Fixing a Free-Feeding Fixated Feline!!!

Hi guys, I am still new here but if you've read some of my posts, You might be able to tell that this is my first time being the only one to make decisions for my own cat. I've helped others with their cats and while I was growing up, it was my mom's cats and my mom's rules. If you already know about "free-feeding" and have your own cats on scheduled feeding routine then skip over the segment in green and maybe you could help me!

Free-Feeding is when food is readily available to your cats, free access, all you can eat buffet. For example: every time your cat meows for food, food goes in the bowl. Another example is an dispenser or overfilled cat bowls. This is a convenient way to make sure your cat is being fed when you have long days at work or just can't be home all the time.

Now why is this a problem that needs to be fixed? Well as it so happens, this causes a lot of problems in cats that might surprise you. Cats need to challenge themselves for food, and if they are not being challenged (aka being played with, releasing their energy, "hunting") then they aren't being fulfilled as a cat and take out the repressed energy on say: ankles, other pets, other cats, anything that moves, etc.

As it so happens, a schedule is the absolute best thing for a cat. I know cats could be meticulous but they seem to be chaotic creatures at times, don't they? So why a schedule? Well, a cat needs to have balance. They may be house-cats but as all cat-owners know, every cat is a predator and what do predators do? They hunt for their food. Free-fed cats are frustrated! They don't know what to do with this unnatural amount of energy that hasn't been expelled! So to fix this you put your cat on a routine where you play with him/her, simulate the excitement of hunting and chasing with toys AND THEN you feed them. Soon after he/she will bathe and sleep and this is the ideal for your cat's daily routine. It means less misbehavior for you and more balance to him/her. 

Now on to what I need help with. My cat has a bad habit of asking for food every time my boyfriend and I walk into the kitchen. Lately he's been eating his food way too quickly and then acting like he didn't eat 15 minutes later. No, it is not worms or anything, he's just bored and unstimulated. His worst habit is probably digging extra food out of his bowl and flinging it around the house. This has got to be the clearest cry for routine I could imagine so I am aware that is time to take him off free-feeding. 

He is 1 year old as of next month and I am a little unsure on how much and how often I should feed. I am also trying to give him more wet food than dry food. I am wiling to do playtime and my schedule is pretty open but when it's not it's usually a little something like this: 

11:am - 3:30 pm Awake and home

4/5 pm - 10 pm Away at work

11 pm - 2am Awake at home

3am - 10am dead asleep.

Now this is a typical schedule for me but most of the time, either me or my boyfriend would be here at all times with no more than a couple hours where we are both gone. There are rare situations where we both work "all day" (him 8am - 6pm and me 11am - 9pm) Also both of us are usually going to bed sometime between 2am and 5am. The problem with our free-feeding of the cat is that we both do not have regular times that we are asleep and awake. This is not a habit that we can break unfortunately with how we both make a living and have hobbies that keep us up all night. However if it means I have to wake up or stay up later to feed my cat, I always will. 


[picture shown above: elusive male cat being caught playing with his food instead of eating it

poofs his tail up to show that he's a big strong man who don't need no rules]

This article may help a bit:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals

You can get timed feeders to help accommodate the schedule.

He's cute! I like the solid tail but spotted body.

For me, transitioning my free fed dry cat food junky was part easy, part difficult. She took to the wet food happily but the schedule, forget it. I started by picking her dry food bowl up in the evening around six pm or seven pm. She would start meowing like a long suffering an starved child around anywhere from one am to four am. After a lot of trial and error and feeding her at odd ball hours to keep her quiet, I finally got her on a good schedule. I would explain my entire process right now but I am on my mobile device right now.

Enya gets a breakfast of wet food at around six am. A few hours later around ten am or so, she gets two teaspoons of dry food as a snack. Around six pm she gets a dinner of wet food. After that she receives no more food unless it is a glucosamine treat late at night.

I also live with family members who can feed her at the scheduled times if I am out and/or at work. It was a long and annoying process to get her on a schedule, though. I had to pick the food up in the early evenings and weather the ensuing meows of desperation through ungodly hours.

