All Wet Diet...2 Meals?

[MissMolly08]

I have a few weeks worth of dry food left and then I am trying to make the jump to 100% wet. I am wondering how many feedings people do with wet only though and how they are spaced out?
I've read some things that say cats shouldn't go more than 12 hours without eating which means I'd either have to make sure the feedings are perfectly spaced to 12 hours or do more than 2 which I don't think would be possible.
Right now, I feed 3 meals... wet food around 9am and 5pm and then dry before I go to bed around 10pm. I was hoping with the switch to wet to just keep something like 9am and 5/6pm and not do the 10pm dry... Would that be ok? I feel like 6pm to 9am is a long time without food.
I don't like the idea of putting wet down before I go to bed like I do with dry because then I have no way of knowing how much she ate and when. I don't want to put it down at 10pm and her possibly not eat it all and then be munching on 6 hour old wet food later in the night...
How much truth is there to the 12 hours without food rule? Does it really matter as long as they get the right amount of calories in a day?

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I feed my cats wet only and usually feed 3 times per day. 8 am. ish, 2 - 3 p.m., and 10 p.m. ish. Some days I'm not home during the daytime, so they only get 2 meals per day. When I do get home I may give them a few freeze dried raw treats to tide them over, but depending on the time, I may not do that. Cats can go more than 12 hours without eating, but should never go more than 36 hours without possible health hazards. I don't think you need to worry about that since you can feed at least every 12 hours.

Many people only feed twice a day.

 

[MeganLLB]

One of my cats eats only once a day, but she gets both dry and wet. My other cat who I'm trying to do all wet I am feeding twice a day. That's all I can do since both cats and the dog all need to be separated when anyone eats. Otherwise they try to eat each other's food.

I think it's fine. I leave the wet food out for a long time and if they don't eat it I just pick it up in the morning.

 

[tuffsmom]

My Tuff gets 3 Oz wet 6:30am and 3 Oz 3:30pm. Then 1 tsp dry snack at 8pm.

 

[bonepicker]

My cats eat wet only 2.25 oz at 8 am and same at 4 pm and freeze dried chicken as a bedtime snack! They are 7 and 9 in good health

 

[LTS3]

Canned food is ok if left out all day. It's a cooked product so it won't go bad. It may get dry but most cats are ok with that. You can use a programmable timed feeder to keep canned food moist (can freee canned food into portion sizes and plop the frozen cubes into the feeder to slowly thaw) and to have meals available at set times, say a lunch meal on days when you are out of the house at work.

 

[lisahe]

We feed a 10 p.m. bedtime snack to our cats and that works really well. I often put some sort of freeze-dried treat on it so they eat it all right away but if they don't, the food's always gone by morning. They always finish the food if it's homemade cooked and usually finish their canned foods.

And, as LTS3 says, some cats don't mind if canned food dries out a little: one of ours even seems to like that!

 

[lokhismom]

I feed only wet. So my 2 eat about 3-4 oz of wet before I leave for work at 5:30am. When I return at about 4pm they get another 3-4oz. Sometimes I'll leave another 3oz in the dish for one of my cats who has a bigger appetite than my other so don't feel you can't leave wet food out all day or night. On my days off my cat with the bigger appetite will look for food in the earlyafternoon so I try and leave him a bit more when I go to work. He's not over weight so I'm ok with it.

I also feed freeze dry treats or a spoon of dry as a snack at night before I head to bed. If they cry at night before I got to bed then I will also open another can for them but most days they are good with 6-7 oz a day with a snack.

 

[orange&white]

My cats eat when I get up, which can vary by 3 hours (4-7am). They eat when I get home (5:30-7pm), and they eat before bed (9-10pm). I'm sure they would adjust just fine if I switched them to twice a day, but I like breaking up their meals into smaller servings.

 

[riley1]

I feed raw only which I consider wet. 8 am 12pm 5pm 9 pm 1 oz approximately per feeding. My little girl was starved so she would eat all the time. If I give her more than 4 oz per day she gains weight. Getting a Petmate auto feeder really helps.

 

[lalagimp]

Stewart gets raw meals by 1 oz portions throughout the day at 6am 9:30am 12n 5pm and 9:30pm.
My girls have a small amount of low carb high protein high calorie food out during the day but they have a 5.5 oz can that I just keep putting out 1/5 of every few hours.
We leave our wet foods out up to 12 hours.

 

[himawari]

Not too sure about the 12hour rule cause I heard that it should be no more than 8 hours. I reach for 3 meals a day but there are times when my cat gets two since I can't be home in the middle of the afternoon. I try not to leave wet food out because I feel weird doing that... like it'll harden and stuff. Im gonna try to reach for 4 meals a day since I hear that's closer to a lion's feeding (it's better to have smaller amounts but numerous times during the day). Honestly as long as you have the right amount of calories and your cat eats, the quantity shouldn't be a big deal imo.

 

[MissMolly08]

Thank you everyone. It makes me feel better to see that others only feed twice a day and meals aren't always evenly spaced.

 

[riley1]

Not too sure about the 12hour rule cause I heard that it should be no more than 8 hours. I reach for 3 meals a day but there are times when my cat gets two since I can't be home in the middle of the afternoon. I try not to leave wet food out because I feel weird doing that... like it'll harden and stuff. Im gonna try to reach for 4 meals a day since I hear that's closer to a lion's feeding (it's better to have smaller amounts but numerous times during the day). Honestly as long as you have the right amount of calories and your cat eats, the quantity shouldn't be a big deal imo.

You would love the Petmate Auto Feeder! You can put ice packs underneath if you feel that is needed but I never have. Wet food can be left out for 12 hours unless you live in the topics and don't have air. I use this feeder almost every day. I read that a feral cat would eat about 8 mice per day whenever they could catch them. This would be too much trouble and a mouse is about 5/8 of an oz which would be too much food for my girl.

 

[himawari]

I've never tried feeding my cat mice. Tbh I feel like he's too posh for that lol and also I feel icky about rodents. I tried to google that but all it came up was the cooler-version of a feeder...do you mind linking me to it? And will it work for raw food? Cause I know this ice bowl that works great for raw... don't have it yet cause it's a bit expensive but I've heard good things about it

 

[riley1]

I've never tried feeding my cat mice. Tbh I feel like he's too posh for that lol and also I feel icky about rodents. I tried to google that but all it came up was the cooler-version of a feeder...do you mind linking me to it? And will it work for raw food? Cause I know this ice bowl that works great for raw... don't have it yet cause it's a bit expensive but I've heard good things about it

Sorry, it is a Petsafe feeder, not petmate. I would check prices but right now it is on sale at PetSmart. No I didn't mean to feed them mice but you could. Look up food for birds of prey and you can buy mice! Yuk!
PetSafe® Eatwell 5 Meal Automatic Pet Feeder | cat Automatic Feeders | PetSmart $35.00

 

[himawari]

R riley1 thanks! I'll definitely check it out