Raw Cat Food Portions in Grams per Day

How Much Raw Food Should You Feed a Cat?

An adult cat eats 2 to 4 percent of its ideal body weight in raw food per day: a 10 lb (4.5 kg) cat gets 90-180 g daily. Start at 3 percent — about 135 g for that 10 lb cat — and adjust by body condition every two weeks, exactly as the overall cat portion guide prescribes for any food format.

Split the daily grams into 2-3 meals; one portion for a 10 lb cat at 3 percent is about 45-70 g. The percentage itself flexes with the cat: 2 percent for inactive, weight-prone indoor cats, 3 percent for typical neutered adults, 4 percent for active, intact or hard-keeping cats. Kittens run on a different scale entirely — 5 to 10 percent of current weight, or free growth feeding, because they are building a body rather than maintaining one.

Grams per Day by Cat Weight (2%, 3%, 4% Table)

Raw cat food is portioned in grams on a kitchen scale, not in cups — density varies too much between grinds and mixes for volume scoops to mean anything, and the scale is required equipment, the same rule the raw feeding chart applies to dogs.

Cross-check the grams with calories. Raw mixes run about 1.2-2 kcal per gram depending on fat content, so a 260 kcal cat needs roughly 130-180 g. If the percentage rule and the calorie check disagree sharply, the mix is unusually rich or unusually lean — trust the kcal figure and your cat's body condition over the percentage.

What Goes in the Portion: Prey-Model Ratios for Cats

A feline prey-model ration is approximately 80 percent muscle meat, 8 percent edible bone and 10 percent organ, with half the organ share as liver — formally 80-84 percent muscle, 6-10 percent bone, 10 percent organ. Cats use slightly less bone than the canine BARF 10-15 percent, and the raw feeding groundwork guide covers how the two species' templates diverge; BARF meal planning translates the ratios into weekly menus.

Cats are obligate carnivores, so there is no fruit or vegetable ballast in a feline ration. Taurine-rich muscle meat such as heart is essential, not optional: taurine deficiency causes dilated cardiomyopathy and retinal degeneration in cats, which is why heart features in every well-built feline raw plan.

Raw food's roughly 70 percent moisture matches feline low-thirst-drive biology the same way wet food does — the hydration arrives in the bowl.

Freeze-Dried Raw and Mixed Raw Feeding

Freeze-dried raw is concentrated food with the water removed, so the fresh-weight 2-4 percent rule does not apply. Feed freeze-dried by the brand's kcal statement, and rehydrate per the label before serving — a cat eating freeze-dried at fresh-food percentages is being massively overfed.

Mixing raw with canned or kibble follows the single-budget rule: subtract the raw meal's calories from the daily target and feed the remainder as the other format, measured. One budget, two formats, zero double-feeding.

Safety basics stay brief and non-negotiable: source human-grade meat, freeze it to manage parasites, run strict hygiene on surfaces and bowls, and never feed cooked bone — cooked bone splinters where raw edible bone does not.

Adjusting the Raw Ration Over Time

Re-weigh every two weeks and steer by body condition. Padded ribs and a vanishing waist mean drop toward the 2 percent column; sharp ribs and visible spine mean climb toward 4 percent. The percentage is a dial, not a setting.

For an overweight cat, reduce the percentage gradually — sudden intake drops risk hepatic lipidosis, the feline liver condition that turns an aggressive diet into an emergency. Slow steps down the columns, verified by the scale, are the only safe route.

Calculate your cat's raw grams per day with the raw ration calculator — it outputs daily grams and per-meal splits for your cat's weight, condition and goal, and re-runs the numbers each time the weight changes.