Wet Food Question...

Hi & thanks for reading.
My cat needs to move to 100% wet food according to my vet. Currently he is fed three times a day. AM is dry food from an Auto Feeder (lets us sleep in peace) and lunch/dinner is wet food.

Now I am needed to replace the morning with wet food and am thinking about getting a different auto feeder that can handle wet food on a timer.

My plan is to refrigerate his wet food and put the morning portion into the feeder cold. It would be in the feeder for eight hours before he could eat it.

Am I taking a risk leaving the food that long even though it starts off cold? Perhaps I could freeze it and let it thaw in there overnight?

I am not a morning person and an automated solution for 7AM would be a great help.

Please let me know your thoughts?
Cheers

I can't answer your question, except to say that I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving wet food out that long. Sometimes on the weekends if I feel like sleeping in, I get up at the usual time, give them their food, and then go back to bed. Is that an option?

They make wet food feeders that will keep the food cold, but most cats don't like their food wet and some will even vomit from it (if they eat too much cold food).

I second just crawling out of bed for a few minutes to feed the cat.

It can't be any worse than how I've been spending my nights and mornings - waking up every time I hear Blann cough. I think I was up 4 times last night.

I would not do anything unsafe for my little guy and I agree about the cold food. I always make sure his food is room temp before serving.

I have a weird schedule and on some days the AM feeding would be in the middle of my sleep. I like to keep him on a set feeding time and I can do that with lunch and dinner...it's the breakfast that was a problem...hence the autofeeder.

So as of right now it is a no to putting the food out cold and leaving it.

I am still wondering if I put it out frozen, if it would be the right temp/thawed in the morning. Perhaps I will experiment during the day to see when it reaches room temp and aslo ask my vet.

I appreciate all the feedback.

I have a self feeder by Lentek that uses ice packs to keep the food cool. I don't use it often, but if I know I'm going to be late getting home I set it up so my food-centric cat doesn't go crazy. It works ok.

I think you're going to have to experiment in your situation. Putting a bowl on ice packs may solve the problem or freezing it the night before. If the auto wet feeders work, then go for it.

I know people who use an auto feeder with wet food and they put it in frozen then it thaws by the time it opens. also know of people who somehow put an ice pack under the container of food in the auto feeder to keep it cool. and have been doing this quite a while.
Remember cats have the short digestive tract of a carnivore so things tend not to stay in them long for bacteria to multiply. They are much less at risk for food poisoning than a human would be. Just think how their big cat relatives will sometimes hide a large kill -- or hang it in a tree if they're a leopard! --and feed off it for a few days with no refrigeration or preservatives. NOT that you should not be concerned at all, and I don't mean you should hang raw meat in a tree for a few days and then feed it to your kitty, LOL. But just putting it in perspective, you don't have to think of it quite the same way as if it were something for your human kids to eat.