How many times a day do you....

badhabit

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 16, 2002
Messages
1,238
Purraise
2
Location
MA
Feed your kitties? Once? Twice? Free feed? and why. No reason in particular, just curious.


Maybe this thread is more suited to the health forum but I felt I would get more reponses here.

Mmm... Maybe I'll start by answering my own question. I feed the pack twice a day because I feel once isn't enough and I think free feeding would lead me to have a group of obese cats on my hands. Not to mention how fast they'd plow through a bag of cat food, geesh. I'd have to buy stock in Wellness.

Thanks in advance!
 

nenners

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Sep 26, 2002
Messages
400
Purraise
2
Location
Columbus,OH
I free feed. I can't help it. I have two really underweight cats and one really fat one. One of the underweight cats pukes if she eats to much at once which happens when I feed them twice daily. I can't seperate them during the day. They go nuts and tear up the carpet around the doors.
 

valanhb

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Mar 2, 2002
Messages
32,530
Purraise
100
Location
Lakewood (Denver suburb), Colorado
I free feed, too. They've always had it that way since they were kittens and they are used to it. They only eat what they need. Although a friend of mine went from feeding on a schedule to free feeding, and one of her cats just couldn't handle it. Dice was fine, would only eat what he needed, but Bitten had no self control. She had to go back to feeding on schedule or Bitten would have exploded!
 

lhezzza

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 31, 2002
Messages
2,525
Purraise
1
Location
Orange, California
Free feed = dry food

wet food in the am (when I wake up)
wet food in the pm (when I get home from work)

Cooper is still small for being 4 months, we're trying to fatten her up before she gets the snip/snip!
 

jason

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 10, 2002
Messages
192
Purraise
1
Location
Mississippi
I free feed dry food. They always get a treat a few times a day too. Something like boiled chicken and occasionaly tuna. Maybe once a month or so I'll split a can of wet food between them.
 

bodlover

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
May 21, 2001
Messages
3,350
Purraise
1
Location
Leicester, UK
Yep I free feed too, dry food only, occasionally they will get some wet food in the evenings, about once or twice a week as a treat, though a couple of them don't want to know the wet food and sulk until I put some dry food in their bowl... funny little babes..
 

yola

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 29, 2002
Messages
1,592
Purraise
12
Location
Reading, UK
Yup - dry food is down all the time, Ferdy gets wet food sachets in the morning (x 2), during the day, now that I'm here (x 1) and one in the evening.

He doesn't touch the dry food so he gets the recommended 4 sachets of wet per day.

Fifi and Balie only eat the dry and neither is overweight, they both only eat when hungry - Balie in larger sittings and Fifi snacks throughout the day.
 

tamme

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 2, 2002
Messages
2,201
Purraise
1
Location
Calgary, Alberta. Canada
My situation was a complicated one, when we first got my cat Roo, the cats teamed up and destroyed the house if their food dish was empty! For example, one day my Tigger jumped up on the counter, then on top of the fridge and pushed the electic blender off the top of the fridge! BANG! we woke up (mid-afternoon) and came running out of the bedroom to find the shattered piece of equipment and the food dish empty. Jeez sorry guys for my lapse in memory! So after that we got a constant feeder and WHOA look-out! Roo balooned to 16 pounds! He ate after I cuddled him, after I disciplined him after everything! But we were afraid to go off the constant feeder because of the damage. (ha ha) So we finally went back to the daily feedings when we felt Roo was definatly tipping the scales and so started feeding them whenever the dish was empty and eventually down to once a day. 1 cup each of dry cat food. I also give them my tuna juice every once in a while and kitty treats that help with tarter control. My husband doesn't like wet cat food because he worked in a storage place once and someone tipped over a crate of wet cat food and didn't clean it up, the next day my husband goes in and finds maggots crawling all over the wet cat food! and he can't get that image out of his head, so NO wet cat food for our kitties. Roo has visibly gone down in size since we changed the amount of food we leave out and Tigger is going down too, but I wonder if that is due to old age...Thanks for letting me tell my story, Tamme
 

tamme

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 2, 2002
Messages
2,201
Purraise
1
Location
Calgary, Alberta. Canada
Another thing I forgot to mention is the way I sometimes feed my cats. My Tigger has taught me a game she really enjoys, I sit at one end of the house(non-carpet floors) with a handful of her dried food and chuck the food one at a time down the hall or room. She really loves this game because it hones her attacking/hunting skills. Because she's an indoor cat she doesn't get much of that chasing squirrels fun, except to look at them from the window, so she really enjoys this game. I pick up a food piece and hold it in the air for her attention, throw it down the hall (bounce bounce clink clink) and she runs after it at full throttle and leaps onto it, picks it up in her paw, and devours it. My Roo justs looks at the food passing by him and then looks back at me as if to say "well...go get it"
 

okeefecl

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Apr 22, 2002
Messages
4,926
Purraise
2
Location
Sparkleball ranch
I leave a measured amount of dry down all day for Ivo. If she finishes it, she's outa luck. She also gets 1/3 small can Fancy Feast in the morning and evening. She usually just nibbles on that.
 

