Advice for cat feed time issues?

Hi, sorry if this is not the right forum channel, but I have a pressing question and would like some advice--

Our cat over-eats if fed freely, so we portion control for 2 meals a day. Right now, we feed at 8am and 8pm. The problem is that from as early as 4am until 8am, our cat tries to wake me up (by bopping me, biting me, sitting on my head, purring on me, anything!) and it gets more intense until 8am finally arrives. After I feed him, he calms down until 8pm approaches, but the situation is worse in the morning.

I was planning to possibly try shifting his feeding schedule to a later time so that he isn't as hungry in the morning, but I am not sure that will do any good, and the current 8a/8p is best for our work schedule. We used to feed twice a day without set times, but he would heavily beg for food all day, so we went with the time schedule to try to limit his begging.

Ideas?

I'd feed him 3 times a day on a set schedule. Every 8 hours. Be sure to feed him right before you go to bed, and then when you get up. This is of course assuming you sleep 8 hours.

Also, don't be afraid to lock the cat out of the room. If they bug me when I'm sleeping, they have to go

My cats are big beggers too. What helped here was to feed when I wake up, after work ,and right before I go to bed.

How long have you been on this schedule? Also are you doing feeding wet or dry?

My cats would whine for a little while, but they are used to the schedule now and actually remind me 5min beforehand to get their food together.

When I used to feed kibble, I used those treat balls, and would put part of their daily meal in it so, they not only had to work for it, but they also had a little bit to hold them over.

cardinalcat said:

Hi, sorry if this is not the right forum channel, but I have a pressing question and would like some advice--

Our cat over-eats if fed freely, so we portion control for 2 meals a day. Right now, we feed at 8am and 8pm. The problem is that from as early as 4am until 8am, our cat tries to wake me up (by bopping me, biting me, sitting on my head, purring on me, anything!) and it gets more intense until 8am finally arrives. After I feed him, he calms down until 8pm approaches, but the situation is worse in the morning.

I was planning to possibly try shifting his feeding schedule to a later time so that he isn't as hungry in the morning, but I am not sure that will do any good, and the current 8a/8p is best for our work schedule. We used to feed twice a day without set times, but he would heavily beg for food all day, so we went with the time schedule to try to limit his begging.

Ideas?

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Are you feeding a kibble diet, wet or combination diet?  Mine are not huge kibble eaters but they do graze it.  Their big meals are the 2 wet meals.  I feed the 2 wet meals about 8 hours apart.  Usually around 7am and then again at about 5pm.  Times are not always *exact* but close withing 30 minutes or so.   I have a timed dispenser that dispenses 1/3 of their daily kibble 3 separate times throughout the day.  Their kibble dispenses at 12pm, 9pm and again at 2am.  They are getting 3 small kibble meals to feed on before their big meals.  If you are feeding an all kibble diet you could certainly use the automated feeder to space out their "daily" kibble intake into 3 to 5 smaller meals per day.  This has been successful for me but they will still beg if they can get away with it.  I also give a few treats in the evenening, usually feline Greenies and Greenies Small Bites (the Small Bites are new and my cats scream for them .