Conundrum About Feeding My Cat

[qissycat]

I’m in a bit of a conundrum about how to best feed my cat. I got her 2 weeks ago, she’s 4 months and eats a lot, so I’ve been feeding her a combination of commercial raw and canned, which she takes to quite readily (great!).

Problem is, I’d have to feed her on scheduled times. She eats 4 times a day – 7am, 1pm, 7pm and 12am. I work full time and I’ve been going home on my lunch break every weekday to feed her. I quickly realized that it’s not sustainable for me because it’s a half an hour commute each way, my work is pretty strict and sometimes I end up skipping MY lunch because I didn’t have the time to eat. It’s also very exhausting.

I’m so tempted to put out some dry food just before I go to work so she can have that instead of her usual meal at lunch time. But dry food = bad – or are there good dry foods out there? Another option is for her to skip her lunch meal but that would mean she would go 12 hours without food. Don’t think that’s good for a growing kitten.

What do I do? I’d love your opinions on this!

 

[himawari]

Is 7am around the time you leave for work or when you wake up? Because if it's the latter, then feed her right before you go to work as well. My cat is on a raw/canned combo as well, and that's what I do. I wake up about two/three hours before I go to work (depending when my shift is & how long). I feed him as soon as I wake up then right before I leave for work.

You can also invest is a timed-feeder, and put some canned food in there. Since those can be left out for a bit longer than raw.

 

[Ardina]

I've had my kitten on homemade raw since adopting her at 2 months. When my work hours got long around when she was 4 months old, I would give her a large meal around 7 am before leaving, feed her again at 6:00 pm after work, and then a third meal before bed. Occasionally, if I was up late, she might get a fourth meal too. She did perfectly fine on this schedule. I never needed to give her dry food.

If you're really worried, you could freeze some raw and leave it out for her. It'll defrost in a few hours, and she could have it as a midday meal. Alternatively, you could look into freeze dried raw and leave some down dehydrated for her to snack on.

 

[qissycat]

Thanks for the replies!

I’ve tried to feed her a large meal in the morning. She’d not finish the extra food though and because it’s raw/wet I’m very iffy about leaving it out for longer than half an hour, especially since I live in a country that’s very hot and humid all year round. I like the frosted portion of the food idea! Will test it out this weekend.

I’ve considered the dehydrated raw food, mainly the brand Primal. I think I would go for that when my financial situation is better.

Is 7am around the time you leave for work or when you wake up? Because if it's the latter, then feed her right before you go to work as well. My cat is on a raw/canned combo as well, and that's what I do. I wake up about two/three hours before I go to work (depending when my shift is & how long). I feed him as soon as I wake up then right before I leave for work.

You can also invest is a timed-feeder, and put some canned food in there. Since those can be left out for a bit longer than raw.

7 am is when I wake up, and I leave for work just before 8am. So not enough time for her to get hungry again. I’ll look into a timed feeder tho, thanks!

 

[lalagimp]

We use this even with our raw diet. You can put in thawed food at the beginning and load it with frozen cubes or partially frozen cubes. We put food in at night for 6 am. Then feed them at 9am and load the feeder for 12n, 5p, and 9:30p
Boyfriend washes it out every day before the 9 am drop.

 

[qissycat]

We use this even with our raw diet. You can put in thawed food at the beginning and load it with frozen cubes or partially frozen cubes. We put food in at night for 6 am. Then feed them at 9am and load the feeder for 12n, 5p, and 9:30p
Boyfriend washes it out every day before the 9 am drop.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm not from the US so we don't get Amazon but I found something similar from a local site, without the built-in app though.
Gempet Automatic Pet Feeder for Cats and Dogs, 5 Meal Trays for Dry and Wet Food, Auto Pet Food Dispenser Programmed with Timer and Voice Recording Function | Lazada Malaysia