how long to leave wet food out

exoticbabee

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I'm trying to increase the amount of food my little one eats. I have two hours in the morning to leave food out before I go to work. Babee likes to eat with lots of breaks in between. I read that you should leave it out for just 30min to 1hr but by then she has only consumed 1 ounce of food. I would like to leave it out for the entire 2 hrs. Is is safe?
 

mschauer

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I have the same problem. I confess I frequently leave wet food down for up to 2 hrs. That's my limit though.
 

fenleebe

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I have a friend/acquaintance who is a feline vet that practices conventional and holistic medicine and she tells me 30 minutes. I too confess to an hour or so, but try not to overdo it. It's not worth getting them sick over it.

It's also bad to put water on dry food and leave it out. If you do that, you are supposed to pick it up within 30 minutes too. The bacteria on dry food mulitplies rapidly when you add water to it and it can lead to stomach upsets as well.
 

catnip

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If harry doesn't eat the wet food within 30 minutes (not often a problem) I put it back in the pouch/tin and store it. That way you're not wasting food. If you have 2 hours why not put out a small amount every half hour?
 

yosemite

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Unless your house is extremely warm, I don't think 2 hours is going to be a problem. I have always left our out that long and my cats never got sick or vomited. I sometimes think we can be over-cautious. Just my opinion.
 

alcool9999

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food shouldnt but it wonmt do anything major to your cat once or twice your cat may get sick but nothing major
 

hissy

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20 minutes in this household. Wet food draws in bacteria in the air pretty quick and though the cat might not get ill right away, the bacteria can sit in the system and cause problems later.
 

moggiegirl

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I've had family members who left out wet food all day and their cats never got sick. Cats know better than to eat spoiled food. It's their instinct. Plus their systems handle bacteria way better than we can.
 

fenleebe

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Originally Posted by moggiegirl

I've had family members who left out wet food all day and their cats never got sick. Cats know better than to eat spoiled food. It's their instinct. Plus their systems handle bacteria way better than we can.
That's not true, they will eat it if they are hungry enough, some of the stuff I saw the shelter kitties eat when volunteering was pretty vile. And, the bacteria is an issue, while they do have more acid in their stomach to handle bacteria better than humans, the bacteria on wet food grows at a rapid pace and the longer it's left out, the more time it has to grow. It doesn't have to be as warm as you think either, in a comfortable home setting, a few hours can cause considerable bacteria growth. Not to mention, the repeated contact with the bacteria ridden food sitting in their bowls is a great way to form feline acne, etc.

Though I have to say, I have known others who have left it out most of the day and never complained of their cats being sick. I'm sure it has to do with the individual cat, those that are sensitive will probably be affected first.
 

goldenkitty45

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IMO canned food should be eaten within 30 mins or it should be refrigerated. Some cats don't like canned foods very much. Does your cat like dry better?

I would NOT leave it out for 2 hrs. I would give her a time limit of 15-20 mins - then take up the food. Wait awhile and put it down for another 15 mins. A few times of this and she will learn to eat more and quicker so its not taken away.
 

fenleebe

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

I would NOT leave it out for 2 hrs. I would give her a time limit of 15-20 mins - then take up the food. Wait awhile and put it down for another 15 mins. A few times of this and she will learn to eat more and quicker so its not taken away.
Yes, regular mealtimes make this much, much easier.
 

sharky

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I do clean out the dish after 1 hour , Zoey eats slow .. for Kandie it was a half hour... of course I throw out dry after 48 hrs
 

emmylou

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I leave wet food out all day, and my family did this with all our cats, and it's fine. If the food is too old, the cat won't eat it.

Similarly, I don't refrigerate the lunches I bring with me on weekdays, so sometimes it is eight hours or so before I eat it.

In both cases, you're talking about cooked meat. Raw would be a different story. Unless your house is unusually hot (100 degrees, say), it should be unspoiled for a good long while.

And considering how good wet food is for cats, it's worth leaving it out longer so your cat will eat more than 1 oz.
 

jenc511

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Lucy won't touch dry food. I'm not sure if she ate the dry food at the shelter, or if she just became picky after moving in, but she hasn't had a speck of dry food since she arrived. She eats twice a day, whatever she will eat in about 30 minutes or so. At first, she would eat a teeny bit and wander off. I offered her a little dry food back then. She quickly learned to eat as much as she needed, and no one is wasting away over here. I don't do dry food, so the wet is now her sole source of nutrition.

Unless there are medical issues, most cats aren't going to suffer if they miss a meal or two. I also don't give in and offer eight different types of food every time Lucy isn't horribly impressed with a particular variety (at best, I might toss a little tuna water on it). I have a notebook with a page in it devoted to listing the brands/flavors we've tried and how well received they were (not because I have tried tons of different foods, but because my memory is lacking, and I'm a compulsive list-maker). I factor in how much she likes it with how much I like it and make my future purchases accordingly. I don't continue buying her stuff she hates, but I don't buy Meow Mix just because she went crazy for it when I let her have a few bites left over from my attempts to tempt the sick kitty into eating.
 
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exoticbabee

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Thanks for all the replies. I will leave the wet food out for an hour and then give her some more fresh wet food after that (within my 2 hr window of time in the morning.) I want her to eat more in the morning because while she has dry food to nibble on, she doesn't eat that much of it(she's only 5.5 lbs..she naturally tiny but I want to make sure she maintains and/or puts on some weight).
 

misty8723

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I haven't read this entire thread, but I've found that even if I leave the food out for longer than 20 minutes, they won't eat it. If they haven't eaten any by the first 10, they won't. I usually pick it right up after they finish eating, but when I occasionally get lazy, I don't worry about them getting sick, knowing they won't eat it. I don't know if that's true for all cats, tho.

Cindy is a picky eater too, and she's a grazer, but she does eat dry food. That's why I leave the dry out at night (as much as I'd like to go all wet), because she's only 7.6 pounds and I don't want her to weigh any less than that. And Miss FussyToes will walk away from food if she doesn't want it, even if it's obvious she's hungry.
 

4meezers3kids

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I confess to leaving wet food out all day for my IBD "nibbler."

I also however add probiotics to it ... which may or may not competitively inhibit "bad" bacteria. Never have had kitty food poisoning. Don't want it either, though!

Wonder if the concerns were brought up first by dry-food marketers ... ?
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by 4meezers3kids

I confess to leaving wet food out all day for my IBD "nibbler."

I also however add probiotics to it ... which may or may not competitively inhibit "bad" bacteria. Never have had kitty food poisoning. Don't want it either, though!

Wonder if the concerns were brought up first by dry-food marketers ... ?
NO probiotics only work in the digestive tract
 

coaster

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You shouldn't need to leave wet food down two hours to get a cat to eat it. Cats get used to a routine, so if you leave food down for two hours, they'll take two hours to eat it. Well, some will -- not my two boys -- they scarf it all down immediately.
Anyway, I'd suggest just get into the routine of putting the food dish down and take it up again after 30 minutes. After a few days, your cat will get used to the idea that there's a 30 minute window of opportunity to eat the food, and will eat whatever they're going to eat within that 30 minutes.
 

4meezers3kids

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Originally Posted by sharky

NO probiotics only work in the digestive tract
Ummmmm ... why do you think humans invented yogurt? It was a way of preserving milk for later use!

Not sayin' it's EFFECTIVE ... just sayin'.
 
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