you need be too concerned about weight, yet. If you have the capability to weight him on a weekly basis, you can track how fast he's gaining. Judge whether or not he's an appropriate weight by the shape of his body using these criteria:

http://www.iams.com/en_US/jhtmls/nutrit ... =PN&qi=374

If he's gaining too fast or his shape is on the wrong side of ideal, then just adjust the amount of food accordingly. If there's a bit of extra fat down around the navel, that's called a "fat sack" or "fat pad" and is just something that some cats get, and isn't necessarily a sign they're obese.


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## Padunk (Oct 20, 2003)

At seven months, I'd let him eat about as much as he wants. (As long as you don't go overboard, of course.)

Is he neutered yet? Neutered cats will grow slower so you can start cutting back on the amount of food you feed. 1 cup a day is probably good for now, I'd possibly try to scale back to 3/4 cups a day in a few months. (Try to feed three 1/3 portions a day if possible.) But it all depends on the size of your cat, too.


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## sickmiller (Oct 31, 2003)

Padunk said:


> At seven months, I'd let him eat about as much as he wants. (As long as you don't go overboard, of course.)
> 
> Is he neutered yet? Neutered cats will grow slower so you can start cutting back on the amount of food you feed. 1 cup a day is probably good for now, I'd possibly try to scale back to 3/4 cups a day in a few months. (Try to feed three 1/3 portions a day if possible.) But it all depends on the size of your cat, too.


thank you for your reply. he was neutered quite young, at about 4 1/2 months. i'll do 1/3 cup portions thrice a day for a while and then scale back perhaps at 9 months.

it's also good to hear that little fat-sack is somewhat normal. he seems lean everywhere else, just has that little bit of a belly or fat sack.


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## Superkitties (Jan 30, 2004)

Ditto the above replies. The portion seems good. Still a teen at 7 mths, and growing still.

I always felt so bad that the kitties didn't seem to get enough food, but they were still getting fat. So I started them on a combo canned/dry a while back. I could feed them more, and still maintain their weight. It's working nicely 3 yrs down the line now.

Awww, little fat pouch. That's normal for S/N cats, and doesn't necessarily mean kitty is overweight. Here's an older thread with good info. 'Cow udder'? I included other links in that reply, and one also replied on their diet.


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## sickmiller (Oct 31, 2003)

Superkitties said:


> Ditto the above replies. The portion seems good. Still a teen at 7 mths, and growing still.
> 
> I always felt so bad that the kitties didn't seem to get enough food, but they were still getting fat. So I started them on a combo canned/dry a while back. I could feed them more, and still maintain their weight. It's working nicely 3 yrs down the line now.
> 
> Awww, little fat pouch. That's normal for S/N cats, and doesn't necessarily mean kitty is overweight. Here's an older thread with good info. 'Cow udder'? I included other links in that reply, and one also replied on their diet.


Great, thanks for the link. I'll have to look more into a canned/dry combination, or maybe a dry/homemade combination? I'm thinking the latter since even standard friskies cat food is very expensive here.


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