feed then take dish away...?

My vet told me to do this and get him regular. I can't for the life of me remember why though. Can someone elaborate on this?

I know she was talking about the design of a cat and how it was basically 'made for starvation' etc.

Cats (unlike other animals) can stop eating when they are no longer hungry. However, the tendency of indoor cats (just like people)is to overeat when they get bored. Your vet doesn't want Zero to develop a big tummy or get overweight so he is asking you to portion his food.

I see, I figured it was something along those lines. He's a good healthy weight now. From the beginning we told ourselves we weren't going to let him be a big fatty!

I free feed my cats and don't have any overweight kitties. I've heard opinions both ways on the subject.

From the future feline website:

Physiologically, the cat is adapted to gorge food, followed by periods of fasting. This eating habit is necessary to provide sufficient time between meals for the body to de-tox, because a nearly all meat diet produces many toxic metabolic by-products, which are naturally filtered from the blood by the kidneys, and excreted in the urine. If the cat were to eat continuously, high toxic levels would be maintained in the blood stream and accumulative effect the cat's health. Meal feeding in 8-12 hour intervals assures that toxins in the blood peak only for short periods after ingestion and during digestion, after which they are nearly completely filtered from the body.

So I see that is how they are meant to be in the wild. I don't believe that would be a necessity since what they are being fed most likely doesn't need to be extensively filtered like the meat would be.

So with that, it's probably not necessary unless he's getting overweight. I'm going to start anyway soon just because.

On a sidenote... it doesn't seem like Zero has had a large apetite lately...

Cats have a very small stomach and don't need a lot of food. Some cat owners forget this and feed the bowl, not the cat. I take up my food after 25 minutes indoors, but outdoors, the food stays out until nightfall.

Originally posted by yayi
Cats (unlike other animals) can stop eating when they are no longer hungry. However, the tendency of indoor cats (just like people)is to overeat when they get bored. Your vet doesn't want Zero to develop a big tummy or get overweight so he is asking you to portion his food.

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this is very true

I don't know all the technical stuff, but I have heard that it is more "natural" for them to eat at intervals (like 2 times a day) than constantly. But even without that fact, I feed 2 scheduled meals, measured to their needs and then pick it up. Works for me.