Feeding Schedule

[mrw5641]

Just curious to how you all feed your cats throughout the day?

E.g. how many meals per day and how long between meals?

 

[KarenKat]

Gohan had been free-fed kibble his whole life and he’s pretty skinny. He must have one of those constitutions.

Olive got super fat on free-fed kibble so we started feeding her 70kcal wet food meals at around 6:30 am, 6:30pm and 11:30 pm. Weekends we do sleep in and feed her breakfast a little late.

Of course now Olive has discovered that there is kibble in the house and has gained a bunch of weight, so we have been picking up the kibble during the day and reduced her meals to 50 kcal.

 

[LTS3]

I feed raw so meal times have to be scheduled. The cats get breakfast and dinner., roughly 12 hours apart. Leroy either gets a snack 2.5 hours after dinner and a bedtime snack 5.5 hours after dinner or the two snacks combined into one bedtime snack. Emma gets a bedtime snack.

 

[mizzely]

Morning and evening I feed wet, with a small dry food snack before bedtime.

Jasmine had to have 4 meals a day so she would get 1/4 can 4 times a day to help with her vomiting issues

 

[maggie101]

When I get up,evening, and night. Freeze dried chicken treat at night. First meal add some of The Missing Link, next 2 meals egg powder. My at Maggie goes back for seconds, which makes it convenient because morning Peaches is fed half her meal, very small amount, then the other half later

 

[Noirele]

Merlin eats 5 tiny meals a day (around 7.30 am, 1pm, 4.30 pm, 8 pm and midnight). I know, he's spoiled, but it's the best way for his delicate intestine.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Two wet meals (raw and canned) a day, about 12 hours apart. A midnight snack of dry food (1/8tbsp per cat) before husband comes to bed.
Dexter, our kitten, still gets either some dry food throughout the day or an extra can of wet around noon if we are off/home.

 

[Kal_shadowsmom]

Shadow gets small meals spread through the day. Usually 5am, 10-11am, 2pm, 5 pm and 8pm. She gets wet food at all these feeding times, but at 8pm she also gets dry food to supplement through the night.

She's a grazer, so I had to start feeding her this way or her wet food would all go to waste for not eating it all before it spoiled.

For some reason, if she's fed dry food any time other than overnight, she will eat it and promptly throw it up all over the living room. (My dad was lazy one day while I was at work and gave her dry food instead of wet for these results)

 

[maggie101]

Shadow gets small meals spread through the day. Usually 5am, 10-11am, 2pm, 5 pm and 8pm. She gets wet food at all these feeding times, but at 8pm she also gets dry food to supplement through the night.

She's a grazer, so I had to start feeding her this way or her wet food would all go to waste for not eating it all before it spoiled.

For some reason, if she's fed dry food any time other than overnight, she will eat it and promptly throw it up all over the living room. (My dad was lazy one day while I was at work and gave her dry food instead of wet for these results)

I remember reading somewhere that cats do not digest their food til late so she is fed also fed many times a day small amount slowly increasing

 

[daftcat75]

When I was getting Krista through her pancreatitis, we were on a feeding schedule. When she discovered Rad Cat, I had to tighten up that schedule due to the extra time it takes to thaw and portion a tub as well as the extra thaw and plating time. And the cost. Before her most recent health issues, her feeding schedule was usually first breakfast at 4am, second breakfast at 8am, first dinner at 7 or 8 pm and second dinner around midnight. Sometimes she’d get what I called, “tweener” meals (between-meals meals) which would be anything from a snack to a full meal. Because she has weight still to gain from IBD/pancreatitis, as long as she was cleaning her plate, I would always give in to that 4am meal.

Her recent health struggles landed her in the hospital for 10 days and she’s no longer eating on a schedule. I serve her buffet style now. I put out two or three plates of canned food (won’t do this with raw) and change them out every few hours. She’s doing well this way and I don’t have to wake up at 4am to prep a meal. She now has a 2am buffet run where she wakes from a dead sleep and goes plate to plate to plate to litterbox, then a groom and back to sleep. She also has another meal run between 2am and 7am that I am thankfully no longer being woken for.

 

[Frank123]

When I wake up in the morning, usually around 6 I'll give her a 3 oz can of wet food. She'll get another can when I get home around 7 in the evening.
In the meantime, I'll leave her some dry food in case she gets hungry during the day while I'm at work.

 

[Gizmobius]

Between 9-10am, Gizmo will get 2oz of raw and Stevie with get 1.5oz of wet for breakfast. There's a snack time between 3-4pm where they split a 3oz can. Dinner time is between 7-8pm where they either split a 5oz can of one brand or they each get 1/3 of a 5.5oz can of another brand (higher calories). Another snack comes between 12-1am where they split another 3oz can. Final "treat" is a teaspoon of Dr. Elseys dry somewhere between 3-4am to make it so they leave me alone for a few hours and we start the cycle all over again.

 

[Erin80]

My two are under a year, so they do eat a lot still.
6:30 am 3oz each
8:30am 3 oz each
5pm 3oz each
8:30pm 3oz each
Before bed, 1/4 cup each of NVI with raw boost.
They eat it all.