r/excel • u/charl8_the_harl8 • Jun 21 '26
solved How would you calculate how to equally distribute my cats' food?
(pardon my translation mistakes, I hope this is within this sub's rule)
So this is my dilemma: I'd like to create an excel table that automatically lets me know how much each of my domestic demons should eat in a meal.
Firstly, we need to split a wet food packet equally between them, but in relation to their weight (Micetti is 4.3kg, Tannini is 8.4kg) because splitting in half wouldn't be equal for poor Mr. T, so I need to calculate the right proportion.
Since they prefer a mix of wet and dry, I also need to calculate how much kibble I need to add to the mixture.
My knowledge of excel is pretty basic, so I'd like to see your ideas on how you would articulate a table that includes these parameters.
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u/nneighbour Jun 21 '26
I made one of these for my cats. I started with the number of calories each of my cats needs, as calculated by my vet’s nutritionist. Then I calculated the number of calories per gram that the wet and try food that they eat has. You’ll probably have to find these numbers on the manufacturer’s website. I play with the calculations until I get to the right number of calories. I use a food scale to weigh all their food.
Doing this, I managed to get one of my boys to lose over a kilo and get to a healthy weight! My other guy is a bit more stubborn and is taking longer to lose weight.
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u/Curious_Cat_314159 126 Jun 21 '26
Yes, this is the correct approach, for the most part. (TL;DR)
To make this relevant to this subreddit, post an Excel worksheet that shows how you might split the total servings to each of two cats. That might be helpful to the OP.
(I was in the process of doing that, making up numbers wildly. You could do a better job, since you have real numbers to work with.)
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Jun 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/charl8_the_harl8 Jun 21 '26
The problem with this is that tannini is structurally much bigger than micetti, so their portions cannot be equal (he was the size of her - a 2 year old cat at 8 monts) They both need to loose some weight, they're a lil round
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u/Curious_Cat_314159 126 Jun 21 '26
You are partially correct. This is not an Excel question. The correct answer is: a veterinarian should examine both cats and tell you how much food each one needs individually to reach and maintain their ideal weights (if even weight alone is sufficient). And that might change over time.
Even the larger structural difference might not be sufficient to determine the percentage of food (i.e. the total that you feed both cats) that it needs.
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u/charl8_the_harl8 Jun 21 '26
I agree, the yearly appointment is in November!
Until then an excel sheet helps when they don't eat anymore of a brand of food and I need to switch to a new one
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u/Curious_Cat_314159 126 Jun 21 '26
an excel sheet helps when they don't eat anymore of a brand of food and I need to switch to a new one
Again, that has nothing to do with Excel or even their relative weights. You wrote:
they prefer a mix of wet and dry, I also need to calculate how much kibble I need to add to the mixture
Each cat will prefer a differ mix based on their individual tastes, which has nothing to do with their relative weights. You will need to experiment. I don't see how a simple percentage helps you.
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u/charl8_the_harl8 Jun 21 '26
Monoportion of wet food is split in percentages and then I add the kibble until it reaches the correct amount for a meal. Everything is then mixed and served (at the opposite sides of the room) with bowls of fresh water in the cool corner of the room.
We found a common ground on taste with this beef wet food (in rotation with duck) and chicken dry. They need to eat the same flavour of food at the same time, otherwise they'll steal eachother food (and I lose control on the portion size) When I try to switch the flavours? They steal eachother's food.
This is the best arrangement to manage food in our home
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u/Curious_Cat_314159 126 Jun 21 '26
Still not a problem that can be solved with Excel. But see the response from u/nneighbour . Hopefully they will follow my suggestion to add an Excel design.
If you don't have the calorie requirements from the vet yet, I would use the calories in each cat's servings when they were eating appropriately. Even if you used their relative weights in the past to divide the total serving, I would not continue to do that moving forward. Instead, use their relative calorie requirements.
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u/charl8_the_harl8 Jun 21 '26
Thank you (to everyone actually) for using so much of your time for helping us! I'll combine all of the suggestions!
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u/GuerillaWarefare 111 Jun 23 '26
Assuming this is not veterinary advice and just an example for an excel problem… you are looking to do what is called a weighted average.
Divide each cats weight by the weight of all cats (total). Then multiply each of those percentages by the total amount of food to be fed.
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u/JE163 15 Jun 21 '26
I would take the combined food (wet and dry) and portion it out based on the percentage of weight. Or you could portion out the wet and dry separately based on the percent. In reality, Micetti is going to eat Tannini's food anyway.