How Much Should I Feed My Cat? The Complete Portion Guide

Written and reviewed by the Indoor Cat HQ team — cat owners who research, test and answer feeding questions from real households every week. This guide is educational, not veterinary advice: portion changes for overweight, underweight, kitten, senior or unwell cats should be confirmed with your vet. Last updated July 2026.

Quick answer: a typical healthy adult indoor cat needs roughly 40–45 kcal per kilogram of ideal body weight per day — about 200 kcal for a 4.5 kg (10 lb) cat. That's usually one 85 g pouch of wet food plus 25–30 g of dry, or around 55–65 g of dry food total, split across two or more meals. But the honest answer is more useful than the quick one, because the right portion depends on your cat's ideal weight (not current weight), age, activity, and the calorie density of the specific food in your cupboard — which varies more than most owners ever realise.

This guide gives you the exact method vets use to calculate portions, a feeding chart by body weight, how to convert calories into actual grams of your food, and what to do about the cat who screams that you're starving them regardless.

Table of Contents

1. Why "follow the packet" fails
2. The calorie formula vets actually use
3. Cat feeding chart by weight
4. Converting calories to real portions
5. Wet food, dry food, or both?
6. How many meals per day?
7. Feeding by life stage
8. Is my cat the right weight? Body condition scoring
9. Treats: the 10% rule
10. The always-hungry cat
11. Common feeding mistakes
12. FAQ

Why "Follow the Packet" Fails

Every bag of cat food has a feeding table on the back, and most of them share a quiet problem: the ranges are wide enough to cover both a lean barn cat and a sunbeam-dwelling indoor loafer. A guideline that says "60–90 g per day" is a 50% spread — follow the top of that range with a neutered indoor cat and you have a weight-gain plan, not a feeding plan.

There are structural reasons for this. Feeding tables are calculated for average intact, active adult cats, while the majority of pet cats are neutered (which drops energy needs by roughly 20–30%) and indoor (which drops them again). Manufacturers also have no incentive to recommend less food. The result, according to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention's surveys, is that around 60% of cats in the US are overweight or obese — and most of their owners believe they're feeding correctly, because technically they are: correctly per the packet.

The fix is to work from your cat's actual energy needs, then use the packet only for the one thing it's good for — telling you the calorie content of the food.

The Calorie Formula Vets Actually Use

Veterinary nutrition starts with Resting Energy Requirement (RER) — the calories a cat burns at rest:

RER = 70 × (body weight in kg)^0.75

Then it's multiplied by a factor for the cat's life situation. Most pet cats are neutered indoor adults at 1.0–1.2 × RER; intact adults sit around 1.4 × RER; a vet-supervised weight-loss plan uses roughly 0.8 × RER of the ideal weight; kittens under four months need about 2.5 × RER and older kittens about 2.0 × RER; healthy seniors range 1.0–1.4 × RER and some need more, not less.

For a 4.5 kg neutered indoor cat: RER = 70 × 4.5^0.75 ≈ 216 kcal, and many indoor cats maintain on slightly less. This is why the practical shorthand of 40–45 kcal per kg of ideal body weight works well for typical indoor cats — it lands in the same zone without the exponent.

Use ideal weight, not current weight. Feeding a 6.5 kg cat who should weigh 5 kg locks in the extra kilo and a half. Calculate for the cat they should be. And treat the formula as a starting point, not a verdict — individual metabolism varies by up to 20%, so set the calculated portion, weigh your cat monthly, and adjust in 10% steps.

Cat Feeding Chart by Weight

Daily maintenance calories for healthy neutered indoor adults (approximate): 3 kg / 6.6 lb → 130–145 kcal; 4 kg / 8.8 lb → 160–180 kcal; 4.5 kg / 10 lb → 180–205 kcal (the reference point); 5 kg / 11 lb → 200–225 kcal; 6 kg / 13.2 lb → 230–260 kcal; 7 kg / 15.4 lb → 260–290 kcal (only if genuinely large-framed, not overweight).

Important: if your 7 kg cat is a 5 kg cat wearing 2 kg of extra padding, feed toward the 5 kg row — gradually, and with your vet's sign-off. Rapid calorie restriction is dangerous for cats (it risks hepatic lipidosis, a serious liver condition), so weight loss should never exceed 1–2% of body weight per week.

