Wet Food

[jonh453]

Wow, its been a long time since I've been on this forum. I returned recently to get food advice for 2 new kittens we saved from a colony of feral cats that live next too us. Their both doing great, one will be getting his 3rd set of shots in 3 weeks and the other his 2nd set of shots on Wednesday. I also have 2 Maine Coons, one 3 years old the other 4 years old.

Anyways, with their wet food I was wondering how long it can sit in their bowls before it would be considered not good anymore. I feed them wet in the morning and at night (I free feed them dry). And most of the time they wont eat all the wet food at once so it sits in their bowl. Thanks for any info.

 

[moggiegirl]

That's the reason I don't feed wet food exclusively. They just won't eat all their wet food in one sitting. That's the reason why switching to all wet food isn't as easy as it seems.

The general advice is not to leave it out for more than an hour but I have family members that have left wet food out for half a day and their cats never got sick. Cats will not eat spoiled food. It's their nature to only eat fresh food. I don't leave my cats wet food for more than 2 hours at a time and if I'm getting ready for work they have less time to eat it.

I hate having to waste food and put it down the garbage disposal when they don't eat their wet food but I accept it. Cats will be cats.

 

[jonh453]

Thanks for the reply. I was just concerned because sometimes I forgot to clean there bowl before I leave and it ends up sitting out all day. Heres a picture of our two new kittens.

 

[yosemite]

John, they are gorgeous.

I put down wet food before I leave for work in the morning and then I feed wet again at dinner (supper) time.

I only put down 1 heaping tablespoon for each cat and then they get Royal Canin Dry (about 1/2 cup to share) during the day.

I rarely ever have food left in the dishes and if there is any, it's usually just a couple of larger chunks. There is always some dry food left when I get home from work so I'm sure they aren't starved since they both like the dry. So far, we haven't had any problems of the wet going bad. Because we feed a good quality canned food I know they are getting enough as neither one ever begs for more food - treats yes, food no.

Try feeding smaller quantities at each feeding and see how that goes. If you are home at lunch time you could give them a little bit more then, but if not I wouldn't worry as long as they have a bit of dry to nibble on.

Hope this helps answer your question.