I have a quick question. I came across an article by a behaviourist on this site saying that the best thing for a cat is to eat up to 20 small meals a day, the idea being that they should never be hungry, otherwise they might end up being unhappy. /p>
/p>
As for my cat Louna, who is 3 years old, after lots of advice on here I recently switched her to a 100% wet food diet. She's a bit of a greedy eater, weighs about 11 lbs, and just can't handle dry food because she eats it too fast and throws up half the time. I've tried various well-known grain-free brands too. /p>
/p>
She currently has a Cat Mate 5-meal automatic feeder. The first one goes off around 9 am, with the following meals every 3 hours, so the last one is at 11 pm. Then we go through the night and it's back to square one around 8 or 9 am. This means she has nothing to eat during the night since I can't give her dry food or anything else. I can't really get up in the middle of the night to feed her, and if I got her into that habit it would probably be worse; if she saw it wasn't happening all the time, she'd end up waking us up at night, which isn't the case right now. /p>
/p>
So, what do you all think? /p>
Translated from French
The forum content is sometimes translated from another language, and posts may concern countries with different animal laws. Do your research before making any decisions.
Since the forum is translated by AI, the translations may contain errors.
The idea of feeding 20 tiny meals a day is a concept created by the pet food industry. In reality, dry food takes 8 to 10 hours to digest, so you'd have to keep topping up the "machine" constantly just to hit their daily food quota. And to convince you, they’ll tell you that a hungry cat is a frustrated cat. Actually, with dry food, a cat can end up developing a real obsession with food and won't want to do anything else—it often leads to obesity. Do I really need to point out that once they’re overweight, your vet will tell you to ration their food, which then causes frustration? It’s a bit of a case of chasing your own tail, isn't it?
In the wild, a cat hunts and eats at dawn and dusk; their eyesight is better adapted to those conditions than their prey, so they take advantage of it. A cat doesn't get up every hour to snack on a tiny mouse; they actually have long periods of rest, like in the afternoon, when they can easily sleep for up to 6 hours straight.
Since you've opted for an all-wet diet and an automatic feeder, I'd suggest grouping the feedings around the morning and evening, leaving the afternoon for rest.
Start with an early meal around 7:00 am, a second one around 9:00 am, then in the evening around 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm. You'll have one portion left that you could give around 11:00 pm if you're worried about the night being too long, or maybe at midday—but avoid the afternoon to preserve their afternoon nap.
In conclusion, just because your cat has a full belly doesn't mean they're happy. And don't forget to keep their games and distractions varied.
Kind regards
And the problem is I can't get up in the middle of the night to give her anything or add bits to her bowl, especially as she doesn't finish the last of her five meals until 11pm.
Thanks for the reply. Louna weighs about 11 lbs and has 250g of wet food a day, given in 50g portions. She doesn't seem to be that hungry overnight, although she did meow at me this morning. I can't give her more than her daily allowance or any more dry food, so I think I'll just stick to this. That said, I don't want her to be going hungry at night if she needs food, but if I add any more she'll just put on weight (she's an indoor cat).
Hi everyone,
Unlike dogs, domestic cats have remained quite similar to their wild ancestors. In the wild, cats eat small prey at fairly frequent intervals. Because of this, it’s usually recommended to let them ‘free-feed’, as cats are naturally supposed to eat small amounts many times a day. Personally, my two cats have dry food available all the time and they graze on it throughout the day and night.
However, the introduction of scheduled feeding (3 or 4 meals a day) and other aspects of human lifestyles have changed the eating habits of some cats, sometimes making them a bit ‘greedy’.
Regarding your specific problem, if those 5 meals are correctly portioned, they should cover your cat's nutritional requirements so they can get through the night without needing to eat. If you feel like they are hungry during the night, it might be that their daily allowance hasn't been calculated quite right.
Mathilde – Vet student and representative for a student-led veterinary consultancy.