Converting Calories to Real Portions

Now the step every guide skips: your cat doesn't eat calories, they eat grams and pouches. Find the kcal/kg or kcal per pouch/can on your food's label (sometimes listed as "ME" — metabolisable energy) and divide. Dry kibble runs 3,500–4,200 kcal/kg, so 200 kcal is only 50–57 g — roughly half a standard measuring cup. A wet 85 g pouch is 70–90 kcal; a 156 g can is 150–180 kcal.

Notice the trap: dry food is 4–5× more calorie-dense than wet. A "small handful" of kibble tossed in as a top-up can be a third of the day's calories. This is how cats gain weight on owners who swear they barely feed them — and why a digital kitchen scale is the single highest-impact feeding tool you can buy. Cups and eyeballing routinely over-pour by 20–50%; grams don't lie.

Consistency is where machines beat humans. A timed automatic feeder dispenses the same portion every time, immune to guilt and begging. For single-cat homes, a compact 3.5L feeder does the same job in a smaller footprint; for wet-food cats, a refrigerated wet food feeder keeps scheduled fresh meals safe while you're out. Our full guide to whether automatic feeders are worth it covers choosing one.

Wet Food, Dry Food, or Both?

Both formats can fully nourish a cat — "complete and balanced" on the label is the non-negotiable. Wet food is ~75–80% water, which matters because cats descend from desert ancestors with a weak thirst drive and many chronically under-drink on dry-only diets; it's also harder to overfeed and usually more protein-rich per calorie. Dry food is convenient, affordable, works in every automatic feeder, and suits slow-feeder toys — but its calorie density makes over-pouring easy.

The pragmatic answer for most indoor cats is both: wet food as the meal backbone (hydration, satiety), dry food as the measured, puzzle-fed, automated component. If your cat is dry-only, pay extra attention to water and read our guide on why cats won't drink water.

How Many Meals Per Day?

Left to themselves, cats naturally eat 10–15 small prey-sized meals a day, which tells you what to aim away from: one giant meal. The minimum is two meals a day (small stomachs; 12-hour gaps produce hangry cats and bile vomiting). Better is 3–4 smaller meals, where automatic feeders earn their keep — a lunch and a pre-dawn portion happen without you, and the pre-dawn one timed before your alarm is the single best fix for the 5am wake-up meow. Best of all for food-obsessed cats: deliver part of the ration through puzzles that slow intake and add mental work.

Free feeding works only for the rare cat who self-regulates. If your cat is overweight, it isn't working; switch to measured meals.

Feeding by Life Stage

Kittens (to 12 months): feed a kitten formula and feed generously — growth demands 2–2.5× adult energy per kilo, and 3–4 meals daily under six months. Adults (1–7 years): weigh monthly, adjust by 10%, and recalculate after neutering, when energy needs drop 20–30% while appetite often increases — the classic moment cats begin gaining. Seniors (7+, especially 11+): many older cats need more calories, not fewer, and unwanted weight loss is a stronger red flag than gain; a senior losing weight while eating normally or ravenously needs a vet visit, as hyperthyroidism, diabetes and kidney disease all present this way and are manageable when caught early.

Is My Cat the Right Weight? Body Condition Scoring

Scales tell you mass; body condition scoring (BCS) tells you whether it's the right mass for the frame. Run flat fingers along the ribs — ideal (BCS 4–5/9) means palpable under a thin fat layer, like the back of your hand; if you can't find them without pressing, that's overweight. From above, an ideal cat has a visible waist tuck behind the ribs. From the side, the belly should tuck up toward the hips (a small loose "primordial pouch" is normal anatomy, not fat). Each BCS point above 5 is roughly 10–15% excess weight, so a 6 kg cat scoring 7/9 has an ideal weight near 5 kg — the number you feed to, on a vet-supervised plan.

Treats: The 10% Rule

Treats should supply no more than 10% of daily calories — for our reference 200-kcal cat, that's 20 kcal, or about 4–6 typical treats, not the handful most of us dispense. Count treats out at the start of the day, use part of the measured dry ration as "treats," and deliver them through a treat puzzle so six treats buy fifteen minutes of enrichment. Watch the hidden extras — lick-paste tubes, a saucer of milk, the "tiny" bit of chicken. They all count.