I did it though because I love her so much and she needed to be on a schedule to help her gradually lose weight and to make her work for her food. You can do it, but be prepared for some meow filled and sleepless nights.

Raintyger said:

 
You can get timed feeders to help accommodate the schedule.

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That's what I was going to suggest.

When we first got Muffin, my mother's cat, she was used to being free-fed. Her dishes always full and she could just help herself when she was hungry. Or bored. Or what have you. And as a result, when we first got her, she was a little on the chunky side.

We can't free-feed here. We have cats who would eat to the point where they'd puke, and then come back and eat again. Or the bowls would be emptied within 15 minutes. I've tried it more than once and it's not pretty. Obviously, we couldn't continue to let Muffin just eat whenever she wanted.

It helps to be some kind of schedule....I really do think that's key. Since it's difficult for you, I would also suggest a timed feeder for a dry snack to keep him from starving when you're not available to feed him. 

You didn't say what kind of food he was eating, canned for meals, dry for snacks? Or if you did, I missed it. We feed canned twice a day: for breakfast and then for dinner. We have six cats and they each get 1/3 of a can twice a day. When we're home during the day, I'll give them some dry as snacks throughout the day; our cats like to be fed small meals throughout the day. They have a bedtime dry snack around 8:00 or so. And then that's it.

You might want to check into something like a Deli Dome. We have one and basically, you fill little plastic balls with dry cat food. The balls have holes so the cat food will fall out. The Deli Dome is programmed to shoot a ball out of the Dome at certain times of the day; you'll need batteries. And as the ball shoots out, it will roll along the floor, dropping dry cat food as it rolls. My gang loves to chase the ball and then eat the kibble. They get to eat, but they also get a little exercise along the way, too. They're a little expensive, but my gang loves the balls.    I think it holds six balls and then you get two extra balls. Our Rainbow Baby, Banshee, even figured out when it was close to the time a ball would shoot and she would sit by the Dome, waiting for the ball to come out.   It was really funny to watch her bat the ball around and then stop and eat a kibble or two. She was hilarious. 

Good luck! Your cat is gorgeous! I just love that tail!

As far as how much to feed, here's another article to help with that:  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-much-food-should-i-feed-my-cat

And you've got it exactly right.  Play with him first, especially if it's with something like Da Bird, to get his hunter/prey instinct going, then feed him, and he'll be a very satisfied cat

Switching from free-feeding to scheduled feedings was tricky for my cat. She was free-fed at the shelter, and we switched her to scheduled meals when we took her home.

In the beginning, she would meow throughout the day, roaming the kitchen. Then she tapered off to only running to the kitchen when she heard the pantry door open. During the first few months (yes, months), it took a lot of patience to ignore her constant meowing. We would distract her, but playing with her. Overall, it took 4 months for her to realize, that timed meals were her new routine!

Now, she knows her meal times and only occasionally begs for more food when she's being a diva! She gets enough calories throughout the day so we're not under feeding her. She just loves food! 

Best advice, figure out a schedule that works best for you, and stick with it! We feed 1/4 cup of dry in the morning, and 1/2 can of wet in the afternoon/evening, then sometimes, a few dry kibble pieces as a late night snack before bed.

Good luck! 

I'd just like to add that cats aren't designed to eat large, infrequent meals. They do best with smaller, more frequent meals. Most compromise on 3 meals, and not necessarily evenly spaced.

Some also feed timed meals but leave a measured amount of dry or freeze dried (unrehydrated) food out when they sleep.

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LDG said:

I'd just like to add that cats aren't designed to eat large, infrequent meals. They do best with smaller, more frequent meals. Most compromise on 3 meals, and not necessarily evenly spaced.

Some also feed timed meals but leave a measured amount of dry or freeze dried (unrehydrated) food out when they sleep.

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I have always been told cats need to fast between meals - as in six to twelve hours apart. Who knows - everyone has a different opinion on this subject. I guess it comes down to what works best for your cat.