Feeding Schedules

Right now my 3 boys don't have a schedule; I free feed dry food. I've been doing some research about cats' nutritional needs, and decided to get some canned food :3

My questions are: what kind of feeding schedule should I put my kitties on? I was thinking of feeding the canned at a scheduled time, and leaving a bit of dry food out for them graze on during the day. Should I feed canned once or twice a day? Two of my cats are 6 months and the other is 2 months. Do I need to have different schedules for them or should I feed the youngest the same as the other two?

Thank you to all who respond

I feed can once a day, in the morning then leave out dry all day. Most will say add as much canned as you can, but I feel more comfortable this way. Maybe start out once a day and if it goes well, add twice

My kitties have recently transitioned from all dry to all wet. I did feed both for a couple weeks.

Currently, I'm feeding wet twice a day, in the morning and in the evenings. They're fed at about the same time every day...my schedule is pretty much the same every day. They're all ready and waiting when it's time to be fed, but they're not asking for food at any other time.

When I was feeding booth wet and dry, I had dry available 24/7 and fed wet in the evenings.

I have a whole house full of kitties (7 from 1 year to 10 years) but no kittens. I don't know how I'd have to change my feeding schedule for a young cat.

Kitties apparently like smaller more frequent meals. So we are wet feeding four times a day: 6 am, noon, 6pm, midnight. 1.5 ounces per cat (a small kitty can split between the two kitties or half an adult size can split two ways).

They are starting to show signs of being less desperate for each feeding, so I may transition to three times a day (6, 2pm, and 10 pm).

My vet encouraged the establishment of a late night feeding. Even though they are indoor cats, if they ever were to get outside in the evening, the late night feeding schedule would give pretty good odds of getting them back in for the overnight hours.

I used to feed their dry food in the morning around 7am (1/4 cup each of Natural Balance Ultra) and then give them each 3oz of wet food around 6pm. They usually finish all the dry food within 20 minutes but sometimes it lasts longer. The wet food usually would sit out for hours and they would eventually finish all of it, but not for hours after I gave it to them.

What I'm doing now is giving them 1/8 cup each of dry in the morning and 1 1/2 oz of wet food each. I'm not mixing the dry and wet but am putting them on the same plate. The amount of food is the same as before but I find that they eat the wet food quicker this way. I just don't like that it sits out as long as it does. My cats aren't super picky but they definitely like their dry food more than their wet. I'm feeding the same amount as before (they still eat a daily total of 1/4 cup of dry each and 3oz of wet each).

I don't want them to get used to eating 3 times a day because I am not always going to be home as much as I am now. The only time I did more than 2 feedings a day was when Chloe was a kitten. A 2 month old kitten should be fed a minimum of 3 meals a day if it's not being free-fed. The 6 month old one can eat 2 meals a day but 3 isn't going to hurt.

Kittens should have access to their dry food all day long and can be free-fed, so long as there aren't adult cats around to scarf up the kitten food. Since all the cats are young, you can leave dry food out all day and then feed little bits of wet food throughout the day. Feed as much wet food as you can afford as often as you can. If you can refrigerate the cans and save the leftovers, it will save money. With that many cats you can split the larger sized cans too, which are cheaper per oz.

I kept Chloe on kitten food until she was 11 months old, but she is a tiny and active cat so I was not worried about her becoming overweight. I would keep the 6 month old on kitten food until at least 9 months...but people have different opinions about that.