The Always-Hungry Cat

Portions right, cat still campaigning like famine is imminent? In order of likelihood: habit and boredom (more play, foraging toys, and feeder meals that remove you from the equation fix most of it); eating too fast to register fullness (slow feeders stretch a 40-second meal into 15 minutes); low-satiety food (higher-protein, higher-moisture meals keep cats fuller); and medical causes — a genuinely ravenous cat, especially one eating hard and losing weight, or a senior whose appetite suddenly spiked, needs a vet, because hyperthyroidism, diabetes and intestinal disease all masquerade as greed.

The Seven Most Common Feeding Mistakes

1. Measuring with a cup, or not at all. Weigh in grams.
2. Feeding the current weight, not the ideal weight. This preserves excess forever.
3. Not recalculating after neutering. Needs drop ~25%; appetite doesn't.
4. Uncounted extras. Treats and toppers are often 15–25% of true intake.
5. The topped-up bowl. Portion per day, not per glance.
6. Multi-cat bowl sharing. One bowl, two cats = one fat cat and one thin one.
7. Crash-dieting an overweight cat. Dangerous — maximum 1–2% body weight loss per week, always vet-supervised.

Water: The Forgotten Half of Feeding

A cat's total daily water need is roughly 50 ml per kilogram — around 225 ml for our 4.5 kg reference cat. A wet-fed cat gets most of it built in; a dry-fed cat has to drink nearly all of it deliberately, against the feline instinct to under-drink. Keep water stations away from the food bowl, offer more than one in more than one room, use wide shallow bowls that don't bend whiskers, and consider a fountain since many cats drink more from moving water. A combined food and water station keeps both halves tidy. And weigh your cat monthly — a 5% drift in either direction is your earliest, cheapest health signal.

FAQ

How much wet food should I feed my cat per day?

For a typical 4.5 kg indoor cat needing ~200 kcal: about 2.5 standard 85 g pouches if feeding wet-only, or 1 pouch plus ~30 g of dry in a mixed diet. Check your pouch's kcal — they range 70–90.

How much dry food is right for an average cat?

Roughly 50–60 g per day for a 4.5 kg indoor cat, depending on the food's density (3,500–4,200 kcal/kg). Weigh it — half a cup can be anywhere from 40 to 60 g.

How many calories does a cat need daily?

About 40–45 kcal per kg of ideal body weight for neutered indoor adults — ~180–205 kcal for a 4.5 kg cat. Kittens need double or more per kilo; seniors vary and should be vet-guided.

Should cats eat twice a day or more often?

Two meals is the minimum; three to four smaller meals better matches feline biology. Automatic feeders make multi-meal schedules practical, including a pre-dawn portion that ends 5am wake-ups.

Is my cat overweight?

Check ribs (should feel like the back of your hand), waist from above (visible tuck), and belly from the side (tucks up, doesn't swing). If you can't feel ribs easily, ask your vet for a body condition assessment.

Why is my cat always hungry?

Usually boredom, habit, speed-eating or low-satiety food — but persistent ravenous hunger, especially with weight loss or in a senior cat, is a medical symptom. Vet first, then slow feeders and routine.

Do indoor cats need fewer calories?

Yes — indoor neutered cats sit at the bottom of feeding ranges (1.0–1.2 × RER). Packet guidelines calibrated for active cats routinely overfeed them.

How do I feed the right amounts in a multi-cat home?

Separate stations, measured portions per cat, and scheduled or selective feeders to stop the fast eater finishing the slow eater's share. Never one communal bowl.

Can I just free-feed my cat?

Only if they're demonstrably maintaining a lean body condition on it. Most indoor cats don't self-regulate; measured meals are the safer default.

How fast can an overweight cat lose weight safely?

1–2% of body weight per week, maximum, under veterinary supervision. Faster restriction risks hepatic lipidosis, a life-threatening liver condition.

Sources & Further Reading

• WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee — Body Condition Score chart and nutrition toolkit
• National Research Council (2006). Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats
• Association for Pet Obesity Prevention — pet obesity prevalence surveys
• Cornell Feline Health Center — feeding and obesity resources

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Make portions automatic. The maths only works when the same portion lands in the bowl every day. Browse cat feeders & water stations, or start with the timed portion-control dispenser.