Puzzle feeder questions

ToruPop

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I got my cat this Catit 2.0 Food Tree:


Previously I was feeding him a dry/wet mix but after getting this I put wet food in his dish and started putting the dry kibble in this. When I put food in his dish, he'll eat everything in his dish. After about a day and a half with this feeder, I changed up the routine and put just wet cat food in the dish and put dry cat food in this. He figured it out quickly that he has to stick his paw in to knock down kibble, and he's eating all the kibble that falls down to the base. But there's a lot of kibble in the other other compartments still sitting there. I googled and found articles that suggest dry kibble should only be left out for four hours and thrown out after 10. That would effectively make a puzzle feeder like this a problem, unless the cat figures out very quickly how to efficiently knock all the food down. While he's not doing that, I will either have to waste a lot of cat food or "help" him get all the food down so he'll eat it, which sort of defeats the purpose of a puzzle feeder (plus he'll eventually just realize that I'm going to help him and not bother trying to get the kibble out).

I'm a bit skeptical that the dry kibble needs to be thrown out as frequently as the article says. But curious what has been the experience of people who use puzzle feeders like this. Do you just leave the kibble there until the cat gets at it? Do throw out any unused kibble every day? I'm not wild about that since he'd eat everything I put out for him in the dish. But I love the concept of having to make him "work" for kibble.
 

GoldyCat

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I free feed my cats dry food since I'm away from home working sometimes as much as 17 hours. I don't throw out any that's left over when I get home, just add to it. I've never had an issue with any of the cats getting sick from the food.
 

Kieka

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My cats have a dry gravity feeder. I top it off every two weeks or so and the kibble sits there until they eat it. The whole point of dry food is it is shelf stable. It might start to go stale and cats may be less inclined to eat something that has been sitting out for a while, but I would not throw it out after sitting out unless it gets wet. I'd just clean it out and reload with the kibble he had trouble getting.
 

Kat0121

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I free feed my cats dry food since I'm away from home working sometimes as much as 17 hours. I don't throw out any that's left over when I get home, just add to it. I've never had an issue with any of the cats getting sick from the food.
This is what I do too.
 
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