LEAVING MY REGULATED CAT OVERNIGHT

[ellie]

Hi everyone,
My 14 year old cat Ollie has been regulated via diet for the past 3 weeks. His numbers have been great and he's been off the Lantus. I've been giving him FF classic every morning and night along with a bit of dry DM food.

I miss the days when I could leave Ollie and his brother with a bowl of cat food and spend a night away, but since his diagnosis I haven't done that. Do you guys have any experience with this? Will Ollie be okay if I leave food out overnight?

Thoughts???

-ellie

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Get a timed feeder or two. You can pre-freeze canned food for the feeder.

 

[phlika29]

My understanding is that wet food is fine left out for twelve hours so the mien thing is to find a way from just stopping them scoffing it all in one go.

As Larry said a timed feeder such a pet safe five is the best way to make this work. If you freeze some of the food I think the wet food will last even longer than the twelve hours.

 

[Critter Mom]

A lot of people here recommend the Petsafe 5 feeder. It serves one meal immediately and takes up to four timed feeds. In addition to freezing some of the timed feeds, if some meals need to be fed before they'd have time to thaw out you could pop some ice cubes into some of the feed compartments to keep the unfrozen meals cooler. Some feeders like the Catmate 20 2-compartment feeder come with ice packs, and they're fairly burgle-proof for gentler cats (I have several of them). However, I wouldn't recommend the Catmate 20 feeders as a solution when you're going to be away from home for two reasons: if a persistent cat knocks the feeder around a bit the battery can slip out of its holder, and sometimes the mechanical timers can hiccup. I've also got Petpod timed feeders but again I would not recommend them for feeding if leaving the house for any amount of time because they most certainly are not burgle-proof.

 

[Fiona and Sasha]

Ellie, I would be nervous, too. Good luck, I hope it all goes well and that you don't worry too much.

 

[Deb & Wink]

Catsicles. Freeze the food (not the cat) in a non-stick muffin pan, pop them out once frozen and store in a ziploc bag in your freezer for future use.

 

[Dusty Bones]

For overnight meals and while I'm at work I refrigerate a can and use the cold food as a core. I put a few spoons of the cold food surrounded by the room temp food. The cold food will slow them down and not scarf it all at once plus keep the food fresh longer. Freezing it will work too!