The Number of Meals a Day

So ever since I joined here (and at another cat forum) it's always been repeated 'Cats need several small meals a day.' It didn't seem out of place to me and so I went with it and encouraged it to others.

However, now I have bought a book called "The Natural Cat", which states that in the wild cats only eat once a day - if they are lucky. The fast that cats go through in between meals is good for their bodies because it allows for the blood and energy used for digestion to go to other areas of the body that need it, including healing. "The organs of excretion - the intestines, kidneys, lungs and skin - can get a good housecleaning" and it's this housecleaning that keeps them free of disease even though they eat disease ridden prey.

This actually makes a lot more sense to me and makes me worry less about my cat going without food while I'm at work, but what do you guys think about it??

My vet said to feed my cats 2 meals a day. So they:

Get a meal when I wake up.
Get a snack in the afternoon.
Get another meal about 4-5 hours before I go to bed.
Get a snack just before I go to sleep.

When Parker was getting 3 meals or being free fed, I found he got overweight. So I stick to the 2 meals and the snacks and they are all maintaining a healthy weight.

While those facts may be true, I think that any less than 2 meals is sort of pushing it.

She advocates 2-3 meals a day with no snacks; she was just stating how you shouldn't give so many meals or any snacks in between meals because it means the majority of activity (blood and energy) are directed towards the stomach and digestive tract and not towards any of the other systems in the body. She wasn't saying you should go down to one, I don't think any owner would survive that. xD

My cats' largest meal is in the morning - combination of wet canned food and home cooked meat. They are given 2 snacks (dry food) in the afternoon and evening. They are indoor/outdoor so they get a lot of exercise except one -Ni- who just likes to nap, or watch the others running around all over the place, and is fond of eating the leftovers of the others. Ni is overweight.

Almost all zoos now have switched big cats to a gorge and fast model diet, in which they are fed very large meals infrequently and have some days where they are fed nothing but a bone or a bit of rawhide to chew on. They found that the lions for example could maintain healthy weight on much less meat this way, saving the zoos money, and they saw an increase in activity.

However, consider the following:
1) Domestic cats are no more wild than domesticated pigs, cows, sheep, and horses.

2) A feral cat's lifestyle is not a healthy one, and ferals live much shorter lives than their indoor counterparts.

3) A feral cat is typically also malnourished, and it is not feeding infrequently by choice anymore than it is eating human garbage or mice that are infested with parasites.

4) An indoor cats eating commercial food does not have a similar lifestyle or foodsource compared to feral cats.

5) Studies have shown that cats that are free-fed or fed more frequently are statistically less prone to UTIs.

Now don't get me wrong, too many cats don't self-regulate their intake so I'm not recommending universal free feeding. However, I would just point out that there are studies that show that there are benefits to frequent feeding but there aren't any studies that I am aware of for domestic cats on a commercial diet that benefited from being fed less regularly.

Most cats also seem to enjoy eating smaller meals more frequently so they don't feel hungry, and generally speaking its easier to maintain a steady blood sugar level with more smaller meals than visa versa, at least that's what I've read for diabetic cats and general nutrition info for people.

So personally, we are feeding three meals a day, plus a snack, so technically four total and my cats DEFINITELY have a lot of energy (spastic if you ask me) and so far are healthy... *knock on wood* So I don't want to fix what aint broken!

Originally Posted by Minka

So ever since I joined here (and at another cat forum) it's always been repeated 'Cats need several small meals a day.' It didn't seem out of place to me and so I went with it and encouraged it to others.

However, now I have bought a book called "The Natural Cat", which states that in the wild cats only eat once a day - if they are lucky. The fast that cats go through in between meals is good for their bodies because it allows for the blood and energy used for digestion to go to other areas of the body that need it, including healing. "The organs of excretion - the intestines, kidneys, lungs and skin - can get a good housecleaning" and it's this housecleaning that keeps them free of disease even though they eat disease ridden prey.

This actually makes a lot more sense to me and makes me worry less about my cat going without food while I'm at work, but what do you guys think about it??

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My completely indoor pure domestic cat Panda is given a mix of wet and dry food before I got to bed. She is also left with a cup of dry food before I got bed. When I wake up whatever dry food is left from that night is put away. Whatever wet and dry food mix is left in the AM is tossed. The reason for this feeding schedule is her medical issues.

