Scheduled Feeding

[fyllis]

I'm curious to know how many of you (if any?) feed your cats on a timed schedule.

My boys are free-fed their dry food and they get canned food in the morning (whenever I get up) and again in the evening (before I go to bed). Their morning and evening feeding times vary depending on my schedule and most times they will make it known when they are ready to be fed (they will come and get me and lead me to the kitchen).

The reason I ask is because over the weekend I invited a friend to go to the movies. She asked if I would mind if she invited her neighbor along and I said that would be fine. We settled on a movie that started at 6:50 P.M., so I went to pick my friend up at 6:15. Her neighbor wasn't with her and when I asked why, she told me that she couldn't make it because she had to feed her cat at 6:30! 

Seriously? She couldn't have fed her cat at 6:00 or 6:10? 

I don't eat my own meals on such a severe schedule! Are there really people out there who set a clock when feeding their pets? 

I just laughed it off and said her neighbor must have OCD -- Obsessive Clock Disorder! 

 

[NewYork1303]

We feed our cats on a schedule since we tried free feeding and one of my cats was just eating way too much. But it isn't that set of a schedule. They eat in the morning when I brush my teeth, in the afternoon when my fiance gets back from work, and then right before we go to bed. These times vary and the cats don't seem to care (well except for the morning time, they're always trying to convince me to feed them the moment I wake up. I won't fall for their tricks

).

I would never make plans around my cats eating. Instead, I would feed them before I left or after if it wasn't going to be too late.

 

[LTS3]

Maybe the neighbor has a specific feeding schedule for her cat because medicine has to be given at the same time. When I had a diabetic cat, his main meals were spaced 12 hours apart because that is when insulin had to be given to take advantage of the carry over effect. For the most part my cat got his meals and insulin right on schedule but occasionally the dinner meal would have to be an hour or so late. I had a timed feeder filled with food for him to eat during the day to keep his blood glucose levels stable.

If the neighbor's cat isn't on medicine, then I agree with you - the cat could have been feed a little earlier. When you decided on the movie time, was the neighbor ok with it?

My current healthy cats insist on being fed more or less on their schedule

First thing in the morning, about 12 hours later when I get home from work (on weekends dinner might not be until 14 hours later), Leroy insists on snack 3.5 hours after dinner (on weekends he still insists on being fed at the usual time), another snack for Leroy before bed time and Emma gets a small snack as well.