How Many Calories Should My Maine Coon Eat?

How Many Calories Should My Maine Coon Eat?

According to a shocking study, an amazing 25.7% of cats are overweight. Even more alarming, a full 33.8% are classed as overweight.

Clearly, there are some kitties getting either too much food or not enough exercise.

It’s probably fair to assume that as the Maine Coon is a popular breed of cat that those statistics would be typical for Maine Coon owners.

This brings up an interesting point. Exactly how many calories should you feed your Maine Coon?

A female Maine Coon should be given between 240 and 450 calories per day. A male Maine Coon has a range of between 360 and 550 calories per day to maintain a healthy weight. This is approximately a couple of pouches of wet food and a small cup of dry food.

Although it’s generally recommended to feed your Maine Coon something between 240 and 500 calories per day.

This number will depend on the age, weight, sex, and activity level as well as other individual factors.

Individuals who are overweight should be fed a reduced-calorie diet for two months before increasing their caloric intake.

Factors That Affect Caloric Intake For A Maine Coon

Other than they are already underweight or overweight a few factors might affect the number of calories fed to any particular Maine Coon.

Indoor /Outdoor – The activity levels of an indoor Maine Coon and an outdoor one vary considerably. An outdoor Maine Coon can patrol areas at night for hours burning off energy.

An indoor Maine Coon will expend considerably less energy and may need less food.

General activity level – Each individual cat will have its own metabolism rates, and may just have a propensity for not being obese. Younger cats are generally more active.

Some cats like to lounge around while some like to climb and jump.

More active cats mean a higher calorie need or will remain slimmer with the same amount of food compared to others.

Size / weight – The bigger the Maine Coon then the more calories it will require to maintain its weight.

Young kittens consume a lot of calories but it all goes into growing.

Small Maine Coons will require fewer calories in general than a large one.

Gender – The male Maine Coon is larger than a female one. Proportionally so is its weight and muscle mass.

Thus a male Maine Coon will require more calories than a female one.

Calculating The Calories For A Maine Coon Diet

The first thing to do is take the weight of your Maine Coon.

Female Maine Coons are slightly smaller than male Maine Coons.

The normal weight range for a female Maine Coon is between 8 to 15lbs.

The normal weight range for a male Maine Coon is between 12 to 18lbs.

The weight of your cat is important because leading veterinarians recommend around 30 calories per pound per day.

That isn’t a strict limit but a good figure to try and base calculations of.

Thus, regardless of whether your Maine Coon is male or female the recommended calorie intake is

8lb – 240 calories

9lb – 270 calories

10lb – 300 calories

11lb – 330 calories

12lb- 360 calories

13lb – 390 calories

14lb – 420 calories

15lb – 450 calories

16lb – 480 calories

17lb – 520 calories

18lb – 550 calories

So if you have a Maine Coon that is 13lbs in weight then around 400 calories a day would be a good daily intake of food.

The average weight of a female Maine Coon is around 10lbs so she would require around 300 calories per day.

The average weight of a male Maine Coon is around 15lbs so he would require 450 calories a day.

Obviously, this is a guide as if you are feeding your Maine Coon 450 calories a day and he is slowly putting on weight then you can reduce the intake.

How Much Should A 20 Pound Maine Coon Eat?

A 20 pounds Maine Coon cat is a big animal so it’s no surprise that they might need a good amount of food to keep healthy.

With 30 calories of food per pound in weight that would mean that a 20 pound Maine Coon would need around 600 calories per day.

What Are The Typical Calories Of Common Cat Foods

So if you know the calorie intake for the size of your Maine Coon then it’s helpful to have an idea of what that means in terms of common cat foods.

It’s OK knowing that your Maine Coon needs 340 calories per day, but what does that mean in practice.

Is that 2 pouches of wet food, a cup of dry food, and a chicken breast. Or is that too much?

Or too little?

Here’s a handy little guide

• wet food is between 120 and 190 calories
• dry food per cup (0.2 liters) is 350 to 500 calories
• 5.5oz Walmart cat food is between 160 to 180 calories
• 100 grams of chicken breast is 165 calories

A few additional points are worth remembering.

Firstly, obviously, you can’t help them if they go out and get additional food when trying to control their calorie intake. A Maine Coon is perfectly capable of finding another food source to consume.

Thus you might be feeding your cat 360 calories, but they get an additional few hundred calories by being sneaky around other houses in the area.

Secondly, calories are just a measurement of energy, so are not the only thing to consider.

Making sure your Maine Coon eats a healthy balanced diet is just as important as the calorie intake when assessing what to feed them

Think of it like this, you could get your calorie intake from purely eating Mcdonald’s. But is that good for you?

Finally, foods with chicken and animal protein are more likely to be higher in calories than fish based foods. Tuna and rice dry food will typically have fewer calories than chicken and duck foods.

Here’s a good link that takes all the common cat foods and provides the required calorie and nutritional information for comparison.

Conclusion

Sufficient calories are only one part of keeping a healthy Maine Coon.

It’s important to regularly monitor the balance of food, and consult your vet if you are unsure.

The calories needed to keep a Maine Coon healthy are only half the battle. The other half being a nutritious and balanced diet.

It’s a privilege being the owner of a Maine Coon and it’s a duty to ensure that they are cared for and loved properly.

With around 240 to 350 calories per day for a female Maine Coon and around 360 to 550 per day for a male Maine Coon of balanced nutritious food then you will most likely have a healthy and fit animal.

I hope this post has helped you understand how many calories your Maine Coon needs in order to stay healthy.