Are scheduled feedings necessary?

Everyone is telling me the first step to switching Patricia from dry to wet food is putting her on a schedule. She eats so little I would rather not. I just want to put her on wet food. Yesterday, I measured 1/4 cup of kibbles and she only ate enough to live another day. It makes me think if I switch her to a schedule, she will not get enough food. Would it be better to add wet to dry instead of switch from dry to wet to make sure she, at age 16, gets enough food every day?

Well, when we free fed kibble, I started offering a meal of wet food a day. That was long before I had any intent to switch to timed meals. I just wanted them to get more moisture in their diet. At dinner time, I called "DINNER" - like I was calling them for treats. They liked the gravy in the whiskas, and that's what I fed them at first. They'd like up the gravy. Then I added a second meal, at breakfast time. I still called "DINNER" ( :lol3: ), because they associated that with their "wet food treat." Then I switched to higher quality foods - and anything in gravy (other than Weruva, apparently) has wheat gluten or something in it. So I used a pate, and mixed water into it. That worked for them. So now they had two wet meals a day.

Over time, they just ate more and more food at wet meals, and I put out less and less kibble for them to free feed. When it ran out overnight, they were hungry in the morning for their "Dinner" wet food.

You can try that. Of course, you have to find a wet food she loves enough to think of it as a treat she wants.

Hmmm, good question.  Does she have any health issues?  Is she the only cat in your household at the moment?   My Sven had kidney disease when we decided we wanted to switch everyone to raw, and they had all been free fed all their lives.  I really worried about him getting enough food, because he was already just skin and bones, so it was a real dilemma.  I finally decided to just feed him separately (kibble) on the side, along with the scheduled feedings.  

I'd probably feed her wet, but keep kibble out for her, but others may give you a different opinion.  You know, we all have our opinions here

She will get her teeth cleaned because of gingivitis and T4 (high side of normal right now) retested in January. Otherwise, she is fine.

I am open to all ideas that will not stress her out, but for now I am just thinking about wet food, not a raw diet.

The other thing you can do, in addition to the above suggestion, is put down MEASURED amounts of dry food. However much dry she eats a day, divide it into 3 or four meals. Put that amount down. When it runs out, it runs out until the next scheduled time to put some down. Just don't make big deal out of when those times are, make a big deal about the meal of wet food you will also be offering her.

LDG said:

The other thing you can do, in addition to the above suggestion, is put down MEASURED amounts of dry food. However much dry she eats a day, divide it into 3 or four meals. Put that amount down. When it runs out, it runs out until the next scheduled time to put some down. Just don't make big deal out of when those times are, make a big deal about the meal of wet food you will also be offering her.

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As you know I used to free feed kibble but have since gone to timed dry feedings with an automated feeder.  I measure each individual day's ration of kibble and split it through 3 different times.  The wet feedings have become the huge deal in this household.  Like you, I just say DINNER and they come running

I sure hope they're not necessary. I'm the boss at a 24/7 business and I'm just never ever consistently home at the same time of day to feed them. They get feed morning, noon, and night...it's just that that may be 5am, 4pm, and 10pm or noon, 4pm, and 2am or....

RIccaDawn said:

I sure hope they're not necessary. I'm the boss at a 24/7 business and I'm just never ever consistently home at the same time of day to feed them. They get feed morning, noon, and night...it's just that that may be 5am, 4pm, and 10pm or noon, 4pm, and 2am or....

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Honestly I think that is the best way, otherwise you end up with pets whining and pacing at x time, you aren't free feeding, but they aren't on a strict schedule.  I used to always feed my cat when I first got up but as soon as I moved in the mornings she started crying.  Took awhile to break that habit, now I feed either before or after I go to work, (between 8-10am), whenever I get off work (between 3-5pm) and before bed, around 8-9 pm.  It's easier now that she is on raw because she can eat way more at once then I could feed in kibble or canned and so she isn't hungry all the time.  Before she would puke if she ate more than a small amount and I had to feed more often.

Ricca, your job would not matter if you buy an automatic feeder with a timer. Unfortunately they are expensive, but I would buy one if I had no other way to give Patricia three meals every day.

EmilyMayWilcha said:

Ricca, your job would not matter if you buy an automatic feeder with a timer. Unfortunately they are expensive, but I would buy one if I had no other way to give Patricia three meals every day.

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I have no problem getting them three meals a day, it's just that they aren't always at the same time. I've never looked into automatic feeders - I feed wet. Do they make them for wet food? Sounds messy.