Schedule for feeding wet food

I've been giving my cats 2-3 teaspoons of wet food usually once a day, just for a treat. The rest of the time I leave dry food out for free feeding. After reading some of the threads here, I'm considering changing them over to wet food entirely. However, I'm not sure I can make it work with my crazy schedule.

If you feed twice a day, do the feedings need to be 12 hours apart? Or could I do something like 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM? That would leave 16 hours before the morning feeding the next day. Also, there would be some days when I would have to change those times around since I'm not always home.

Maybe I need to give them just one wet meal a day--more than the snack they get now--and still leave dry food out for the rest of the time.

Any suggestions?

You could feed canned twice per day (such as your suggested hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.) and then give a small, measured amount of dry food just before bed--that way they have food available in the middle of the night (and perhaps they won't wake you up). For that matter, you could do three servings of canned with the last one being right before bedtime--just use smaller servings.

I work a 12-hour night shift two nights a week, which is why I was asking about the 9:00 and 5:00 feeding times. Those days I could put the dry food out almost immediately after their evening meal of wet food. I really don't want to leave them without anything for so long, especially the pregnant one. Also, I'm not sure about the daytime feeding schedule. Even with free feeding they seem to eat more at night than during the day.

Ah, I didn't realize one was pregnant--she may need more food available throughout the day.

Ours gets fed dry in the morning about 4:30-5am and again in the evening about 5:30pm (canned). They are fine with that schedule. When someone is home, they do get a few treats of cheese around lunchtime.

If you are feeding all canned, just give them the normal meals - maybe a teaspoon more then normal.

The pregnant one should have an extra meal, so may be best to leave some dry down as well as long as the others are not eating it all - she may need to be confined to get the extra meal.

Originally Posted by cloud_shade

Ah, I didn't realize one was pregnant--she may need more food available throughout the day.

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Sorry, I should have been more specific. I have two girls who are 16 months old, both very active. I'm guessing the other one is about 10 months old. She was pregnant when I took her in last month. Looks like she may deliver in the next week. I had already changed everybody over to kitten food because Goldy was eating the adult cat food instead of the kitten food I put out for her.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Ours gets fed dry in the morning about 4:30-5am and again in the evening about 5:30pm (canned). They are fine with that schedule. When someone is home, they do get a few treats of cheese around lunchtime.

If you are feeding all canned, just give them the normal meals - maybe a teaspoon more then normal.

The pregnant one should have an extra meal, so may be best to leave some dry down as well as long as the others are not eating it all - she may need to be confined to get the extra meal.

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The only time I'm up at 5:00 AM is when I'm at work. Or when the kitties decide to play tag across my bed

My house is mostly open. The only place I have to confine the pregnant cat is the room where I keep the main food, water, and litter box for the others. I'm thinking that could cause more problems than it solves. For now I'll probably just leave out extra dry food when I'm gone at night and hope Goldy gets her share.

Sometimes with a difficult schedule you may have to gradually change things to see how they do and adjust accordingly. I also have a crazy schedule at times. My adults get canned food AM and PM with enough dry left out to nibble between meals. The younger ones get an extra meal of canned between morn and evening meals, also dry left out to nibble. The adults could care less about an extra meal (interupts naps) but the kittens need the energy. These times vary and the cats seem to adjust to the different days. No complaints so far. As for amounts of canned the label has a recommended amount but you can tell by what they leave in the food bowl if it was enough. Or the wrong flavor . Momma does need more. It should not hurt the others to eat kitten for for a short while.

I can understand the desire to feed wet only (how I wish we could!) but it sounds like your schedule is pretty hectic. Our schedule is that we free-feed good quality dry and then they get one wet meal a day. Personally, if I had your schedule I would follow something like this, but that is just a preference thing (I am a bit of a worrier and one of our cats - Steve - tends to be bullied away from his wet food by our little piggie Conor).

We do several scheduled feedings a day (we feed a mix of wet and dry)
meal 1 (approx 5:30-6 AM) .75 -1 oz each wet food
meal 2 (approx 9 AM) 2 cats split 1/3 cup dry
meal 3 (approx 4 PM-5:30) .75 -1 oz each wet food
meal 4 (approx 7-8 PM) .75 -1 oz each wet food

This schedule seems to work well for us. I take turns with DH feeding them and the only time they really annoy us is in the morning if we try to sleep in.

They also get treats most days (DH is trying to clicker train them). Treats in my house are either a couple of greenies or a few pieces of kibble.

I feed mine some wet food in the morning, after I get up (about 5:00 am), and leave a measured amount of dry down for their nibbling pleasure. The dry always gets picked up the next morning, if there's any left. When I arrive home (normally around 6:30 pm), they get a second helping of wet food. All food, wet and dry, is measured because my boy was overweight when I got him and, with the measured feeding of wet & dry, he's down to a nice healthy weight.

But, I stay with dry in addition to wet because I'm not always sure I won't have overtime or be late for some other reason, my two are nibblers and I will not leave wet food out for more than 30 minutes, and they're both healthy, happy and at a good weight with the mix of dry and wet. And vet says they're healthy in her opinion as well.

Laureen, I'm like you. There are times I'm away from home for extended periods of time. I've got a schedule for feeding that I think might work. Anyway, I'm going to try it for a while.

Wet meal between 5:30 and 6:00 PM. That's when I'm fixing my lunch to take to work with me on the nights I work. It keeps the kitties out from underfoot. I'm also generally at home then one the days I'm not working.

Leave a measured amount of dry food out for the night.

Wet meal again in the morning. This one will be any time between 7:30 and 10:00 AM. The nights I don't work I get up sometime between 7:30 and 9:00 and the girls expect to be fed immediately. The nights I work I get home anywhere from 8:15 to 10:00, depending on whether or not I get out on time or if I do some shopping before going home.

It's not going to work too well to give Goldy an extra meal during the day. I tried putting down just one dish and all three kitties crowded around trying to get at it. I can either give Goldy larger portions for the two regular meals, or give the other two just a tiny bit when Goldy gets her extra meal.