Empty Stomach Vomiting

[rosegold]

I’ve been trying to put my cats on more of a mealtime schedule rather than free-feeding, for weight maintenance as well as hoping to eventually transition them to raw food. However, Chilli is notorious for vomiting acid/bile if she doesn’t eat for more than a few hours. This seems to be true whether she eats a large meal beforehand or a small one.

Is this something that can improve with time as their body gets used to the scheduled mealtimes? Or is it something I have to try to work around?

If she can’t adjust to this, it’ll make feeding raw remarkably hard, especially since Clove is much more of a little piggy and would probably eat any of Chilli’s leftover food even if I put an ice pack or something. Some days I work for 9-10 hours, so unfortunately I can’t just feed more meals.

On a side note, this happened yesterday and I’ve become concerned that she aspirated the stomach juices. She coughed/snorted violently after vomiting and was acting very lethargic last night. I was really worried and almost took her to the vet this morning, but she seems to be better today, so holding off for now. Hopefully it’s not going to develop into aspiration pneumonia or something. :/

 

[LTS3]

How about a microchip feeder with canned food? It's fine to feed canned food even if you feed raw. Your cat would be able to eat whenever she wants.

 

[rosegold]

How about a microchip feeder with canned food? It's fine to feed canned food even if you feed raw. Your cat would be able to eat whenever she wants.

Yeah I’ve thought about that! Or perhaps cooked homemade food with an ice pack so it’s less sketchy to leave out for longer. The few I’ve looked at are super expensive, though.

 

[Lari]

Expensive, but worth it! Granted, I got my surefeed as a birthday present a couple years ago, but with my grazer and my husband's food vacuum, I've had so much peace of mind knowing only Lelia can get to her food.

 

[MissClouseau]

With the microchip feeder, you can also put a cam for the room they eat to later check and make sure they all had enough food.