Do you free feed? Or Twice (or more) a day??

[NoahsMommy]

Well, Micah needs his special digestive food, Noah needs his sensitive tummy food and Olivia now needs D-I-E-T (shhhh, don't tell her) food. So, I've decided to feed them three times a day. Once when we get up, when I get home from work and right before bed. Micah can eat in the bedroom, Livvy in the bathroom and the rest can eat together.

Wish me luck...I'm worried they'll be hungry. :( Just to make sure they aren't starving all day, I'm going to feed them wet food in the morning for two days. Hopefully this will get their systems used to this.

Anyway, what does everyone do?

[Soledad]

I used to free feed Boo, but he started getting quite fat. So now Sam and I feed him diet food three times a day. Just little bits in the morning, afternoon and before bed.

[The Cat Factory]

I free feed my kitties Solid Gold :)

[Fuzzy317]

We free feed. It would be very hard to feed our 4 cats only at certain times. Its not easy to feed our 3 dogs on a schedule. :(

[jenluckenbach]

I think by now everyone knows that I feed twice a day. Each and every cat get his or her correct MEASURED amount and type of food and no one eats with a buddy . I know IMMEDIATELY if someone is off their feed and therefore possibly not feeling well. They neither gain nor lose weight because they are getting their correct amount (and yes it varies from cat to cat). At this point in their lives all 13 cats eat Hill's prescription c/d dry, (Willow and Fern get 1 spoonful of can mixed in) but if and when I need to feed any other type, the switch can be easily attained.

The first few meals will be the hardest because the cats are used to being able to go back any time they want for more. So do not worry when they do not finish their first meals. By the third day or so they WILL start to understand that it is "eat now or be hungry for the next 12 hours". Every cat who came here had to make the switch and they all managed.
Canned food would make a good first meal and then canned mixed with their dry until it is all dry (or whatever you normally feed). The 2 that have the can mix will not eat plain dry, so this is why I mix it.

I think your decision is a wise one (IMO).

[Felicia's Mom]

Mine get fed twice a day.

[Tina]

Mine are free fed.

[Cataholic]

I free feed all six. Tex eats special food, and his is on the counter top :eek: I also give Tex wet food twice a day, to help wash down his medicene.

Everyone else eats under the table, and Minnie eats in her room. BUT, for some reason, the others like to eat from her bowl. So, normally, Tex's bowl is filled regularly, the four bowls under the table are filled once a day, and the ONE bowl furthest away gets filled four times a day!!!

Apparently, name tags are in order.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I free feed my three Nutro Complete Care Weight Management Formula with a little bit of Felidae mixed in. They usually don't even finish all of their food. Since Cirrus is only 9 months old I know he needs to eat more often than Sunny and Storm do. I'll change in the future if I run into a problem but for now everything is fine. My RB Pepper had a problem with overeating but none of my current cats seem to do this.

[neko1]

They get fed once a day at 7 pm. Neko has his special food and he eats in the cat room. The other 3 eat in the kitchen and have their own dishes that they run to. (It's so funny to see) Everyone gets a measured amount. All my kitties are perfect weights.

[HayleyRosie]

My cats are free fed. They eat Techni-Cal dry for kittens.

[Vio&Juni]

I can say I free feed Juni (and my cats before), but I never give them too much. If she still has something, I wait until she finishes everything, then I give her more. I am not worried she will starve, she always ask if she wants more. When I used to feed her with dry food (I think you all know, I switched to natural food - for me and her), she never ate the amount that was written on the package, I never worried. As I said, if she's hungry, she KNOWS how to ask, yes she does!

[Former User]

3 times a day, in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. And Hill's food here.

[trinity]

When we first bought our house we had two cats, Morgan and Catastrophie who had been free fed their whole lives. When we started being adopted by other cats it just kind of happened that they were then free fed, as we couldn't change habits the original two had for over 10 years. Our four get....oh my, I must need more coffee as I can't remember the name of the cat food!!!! Once I remember I'll post it...OH YEAH! Royal Canin.....thats it. Whew! I was starting to worry.....none of them seem inclined to over eat though...

[Lerah021399]

Ali gets fed twice a day as she has diabetis (spelling?) and has to be on a special diet (Purina Diabetis Management-Canned). Jack is free fed Iams original formula.

[jenluckenbach]

If Jack is free fed, how do you keep Ali out of his food?

[Lerah021399]

Originally posted by jenluckenbach
If Jack is free fed, how do you keep Ali out of his food?


She doesn't eat his food because it's dry. She's a picky eater.

[moosmom]

I feed my cats Science Diet Nature's Best. A 1/4 up each, 3 times a day (3/4 of a cup/day). In the morning and at night, I split 1 can between 7 cats. They only get about a teaspoonful each 2x a day as a treat. My cats are all within their normal weight range.

[emily_the_spoiled]

I free feed the dry cat food and give both of them an 1/8th of a can of wet cat food twice daily. Neither one of them over eats on the dry food (but wet food is a different story!!!), so right now I don't have a problem with them being over weight.

[Edwina's Secretary]

We free feed Edwina. She gets IAMS (dry) for the full figured. I fill up her bowl (less than a cup) each evening before I go to bed.

