How Long Do You Leave Out Wet Food?

[Sasha&Rocky]

Hi all, I have a new kitten, he is around 8-9 weeks old. Ive been feeding him Fancy Feast kitten canned food but dont know how long I should leave it out, he eats about half and then a few hours later eats the rest.Is a few hours okay? I also soak his dry food and mix it with the canned. He has gained over a pound in the 2 weeks Ive had him.

 

[maggiedemi]

3 hours is my limit. After that it starts to get all dried out and nasty looking.

 

[abyeb]

There’s a variety of opinions on this. Some people say to only leave it out for 30 minutes, while others say that several hours is fine. It depends greatly on the temperature of your home, as warmer temperatures make the bacteria grow faster. This thread has some good advice about this: How long can you leave out wet food?

 

[Daisy6]

My rule is if the food changes color, it's bad. I don't know about Fancy Feast, but I noticed Blue Buffalo gets darker after a few hours and she never eats it like that.

 

[Azazel]

I will leave wet food out for a few hours but I wouldn’t leave moistened dry food sitting out. Dry food is very susceptible to bacteria when moistened.

 

[maggiedemi]

Yeah, it starts to dry out and turn darker after about 3 hours.

 

[Furballsmom]

I agree with A Azazel you don't want to leave kibble that has been moistened (with water or whatever) out for longer than an hour.
I leave canned food out for the day or overnight, my big guy comes back to it later and doesn't seem to care if it's a bit dry and crusty. Dr Lisa Pierson comments about time and bacteria growth on her website catinfo.
If your area is hot, you could either freeze portions, put out a portion and allow it to thaw, or you could set up or buy a food dish where an ice pack fits underneath it.
Also you could feed your mixed batch, pick that up when your cat has walked away, and replace it with just canned/no kibble mixed in, and leave that to be eaten later, eventually with some dry kibble off to the side maybe.

 

[duckpond]

I dont mix wet and dry foods, my cats are not fans, and i would not want to leave it out more than 30 min or so, because of bacteria. Otherwise its fine.

I leave dry out all the time.

I feed wet in the morning when i go to work, if there is any left i leave it, they normally finish it up during the morning. When i come home for lunch the wet is normally all gone. If they act hungry i will split another can of wet, normally they do not. So i feed wet again when i come home after work. I leave it out until i get ready for bed, then throw any that is left out. If they like the wet food i find they nibble on it over about a 2 hour time frame, and it gets eaten up, i dont have a problem with that time. If they dont like it, well its a crusty mess that i then throw out

 

[himawari]

I don’t mix wet and dry because of bacteria issues but I do leave out wet food just before I head to work or school. By the time I come home (after 5hrs or so), it’s either gone or just small bits are leftover. I try to entice my cat to eat the leftovers but if he doesn’t want to then I throw it and give him new canned food.

 

[Daisy6]

I don't see a benefit to mixing wet and dry food. That is inviting bacteria to eat it. There are freeze-dried raw treats that can be mashed with equal parts water for a cat who hates wet food but refuses to eat it and does not need a low-protein diet. They are only for supplemental feeding though. Has anyone tried this?

 

[Azazel]

I don't see a benefit to mixing wet and dry food. That is inviting bacteria to eat it. There are freeze-dried raw treats that can be mashed with equal parts water for a cat who hates wet food but refuses to eat it and does not need a low-protein diet. They are only for supplemental feeding though. Has anyone tried this?

There are lots of freeze dried complete diets that are meant to be re hydrated. They can’t be left out for long though once you add water.

 

[1 bruce 1]

I dont mix wet and dry foods, my cats are not fans, and i would not want to leave it out more than 30 min or so, because of bacteria. Otherwise its fine.

I leave dry out all the time.

I feed wet in the morning when i go to work, if there is any left i leave it, they normally finish it up during the morning. When i come home for lunch the wet is normally all gone. If they act hungry i will split another can of wet, normally they do not. So i feed wet again when i come home after work. I leave it out until i get ready for bed, then throw any that is left out. If they like the wet food i find they nibble on it over about a 2 hour time frame, and it gets eaten up, i dont have a problem with that time. If they dont like it, well its a crusty mess that i then throw out

That crusty mess is so gross! When we fed mostly wet the cats weren't onto it yet and often left little dry, crispy crumbs. Let a dog into the room and that plate was spotless in about half a second! =D

 

[Daisy6]

LOL Dogs don't care what they eat.

 

[Furballsmom]

LOL

 

[Gizmobius]

I usually find that cats will tell you when the food has gone "bad." If it's sat too long they won't touch it. So basically, even though neither of my two cats let their food sit long enough, I know that if they ever did, they'd come back to it if it sat too long, look at me, and scream YO fix this.

 

[sevenplus1]

One of my cats eats very quickly. The other is the opposite. He eats very slowly. And he will often walk away from his food which guarantees that the other one will eat it also. This was a problem because my little Spike was gaining weight from basically eating one and half portions at each meal.

So when Rex walks away after eating only half a meal, I cover his metallic bowl in tin foil and put it out of reach (of Spike) for an hour or so. At that point Rex will eat it if I put a few toppers on it. Basically my little Rex likes to eat his meals in two sittings. Little primadonna.

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[2BSH]

5 minutes That’s how long it takes for my piggies to gobble it all up and lick their plates clean.

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[Azazel]

5 minutes That’s how long it takes for my piggies to gobble it all up and lick their plates clean.

So true. If I didn’t use a timed feeder everything would get eaten at once.