Recommended Feeding Schedule For Now Adult Cat

Frank123

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My cat had just become an adult cat last week (one year old).
Her feeding schedule for the most part has been a 3oz can in the morning around 6AM and another 3oz can when I get home from work around 7PM. The food has been Fancy Feast kitten food because that's what she likes and I don't want to take chances on wasting money ordering food she won't like as has been the case many times.
I've also left her a bowl full of dry food (Natural Balance Original Ultra Kitten food) to nibble on in case she gets hungry. Also as a growing kitten I wanted to make sure she got enough food in her.
Now that she's an adult should I still continue to have dry food available for her throughout the day? I understand that dry food and free feeding is controversial, but I'm concerned about her going as much as 13 (or more) hours between feedings of wet food. Also sometimes she'll have or finicky moments with the food I give her in the morning and having dry food available will give her something to fall back on.
 

amethyst

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I would stick with giving wet food as meals and have dry food out, but probably limit it to maybe just a half a cup out, and switch to an adult food. Keep an eye on her weight and adjust the food accordingly.

Also just because the cat is one does not mean she is done growing, most are done around 12-18 months, but depending on her breed, some aren't done until they are a few years old.
 

abyeb

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laura mae

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You could consider another canned food meal before bed. I must do that for my always wirey, kinda squirrely cat so that I can sleep through the night. The others are okay with the 2 times a day canned food. When I give the canned food to Simone, I put a small amount of kibble that 2 can eat in about a minute and then give Booberry a couple of pieces of freeze dried chicken. By the time they are done with their snack, so is Simone.
 
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Frank123

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You could consider another canned food meal before bed. I must do that for my always wirey, kinda squirrely cat so that I can sleep through the night. The others are okay with the 2 times a day canned food. When I give the canned food to Simone, I put a small amount of kibble that 2 can eat in about a minute and then give Booberry a couple of pieces of freeze dried chicken. By the time they are done with their snack, so is Simone.
Thanks for the advice. The thing is my cat doesn't eat an entire meal in one sitting. She's more of a grazer. It may take her a couple of hours to finish her meal. By that time it's close to bedtime anyhow.
 

lisahe

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Thanks for the advice. The thing is my cat doesn't eat an entire meal in one sitting. She's more of a grazer. It may take her a couple of hours to finish her meal. By that time it's close to bedtime anyhow.
We feed our cats a bit like laura mae laura mae does, meaning with a bedtime snack of something canned and high-calorie so we can sleep through the night.

amethyst amethyst is very right that cats aren't necessarily finished growing after they turn 1: lots of cats (including ours) still have kittenish appetites long after their first birthdays, eating pretty massive amounts of food for another year or so. The great thing about getting cats away from free feeding and into a meal schedule is that (many of them, anyway) they seem to adjust fairly quickly. Our slow eater, who had always been a grazer, sped up her eating to a slow and steady pace.

I also wonder if your cat might eat her wet meals faster (and more readily, too) if she doesn't have a lot of dry food available all day. Once we got rid of the constant buffet (as we called it) of dry food shortly after we adopted our cats, they started to get used to meals of wet food and eat them more consistently. (They loved dry food and waited for it.) Of course every cat -- and every household, too -- is different but we were glad that we switched our cats to all wet meals when they were around a year old. It makes it much easier to control our big eater's weight and keep our former grazer eating her meals a bit quicker. We also find that feeding five meals a day (not realistic for everybody, I realize -- I work at home so it's easy) helps prevent overeating, begging, and food anxiety.

Anyway, just some thoughts! Good luck!
 

duckpond

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If she likes the fancy feast kitten she will most likely like the fancy feast classics, have you tried those?

I feed two wet meals a day, and leave out Dr. Elseys dry, chicken flavor for my guys to free feed. My two guys would be fine with just meals, but my girls never eat much at once, they eat little bits throughout the day. As mine are older now, 3 to 5, and at a good weight, dont need to loose, but dont want them to gain, the vet suggest that i keep doing what i am, but put the food all up right before bed. No food for 7 or 8 hours at night, then feed them again as normal in the morning.

But at her age, if she is not chubby i wouldn't really have a problem leaving food out at night either. :)

Feed high protein, moderate fat, and low carb as possible. I like the cat food data base to check out food before i buy

CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat
 
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