Now my two indoor/outdoor domestics are given two meals (wet and dry food mixed together in the AM and PM ) plus unlimited dry food. Since they go in and out they seem fine on said diet.

Now my F3 Savannah used to eat 3 to 4 cups of dry food a day when he was young (4 to 9 months). Now that he is a bit over a year old he eats 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of dry food at night. This is what he does. I have nothing to do with that.

So Minka I agree with what you read .

When Mist, my 16 years old cat was diagnosed with diabetes - on my own I switched her over to four small meals per day on the theory that if human diabetics are counseled to eat frequent small meals to maintain good blood glucose levels this would be good for her too.

Currently we also have two "teenage" boys, about 10 / 11 months old. It is easier for me to feed them on the same schedule as Mist.

Mist gets 1/2 of a 3 ounce can in morning when I get up, at lunchtime, and at dinner time. At bedtime she gets a whole small can. So total she gets 2.5 small cans / day.

Domino and Mr. Poe each get 1/2 of a 3 ounce can plus 1 generous tablespoon of dry food at every meal 4 times a day. They polish their bowls clean very quickly. So total each boy gets 2 small cans plus 4 Tablespoons (Maybe a bit over 1/4 cup?) / day.

Works for cats and humans.

My cats are usually fed three main meals and two snacks a day, but even the main meals are broken up into 2 servings so they actually eat 7 or 8 times a day.

They do go 10-12 hours without food overnight.

Mixing wet and dry is not good practice because dry food digests at a much slower rate than wet. It can take up to 12 hours for a dry food meal to completely digest.

My cats, when they get it, which is only about twice a week, get their dry food snack as the last snack of the day.

With the exception of Mazy cat who is on Hills Prescription c/d multicare kibble.

Hi, Minka. Like the book you're reading recommends, I feed three times a day. About half an hour after I wake in the morning, first thing when I come home from work, and last thing before I go to bed. I rarely feed snacks or treats, and I seldom sleep for more than eight or nine hours (unless I'm sick, of course).

I've seen time and again that cats who have to go 10-12 hours without food will often throw up - a thin, mostly clear type of vomit - because their tummies have become slightly acidic. Bumping their feedings from two to three invariably resolves this issue.

AC

Originally Posted by otto

Mixing wet and dry is not good practice because dry food digests at a much slower rate than wet. It can take up to 12 hours for a dry food meal to completely digest.

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Not to be disrespectful as you know I think you ROCK! But I have never heard that before and I asked my vet and he said it was safe. Plus my one cat is at least 11 years old and has eaten that way for 10 of those years .

Yeah, I have to agree, as while I never mix dry into a wet meal, I certainly don't worry about following a wet meal with a dry. Perhaps some kitties with sensitive tummies might be affected, but my two are fine.

Think about how long it takes to digest a steak compared to mashed potatoes, and we clearly don't find it necessary for our digestive health to avoid eating those at the same time. In fact, I think I just made myself hungry! Dangit...

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

I've seen time and again that cats who have to go 10-12 hours without food will often throw up - a thin, mostly clear type of vomit - because their tummies have become slightly acidic. Bumping their feedings from two to three invariably resolves this issue.

AC

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Especially as they get older. Ootay could only eat very small amounts and would get very nauseous if she went more than 3 or 4 hours without food. It took months after she left for the Bridge for me to stop waking up at 3 a.m and 6 a.m for her middle of the night feedings.

Tolly will vomit if he goes more than 12 hours without food, and sometimes even fewer hours, but it can't be helped. He has to take the Denosyl on an empty stomach, and then wait another hour, or it will have no benefit for him. In addition he has to fast before bloodwork.

He must have read this thread because he vomited bile this morning. It had been only 9 1/2 hours since his last meal. But he had to have his Denosyl (with syringe of water chaser), and then wait another hour for food.

Originally Posted by Cat Person

Not to be disrespectful as you know I think you ROCK! But I have never heard that before and I asked my vet and he said it was safe. Plus my one cat is at least 11 years old and has eaten that way for 10 of those years

.

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I know you are not being disrespectful I didn't say it wasn't "safe" exactly, and I am glad your kitties are fine of course. But it can cause a cat to have a tummy ache. Kitties can't tell us if they have a stomach ache a few hours after eating and they are the masters of hiding any feelings of being unwell, so we would most likely never know.

And it might inhibit the body's ability to absorb the nutrients from the canned food, but I don't know, I am just guessing about that part, but it makes sense to me.

