Cats Won't Eat Breakfast/first Feeding

[bpenniman]

My cats have gotten overweight so 3 days ago, I quit free feeding them. They eat the 6 PM meal well the most part. It's just mornings they barely eat. Neither does my dog! I switched her to 2 meals a day too. I give them 45 min, each in separate rooms to eat. 6 PM they eat most everything. 6 am barely anything. I've tried putting canned food and cat flavor enhancers. Nothing works. Not sure what I need to do. Any thoughts?

 

[danteshuman]

12 hours later they should be hungry. So what are they eating during the night? Do they go outside or is someone else feeding them scraps?

Perhaps a feeder that only opens for your pet’s collar might be the answer? My boy sometimes takes 4 hours to finish a can of wet food. I started giving him 1/2 a can at a time so he would finish. (He eats 2, 3oz cans plus 1/4 cup of dry food per day. He is also a smaller framed sized kitten. I let him eat more if he wants.)

* I free fed my last cats dry food with a wet food dinner. They only got slightly over weight with age. So I greatly reduced their treats from 2-4 a day to 2-4 a week. Both cats lost a pound in a year and then stopped losing weight. I could have put them on a stricter diet but in the end I was OK with happy slightly pudgy cats. So I let them be.

 

[bpenniman]

They eat their 6 PM meal great for the most part. It's just 6 am they dont. And my cats are indoor cats so they don't go outside at all.

 

[Danglos]

Try giving them boiled chicken for breakfast.

 

[danteshuman]

What happens if you try feeding them their breakfast later? Can you try feeding them at 10am? Honestly 3 meals a day would be better for cats. Cats are nibblers.

 

[bpenniman]

I was feeding them at 5:30 am then 6 and now 6:30. I'll try 8 am tomorrow and see if that works. I usually don't eat breakfast either. Maybe they're like humans? Not hungry in the morning idk.

 

[KarenKat]

We recently switched Gohan from free feeding to mealtimes with a little kibble in between. He’s almost never hungry for his breakfast. My BF works from home so he feeds Gohan a little later if he doesn’t eat at 7 pm and he tends to eat some or all then, maybe 11 am. Evening meal is at 6:30 pm and he generally eats enthusiastically then.

 

[jen]

Cats tend to graze on dry throughout the day. If you switch to canned you can do more controlled mealtimes and your cats will be healthier and thinner too. For the record I used to have a dog that ate every other day only. Sometimes they set their own schedules.

 

[Danglos]

For us it's three feeds approximately 7:30am, 5:30pm and 10pm

 

[maggie101]

Have you tried playing with them when you get up doesn't have to be long. Any kind of social contact before eating. Some animals and people are slow getting up. Like giving them a warm up