[catmandu]

With 13 Cats its hard to do anything but Free Feed , but it results in the Cats being bored with the food and 3 cats becoming furry tubs of lard! But I cant figure out how else to feed them , you cant lock up certain cats with certain food , as I have a some what small house.

[Kater]

I can say I free feed Juni (and my cats before), but I never give them too much. If she still has something, I wait until she finishes everything, then I give her more. I am not worried she will starve, she always ask if she wants more. When I used to feed her with dry food (I think you all know, I switched to natural food - for me and her), she never ate the amount that was written on the package, I never worried. As I said, if she's hungry, she KNOWS how to ask, yes she does!

Our feeding system for Nipo is similar to Vio&Juni's. She gets free fed in the sense that she asks for food when her bowl is empty and she is hungry. Sometimes she asks for food when there are a few "dingles" (my Dad's word) left in the bowl, and in this case she has to eat those before we give her more. This system works well except sometimes we get ant problems. Nipo isn't overweight, she's the perfect size or if anything a teeny bit chubby.;)

[Logan]

Thank goodness, I can free feed Mimi and Butter. It's hard enough to ration out the dogfood and make sure that they all get to eat twice a day.

Mimi and Butter are both pretty lean. Mimi is six pounds and not too active, and Butter weighs 10-11 pounds (it varies), but he eats plenty. Mimi does get wet food daily, in addition to her dry feeding station, and Butter doesn't. Since they have decided to live on different levels of the house, Butter doesn't try to get to Mimi's canned food. :)

[NoahsMommy]

Well, this morning didn't go as planned. I put Livvy in the bathroom with her Nutro Weight Management wet food, Micah in the bedroom with his Science Diet I/D and diareah meds and the other three got a packet of Nutro wet...

The only ones that even remotely ate well were Olivia and maybe Micah. Olivia ate almost the whole packet, Micah ate maybe half of his 1/3 can of wet I/D.

The other cats ignored the wet food, except for Noah who lapped up the juice. (ick) I think I may try again tomorrow with tuna...they love that.

When I let Micah out (he was crying) he RAN to the plates and wanted their food!

So, I had to leave the bowls out today...but I didn't fill them up. They have enough food so they wont starve, but they will be hungry tonight.

I'm a tiny bit worried about Micah. He isn't eating anywhere near as much as he did last week. Do you think he's just slowing down, now that he knows there will always be food when he's hungry??

[jenluckenbach]

Was Micah eating I/D last week? Not all cats like that stuff.

[ramanth]

I free feed Zam by giving her a little bit of crunchies before I leave for work.

Then in the evening when I feed Kia, Zam gets 1/4 to a 1/2 can of wet food.

At first I gave her tons of crunchies to fatten her up and now I've cut back since she plumped up in a hurry. LOL!

[ChrisH]

I only have the one cat and I`m at home all day so feeding is easy. Ebby has Royal Canin dry twice a day, morning and suppertime, and one pouch, or foil tray, of wet food afternoon/early evening. If there is any wet left come suppertime I scrape it out into my dog Bobs dish, he is always so hopeful when he sees me with her dish, but most days he ends up disappointed!:)

Chris

[RockyRoad]

We free-feed Sally, and she eats Deli-Cat. We always make sure her food dish is full, and she hasn't gotten obese in the eight years we have been doing it. :)

[NoahsMommy]

Originally posted by jenluckenbach
Was Micah eating I/D last week? Not all cats like that stuff.
Yes....he wolfed it down last week. Especially the wet food.

[jenluckenbach]

I think he may be realizing that he doesn't need to wolf it down. He is a small cat, so he might not need as much as a larger one. But keep track of his eating habits in case his appetite is a sign of something.

[NoahsMommy]

Thanks Jen! :)

[catland]

We free-feed the gang. They also get a little treat of canned food twice a day. Jan is the gleaner. If Sid or Joxer don't finish their canned food, she'll be around to finish it for them.

Jan is a perfect size. I think Joxer might be coming just to the end of his growth cycle - he'll be three in June and is now as big as Sid (but not as fat). Sid could stand to lose some weight, but he isn't overly obese.

We selected Iams as their dry food because it is the one premium brand that is availabe 24 hours a day at Walgreens.;)

[batgirl1980]

We used to free feed, but then I was worried that Bach and Eliza were eating too much .. namely because i always saw them by the food bowl whenever i glanced that way.. and Eliza was overweight when we rescued her, so I thought I would switch how they were fed.

Currently they get fed once a day at about 8pm. They are not happy about it, but are adjusting, and I measure it out, and put it down, and if there's anything left, I leave that.

Although I am thinking to follow Jen's advice (I tell ya, Jen is the cat meowmie goddess!) to give them each their own in a part of the apartment, so i can monitor everyone's habits, so if one starts to get sick, I can pick up on it more quickly than I could now. (sooner the better is my motto!)

I know they will HATE that for a while .. but they also know that I am more persistent than them, and if they want the food, they'll eat it when it's down :D (Eliza tried snubbing her nose at me when i first changed to the once a day, but then she thought, oh, she's really sticking to this 8pm thing... lol)