I will occasionally resort to sprinkling a couple of pieces of kibble over a canned meal to encourage a reluctant eater, but only three or four pieces and I try not to do it too often, because of the digestive-times factor.

I don't know how someone determines what's "best" for a cat's digestive system. Cats are incredibly adaptable animals and our domestic cats are 1000s of generations away from their African Wildcat forebears (felis sylvestris lybica).

I do know that from my cat predation research, cats are completely opportunistic when it comes to what and when they eat. Feral cats will optimize their hunting strategies (Liberg 1984) to maximize nutritional intake for energy expended. This means that if all that is available to them is field mice, they'll hunt field mice. It takes them about 45 minutes to an hour to stalk and hunt them, and they'll eat many small meals a day. But if rabbits are available, they'll stalk and hunt rabbits. It can take on average about five hours - so five times the time and work - but a rabbit weighs in excess of 10x more than a mouse, so a lot more nutrition for energy expended. Hunting rabbits, cats will eat maybe one meal a day.

Don't know what this says about "what's best." To me, it says, cats are flexible, and there probably isn't a "best" per se.

We free fed our cats for about eight years, providing one, then two wet meals a day of wet food (am and pm), until we made the switch to timed wet meals. When free feeding, they all nibbled very little bits quite frequently.

My understanding is that cats, just like people, can have problems with their digestive systems. But a normal cat will empty its stomach in the digestive process in about two hours. I only have this information from vets as re: diagnostic imaging, and they did not specify whether the food eaten was dry or wet, and imaging needed to be done on an empty stomach.

Otto, if you have a link to the information about the longer digestion of dry food, I'd love to see it.

Originally Posted by otto

I know you are not being disrespectful

I didn't say it wasn't "safe" exactly, and I am glad your kitties are fine of course. But it can cause a cat to have a tummy ache. Kitties can't tell us if they have a stomach ache a few hours after eating and they are the masters of hiding any feelings of being unwell, so we would most likely never know.

And it might inhibit the body's ability to absorb the nutrients from the canned food, but I don't know, I am just guessing about that part, but it makes sense to me.

I will occasionally resort to sprinkling a couple of pieces of kibble over a canned meal to encourage a reluctant eater, but only three or four pieces and I try not to do it too often, because of the digestive-times factor.

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Well as long as you know I am not being disrespectful. As far as my one DLH being fed one time a day in my bedroom at bedtime that is the only way I can control what she eats. But I would NOT recommend this feeding method without consulting a veterinarian. I did, and that is why I feed her that way. Well the real reason is her various medical issues . But you get the idea, I hope .

Again you ROCK .

I'm feeding my cat three small meals; one in the morning (between 5am-6am) & the next meal 8 hours after (at around 1pm-3pm) and again after 8 hours (usually 8pm-9pm).
I tried sticking to two meals but my cat is used to constantly eating scraps in between his meals (I can thank my family cook for that!). So now I'm trying this method & hope he'll stick with it!

Originally Posted by allroundthesun

Wow, I was just coming to post a question asking if I safely feed my cats twice a day; this is convenient.

The problem I'm having is that my cats keep "pressuring"

me for more and more meals each day. We're up to four now, and they're pushing hard for five or more - by which I mean, if it's been two or three hours since a meal, they literally mob me (climb all over me, swat me, meow non-stop, follow me around circling my legs, etc. and it's definitely for food, not affection) until I feed them. It's getting ridiculous and I feel like no matter how many times I feed them, they're not happy.

None of them have any parasites (all were checked about six weeks ago when they had their annual exams) and they're eating a good quality food (Blue Buffalo, but I've tried Wellness with the same result), so aside from Meeko who's 16 and has a hyperthyroid and who I therefore feed four or five times a day, which is fine, I don't feel like they need to be eating this much. Any suggestions on how to handle this?

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Are they eating the dry or wet version? You may try switching to the wet version and see how that goes.

Also, are you giving in and giving them more? If say you are feeding 1/2 cup dry for each, but you give in and give another 1/8th cup and they are still hungry, I would say that they are probably deficient in some nutrient and that's what gets them to beg for more. OR because they know you give in, they continue begging.

I would try one week of wet only, half a can each in the morning and the other half at night. If they beg, completely ignore them. Don't look at them, don't pet them, don't say 'No baby, no food for you.'

If after a week their begging behavior persists, I would certainly look into nutrient deficiencies.