-bunn-

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
May 20, 2002
Messages
772
Purraise
1
Location
Manchester, UK
LOL


Suki's spoilt. I get up, come down and feed her wet food, to which I add a drop of water and then heat it up for 8 seconds in the microwave (she likes her meat warm). Then she gets fed again about 1.30pm with some turkey. 5pm comes around it's wet food again and we do the same with it as above. Dry food is in a dish all day/night just in case she feels peckish.

She eats very little, so she's not over-weight.
 

adymarie

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 23, 2001
Messages
11,210
Purraise
1
Location
Toronto
Dry is down all day and they only rarely get any moist food, more often then not the moist food is tuna as they don't like canned cat food. They get a little tuna every 2 wks or so, depending on when hubby has it for lunch.
 

katl8e

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 21, 2002
Messages
12,622
Purraise
3
Location
Movin' on up!
I've, always, free fed. I put down 1/2 can of wet food, mixed with dry in the morning. When the bowl gets empty, I put down the other 1/2. This seems to work OK. Rowdy is growing like a weed and is as ornery and energetic, as ever.

Ike gets about 4 cups of dry, each morning and, usually has it finished off, by 7:00 a.m. When Bill gets home, we give Ike a couple more cups. Ike's mother is horrendously fat and I don't want that to happen to him. So far, everybody is doing well - sleek and well-muscled.
 

adymarie

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 23, 2001
Messages
11,210
Purraise
1
Location
Toronto
Cindy - do you find that ike would rather eat the cat food and the cats the dog food? I notice that whenever my parents bring the dog over to my sister - the dog and the cat switch foods.
 

bodlover

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
May 21, 2001
Messages
3,350
Purraise
1
Location
Leicester, UK
Ady yes - and its because one is more salty than the other apparently, but I can't remember which way round it is... try to stop it if you can or you'll find barf somewhere!!! ( I know I sure did when my babies tried it.. eeew! ) :laughing:
 

dragonlady

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 22, 2002
Messages
3,502
Purraise
2
Location
Citrus Heights, CA
My kitties eat when ever they like. We only give canned food two or three times a week. The dry is better for their teeth I've been told. Most of the kitties are fine as far as weight. Our largest is a little over 11 pounds.
 

katl8e

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 21, 2002
Messages
12,622
Purraise
3
Location
Movin' on up!
Ike will try everything, to get cat food. We have a baby gate between the kitchen and Arizona room, to keep him out of the cat food and the trash.

His food pan is on the patio so, the cats don't eat his food. The bag is behind the back door but, Opie and Rowdy don't seem to be interested.

Every dog, that I've ever had, would rather eat cat food. You could put down the top-of-line, most expensive gourmet dog food and the cheapest, nastiest cat food and the dog will eat the cat food. Go figure!

One of my mom's old dogs was on thyroid pills and the easiest way to get them into her was to put the pill in a handful of Meow Mix. Whiskers scarfed up the cat food and never knew the pill was there.
 

flimflam

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 31, 2002
Messages
446
Purraise
1
Location
Yorkshire, UK
Dry food is available all the time, half a tin of wet in the morning and the rest in the evening. Occassionally they get cooked chicken instead of the wet in the evening. Alf always gets a bit porky in the winter, as all he does is eat and sleep for 4 months, but he slims down for strutting his stuff in the warmer months. Ronnie is a picker and is just a mere slip of a thing.
 

spooky

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 19, 2001
Messages
1,529
Purraise
1
Location
Suburbs of Chicago
We free feed dry food and it has worked out just fine.
We have been doing that ever since we got Socks and Boo when they were kittens.

Once in awhile they will get some wet canned food, but they aren't all that interested in it sometimes. And every now and then we feed them some chicken, porkchops, or whatever we are having for dinner.

I've also heard that wet food it bad for their teeth and can cause really bad breath and some teeth problems.
 

debra myers

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 3, 2001
Messages
3,177
Purraise
15
Location
Upstate NY
We free feed all day long. With 8 to manage, this works best. The funny thing is that they each have their own feeding bowl and God help one that is on the wrong place!
 
Top