Free feed or planned?

[EdenG]

I have a question out of curiosity, do you let your cats free feed/graze through the day or do you have a feeding routine?

My raggy has always free fed, as she is picky and likes little portions at a time. The breeder I got my mainey from let her cats free feed and said that would be best. I was watching an episode of a cat whisperer show on Animal Planet (don't laugh lol), who happened to be dealing with a naughty Mainey. The cat psychologist said that cats natural behaviour is to hunt, eat, sleep... always in that order. So it is best to have a feeding routine, 30 mins of play before scheduled feed time, feed time, then sleep. I was interested to see your opinions and what you all prefer? Have any of you swapped from free to planned or vise versa and seen any behaviour differences? xx

[Wivelspiker]

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.

[jckkerrison]

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....!

[Howlinbob]

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.

[MoonSongstress]

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. :-)

[Antonia]

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.