Free Feeding to Scheduled Feeding Transition

[ameliashuman]

We recently brought a 3.5 month old kitten into family, making us a family of a kitten and two resident adult cats. We've descended into chaos, with kitten eating adult food and adults eating kitten food and humans having no idea who's eating what or how much. We typically have given a portion of food in the morning, allowed them to free feed on it, then at night picked up whatever was left over and give another portion out, repeat in the morning. Our adult cats would nibble throughout the day but we could control how much they were eating. However, that's not working with the new kitten this time. We've tried changing locations, redirection, using elevated space with little luck, so scheduled feeding it is.
From reading, it looks like my best option is multiple small meals (based on how much they eat typically in one sitting) gradually increasing to the portion I eventually want only twice a day. However I have a few questions (sorry its long)

1)Since our kitten is still young, is it a good idea to go to scheduled feeding with him? Everything I've read says to allow them as much food as they want whenever they want? But if we don't switch over, the resident cats have a shown a preference for kitten food and would continue to snack.

2) What do you guys do when going on trips? Even with a cat sitter coming once a day, twice daily feedings would not be the most feasible. we also usually leave out extra bowls incase of emergencies like a snow storm that prevents the sitter from coming over that day. Would going on a trip cause everything to back slide (not that we're going on trips now, that's more wishful thinking/daydreaming of a future where we can travel again)

3) At the start of this pandemic I had a lot of problems remembering if I put down food for the cats so I would give extra helpings. Now I'm sure I was feeding them, just too stressed out to be mindful, but it was horrifying and likely resulted in overfeeding/weight gain. How do other people stay on top of scheduled feedings? What are some tips?

 

[maggie101]

Even when my cats were kittens they were on scheduled 3x a day. I followed by what the can said for feeding. Kittens 2 cans depending on the kitten and thier activity level. adult cats 1 can 5.5 oz. I have 3 adult cats now that do not eat the same amount of food. Vacation I always have a sitter. No snow storms in Texas so cant help much there. There is also timed feeders and feeders that only open for a certain cat

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I, too, feed scheduled feeding, and when we travel, our cat sitter follows the same schedule. Luckily it's our neighbor. As far as remembering, it's just something that becomes second nature. If you need to, set an alarm on your phone, or wherever you set your scheduled events, until it becomes second nature

 

[lizzieloo]

If you get a strongbox that's very sturdy you can cut a small hole for the kitten to get in and keep the kitten dry food in there. Then the adults don't get the high calorie stuff but the kitten still has access to food 24/7.