Best times to feed a cat?

[thefishyone]

Ever since I first got her as a kitten, I’ve fed Terra the Cat twice a day, but have been thinking of transitioning her to 3 means a day, as she can get rather surly about an hour before her PM meal at 5.

My question for you is when should I be feeding Terra her lucj and dinner? She seems good with an 8 o’clock breakfast, but how long should I space her meals out. I’ve heard that an optimal time for dinner is right before bedtime, is this true?

Terra’s an older cat and pretty set in her ways, but I think that this change is long overdue and I’d imagine she does as well.

 

[maggie101]

A wild cat hunts in the morning,snacks in day hunts in evening and I use food timers for canned food when I'm in bed.

For me,8-9 am 4-5pm 9-10 pm 6am they get half their morning meal

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I feed mine at 8 am, 2:30 - 3 p.m and 10:30 p.m. all (ish). Since you are currently feeding at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., I would keep the 8 a.m. feeding and if possible, back up the 5 p.m. feeding by an hour or so to start, and cut down on that feeding by half, giving the other half at bedtime (10 or 11?) Then in the morning you might be able to cut back on the amount a little bit and add some of that food to the afternoon and late night feedings. The point here is, you want to continue feeding the same amount, only start spreading it out over three meals, but since she is used to eating bigger meals, you will need to reduce them slowly or she will be hungry between meals for a short while and wonder what is going on

 

[thefishyone]

Thanks for the advice guys! I decided to split Terra’s 2/3 of a cup of food a day across 4 mealimes: Half her breakfast at 6 AM and the other hslf at 8 AM. Then, lunch at 4 PM (will move it back to 3 next week) and dinner at 9.

The transition wasn’t an issue as I have Terra trained to associate a particular ringtone on my phone with mealime. Since there is now much less time between feedings, she took to it very quickly.

As I often tell Terra (as if she can understand me), hungry kitties is the stavinest marvins. Thank you for your help in ensuring that the starvinest marvin in my house isn’t quite as starvin’ anymore.