Thread: Free feed or planned?

I feed wet food morning and evening (and sometimes mid day if they ask for some), and they have a choice of dry to free feed 24/7.

I don't have problems with behaviour so I can't be any help with that question - some days they're wrecking machines and some days they snooze - but I wouldn't change them for the world.

Always used to have set feeding times as my boss has said exactly the same a cats natural pattern is not to graze feed,did try graze feeding for a few months when I went up in numbers but had terrible weight problems with one,guess who cleared the bowls,he would eat until he vomited & then go back & start again so for a long while now have gone back to feeding mostly wet food & set {ishy....} feeding times,falls in pretty well with what was said although not planned that way,they have a good play in the morning or run about in back garden,they then get fed {later if I am day off than on work day} then they sleep,rest of the day varies but in the evening they spark off & have playtime followed by supper in their respective feeding stations in their room & obviously follow that by sleep,when they have been given their supper I luv being able to go round & give them all their last cuddle & goodnight kiss plus tell them all that I luv them... I also have one that is a very small eater & normally sometime during the day I do give them all a few extra bikkies as a treat so he gets a bit more but he knows that if he goes & stands outside the utility room door we will let him in & give him top up whenever he wants it,he has also learnt not to make a noise or he gets trampled in the rush so by keeping hush he benefits big time...... I can't say there was ever a behaviour difference though either way only with the piggy one....!

I have noticed that they prefer to eat little and often, although that's not always practical of course. Mine have breakfast, dinner at 6-ish, then a bit of something at bedtime. But I give them 2 small servings for every meal.
I don't leave any food down for them in between times because I feed mostly raw.

I feed Minnie wet food 3 times a day - early morning, tea-time and evening. She has dry food available all the time, plus fresh water every day. I leave the wet food down because she seems to like to graze.

Not all cats will be the same though. My previous cat (rescue moggy) would have eaten tll he exploded. So he had set meal times and set amounts of food each time.

I think it should depend on the cat. :-)

The first few months after we got our Coonies I had dry food down all the time. But Tatja quickly grew too fat so I stopped free feeding.
Some months later I quit the dry food altogether and started feeding raw. Because I work from home I can feed them four meals a day – breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night snack.
They do have a bowl with some small morsels of dried meat (not kibble) to graze on, but they prefer it if we throw the morsels across the kitchen floor so they can chase them… yup, hunting instinct. El Monto often catches them between his front paws and then eats them from his paws which looks adorable.

My Pika has struggled with weight issues pretty much since he reached adulthood. I always joke that he went straight from kitten food to weight control food, lol. For a husky fella he is kind of picky; from day one he has flatly refused to eat wet food of any kind, to him if it ain't kibble it ain't food! He likes to have food available at all times and will panic when his bowl gets empty, so I feed him his daily allotment in two measured portions, basically breakfast/dinner. Feeding two meals already made it very easy to get him used to the heart medication he had to start taking twice a day following his heart failure. I give him his meds right before each meal It did not take long for him to start reminding me that it was time for meds! He also usually gets a couple of feline greenies treats per day, I don't think they do much for his teeth either way but he adores them!

He started on Purina Kitten Chow (basically kitty fast food, how little I knew then) As an adult he settled on Iams Chicken Flavor (very swiftly followed by it's weight control version) would not touch the same formula in hairball control. After his heart failure episode he refused to eat anything for days, finally after turning down everything (including tuna, chicken, etc) and being prescribed an appetite stimulant he agreed to eat Purina Kitten Chow. The vet said just getting him to eat something was the most important thing so we did that for a while. Nowadays he is back on the Iams Weight Control, I know it's not the best quality out there but it is the only food he'll actually eat that doesn't upset his tummy. I tried some of the higher quality, no fillers, more natural brands but his stools were always a little soft when on them and he ended up with a very bad anal gland abscess :( When I got him back on the Iams his poops firmed back up and no more anal gland issues (yay!)

I give Roark raw food in the mornings and evenings and then he has dry food out all day. I have not had a problem with weight or routine (at least yet). I have noticed that he will come in (he plays outside) four or five times a day to nibble and then rush out again.

I've been free feeding with mine. He has dry food (if he ate all his wet food and still hungry) and whiskers oh so meaty wet food. He also likes the new "bite and chew" kind. He also has fresh chicken when we have it and the occasional small tin of tuna or tin of sardines or mackerel. He also gets a saucer of cat milk that is full of calcium and vitamins. He is doing fantastic, perfect weight, no upset stomachs at all, very energetic and happy.

He is 6 months and 1 week old, has about 4 packets of whiskers, 2 handfuls of dry on a normal day.

Freefeeding Neevie as well - she is SO spoilt - if I give her 2 pouches of food at the beginning of the day, she won't eat it all and let it rot, but she'll keep shouting for more. I have to feed her little bits at a time -> she'll go through 3 or 4 pouches a day. I'm ALLOWED to heap boiled and cut chicken breasts in a plate in the morning, I'm sure there won't be any left in the evening, and her stomach will be bulging. She could eat only that, but I think cat food is made for cats, with all the necessary additives they should get, so I am trying to not give her chicken more than twice or 3 times a week. And she also gets dry food on the side any time. She also likes raw salmon (yes, only salmon, no other fish I tried works, and it has to be raw, sashimi faschion), and little bits of soured cream that I give her sometimes as treat. She never tried caviar and she's to young for champagne.