Calorie requirements for cats

Just like with people, a cat's calorie needs depend on several variables.

Calories, the technical term for energy from food, are needed for vital processes like digestion, respiration, nervous and circulatory system management, and other normal bodily functions.

Along with the body's basic needs for everyday life, a cat's daily consumption is determined by their age, gender, activity level, and body state. Youthful cats, those that have not been spayed or neutered, lively cats, ill cats, and underweight cats want more calories. Old cats, spayed or neutered cats, inactive cats, and big-boned or immobile cats want fewer calories.

Feeding too little food can deprive your cat of vital energy, and eating too much can lead to obesity. To discover how much food your cat should eat per day, follow these measures. Use a calorie calculator to compute your cats Resting Energy Conditions (RER). Pick a variable based on your own cat's energy needs and multiply it by the RER. This provides you with the variety of calories your cat should eat in a day.

Discover how many calories are in your cat's food. You can locate this on the package of some foods or on line. Knowing the calories in what you're feeding, you can determine how much he or she wants.

Determine the numbers to feed. Use the calorie count for your cat's particular food to quantify correctly. Every food is somewhat different in regard to the number of calories it contains per cup. Cat food is the same manner in that some are more calorie heavy (so you should feed less) than others.