Questions about feeding

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52weeks

52weeks

Member Since 2016
How do you guys manage food? Esp with multiple cats who don't all eat at the same time?
Do you put it down on a schedule then they are just out of luck if they don't come, then take it up? Or do you put it out and leave it out?

I'm home from a trip and am thinking of starting the transition to homemade food this week. I'm just not sure how to best help Baby Cat and still see that our other pets are cared for as well.
 
My cats eat separately for the most part. I monitor to determine if each of my seven cat (four diabetics with one of the four OTJ). I feed twice daily. I feed canned to the ones that eat it. Some will only eat a little dry so I feed the lowers carb dry they will eat.
 
I have 7 cats and they all eat the same food. Mine have learned that if they want to eat, they need to eat when the food is put down. I have a couple of cats that will clean any bowls that have food in them, even if it was not their bowl to begin with. If there is any food left, I leave it for the grazers.
 
My cats used to be free-fed, but when China was diagnosed, everyone got used to being fed on a schedule

Now if you're going to go with raw, homemade food, it's important that it's not left out too long if it's not eaten unless it can be kept cool, so whatever isn't eaten in about 20 minutes should be picked up and refrigerated.

With canned foods, most of us add extra water to the food to keep it from drying out and then it can be left out most of the day.

Cats can be re-"trained" to accept scheduled feedings, but there's no reason you need to only feed twice a day. It's actually easier on the pancreas to deal with multiple small meals than two big ones
 
It's like that for our dog, too. He has a liver condition and gets multiple small meals daily.
 
I have 3 autofeeders all in the same room. I set them up for multiple feedings (depending on how low or how high Carter is) but I manually feed them twice a day with food dishes, and I put them right beside the autofeeder and they all eat the same as if it was coming out of the autofeeder. So minimum they all get 4 feedings a day. When I was feeding dry, it was twice daily.

For the most part, they all eat their share. Odin, my civie, is more of grazer so he'll eat some, leave for a bit, and then come back and eat what's left. Sometimes I make sure he isn't getting bullied out of the way. Simon (other civie) and Carter are good eaters and eat most of their plate right away. They are all on FF classic so it doesn't matter if they pick at eachother's plates after the fact. By the end of each feeding all the food is gone, so no wasting/leftovers.
 
Howmuch do you all feed daily?
I'm noticing we throw away quite a bit, but may not once they are all on something not kibble.

I'd say most of the time, half the FF ends up in the trash.
 
Erica & Carter said:
I have 3 autofeeders all in the same room. I set them up for multiple feedings (depending on how low or how high Carter is) but I manually feed them twice a day with food dishes, and I put them right beside the autofeeder and they all eat the same as if it was coming out of the autofeeder. So minimum they all get 4 feedings a day. When I was feeding dry, it was twice daily.

For the most part, they all eat their share. Odin, my civie, is more of grazer so he'll eat some, leave for a bit, and then come back and eat what's left. Sometimes I make sure he isn't getting bullied out of the way. Simon (other civie) and Carter are good eaters and eat most of their plate right away. They are all on FF classic so it doesn't matter if they pick at eachother's plates after the fact. By the end of each feeding all the food is gone, so no wasting/leftovers.
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Do you have an auto feeder for the soft food? Just wondering cause you said when you used to feed dry. Have never seen one but I've learned a lot of new things during this experience!
 
Our cats used to all be grazers. We would feed them canned in the am as that helped with our our guy who had a PKU and stones and then they would get free fed dry SO the rest of the day. When Buddy developed DM they were not happy about two meals a day but they have learned to adjust. Two of our four guys have no problem with cleaning their plate and the other two have learned if they want to eat they better do it. There is usually plenty left from each feeding that they can snack on until the next meal comes. Right before bed we still give them a little snack of the dry SO and that seems to get them through the night and keep Buddies levels even till morning. I have found that if his sugar starts to drop he will meow at me consistently and walk towards his bowl until I follow and give him a snack. So for him I do follow his lead. Everyone seems to have adjusted nicely to the new changes but they were pretty unhappy for about the first 2 wks!
 
Sharon2665 said:
Do you have an auto feeder for the soft food? Just wondering cause you said when you used to feed dry. Have never seen one but I've learned a lot of new things during this experience!
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Sorry just to clarify when I was feeding dry pre-diagnosis I never used an autofeeder, so this is my first experience with them.

I use this autofeeder for canned food: http://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-5-Meal-Automatic-Pet-Feeder/dp/B000GEWHNS?tag=felinediabetesfdmb-20

A lot of members use this one and recommended it to me. It has a place for an ice pack, and I usually make "frozen food cubes" and then place the food cubes in the autofeeder to gradually thaw throughout the day. It's easy to program, and the tray comes right out to make cleaning easy. :)
 
Erica & Carter said:
Sorry just to clarify when I was feeding dry pre-diagnosis I never used an autofeeder, so this is my first experience with them.

I use this autofeeder for canned food: http://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-5-Meal-Automatic-Pet-Feeder/dp/B000GEWHNS?tag=felinediabetesfdmb-20

A lot of members use this one and recommended it to me. It has a place for an ice pack, and I usually make "frozen food cubes" and then place the food cubes in the autofeeder to gradually thaw throughout the day. It's easy to program, and the tray comes right out to make cleaning easy. :)
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Thanks so much for the link. They are also $28 off this weekend! Looks like that would work out pretty well. I was also looking for a way together them their dry food bedtime snack when we are out of town and the sitter only comes breakfast and dinner time. This would work great and it's affordable.
 
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