hungry kitty

I'm a little late to the party, but here goes.

You might want to try raw free feeding your cat on an empty stomach just to see how much she would eat within a specific period of time. Maybe try raw free feeding for 20-30 minutes if she's a slow eater.

With the raw-fed kittens I'm fostering, they always have a way of signalling when they want more or have had enough. You'll just need to observe and learn what those signals are. With my fosters, when they either start playing with the food or grooming themselves, I know they've had enough.

Once you've established a baseline of how much she needs, then you could try to work with those meal sizes.

Feeding amounts based on body weight percentages are recommended guidelines, but you should try to find out what's ideal for your cat.

There are a few things to consider.

You may want to exercise some judgement on when you think she's had too much food. Not because of weight gain issues, but she might potentially throw up. There have been rare occasions when I've stopped feeding when I thought they'd had a lot more than their usual amount in a single meal.

Another thing to consider is what you're feeding your cat. Is there sufficient bone and fat in her raw mix? I have often observed that when there's the appropriate quantity of bone and fat in the meal, they're satiated sooner, as opposed to when I am only feeding muscle meat.

I am not sure what your raw feeding approach is, so hope that helps.

@nessakhoo, here's what I do.

Since I feed frankenprey, I usually have about a week's worth of "parts" in the freezer. My preferred way of doing it is to store parcel the parts separately. So I have separate parcels each of raw meaty bones, muscle meat and organs, each a little more than what a day's needs would be.

Each night, I place take the parcels for the next day from the freezer and put them either in the fridge or the chill drawer (also called the chiller by some). This gets the thawing process going, and thus requires slightly less prep time before feeding.

Since I have already portioned out what each kitten eats for the day, I don't need to measure exact amounts at each meal time. I just ensure that over the course of the day, each kittens eats its allocated portion. So if you feed frankenprey like this, there's no need to stress over exact measures at each meal.

Now, at feeding time, you'll have three scenarios. The portion for the meal is finished and the cat is satisfied, the cat eats less than its allocated portion, or the cat wants more. The first scenario doesn't need further action, so let's consider the other two.

And this, hopefully, will answer your question of living in a warm climate and food going bad. BTW, I live in a tropical country too.

I feed individual parts to the kittens, one at a time. So I don't put everything into the feeding bowl at once. When one part has been consumed, I put the next into the bowl.

(The above process is time-consuming, but has several excellent benefits if you can spare the effort. For one, you get to observe closely precisely how your cat handles the various parts, and if its mouth and jaws are capable of handling certain cuts or sizes. You also get to ensure that your cat doesn't cherry-pick and only eats the parts it likes first, and maybe abandons the other stuff it needs for a balanced diet. I feed raw meaty bones first, followed by muscle meat, followed by organs.)

This way, the unfed pieces are largely uncontaminated and can be put back into the refrigerator for the day. If any kitten eats less than its share, I simply refrigerate the remainder for the next meal. I try to feed any excess within the day. If there are any leftovers at the end of the day, it gets discarded.

As for wanting to eat more, since I have more than a day's needs in the refrigerator, I can always quickly warm up more if necessary.

Hope this helps.

It sounds to me like the cat is just anticipating mealtime, and happens to be very food-motivated.

Some of the amounts recommended in previous posts are WAY too much food for a raw-fed cat.  Raw food is far more nutritionally dense than canned, so you have to feed less.  My cats are 15 lbs, more than twice the weight of this little guy, and they get 5 oz/day each.  This cat is getting 3 meals a day, totalling 100 grams.  This is 3.3% of body weight, which is in the correct ballpark (2-4%).  For some cats, this would actually be too much food! 

I'd go by the cat's weight.  If you are noticing weight loss or gain, or if your vet says the cat is under or overweight, adjust feeding accordingly.  You might also play with the cat before meals, when he/she starts getting excited.  Part of what she may be asking for is simply attention from you, especially if you just got home and she's happy to see you.

There is also nothing wrong with a two year old cat going 12 hours between meals.  Some cats are fed just once or twice a day, and that's fine.  Three meals a day is actually what most raw feeders do, and it's rare that meals are perfectly spaced at 8 hour intervals.

@sophie1, how much would you trust cats you've cared for to self-regulate, i.e. to stop eating when they've had enough?

My cats are free-fed from a chilled bowl, and they self-regulate very nicely.   I know a number of people who free-feed canned food, also.  It is definitely more convenient for those of us with unpredictable schedules, although it's no less work than meal feeding.  I still have to clean the bowl daily, add food a couple times a day, and change ice packs 2-3 times a day.

It's possible that not all cats can self-regulate this way, but I guess there's only one way to find out.  Note that this is different from free feeding dry food, where some cats definitely can't self-regulate.  I guess that the lack of water in the food doesn't give the same "I'm full" signal that wet food does.

sophie1 said:

My cats are free-fed from a chilled bowl, and they self-regulate very nicely.   I know a number of people who free-feed canned food, also.  It is definitely more convenient for those of us with unpredictable schedules, although it's no less work than meal feeding.  I still have to clean the bowl daily, add food a couple times a day, and change ice packs 2-3 times a day.

It's possible that not all cats can self-regulate this way, but I guess there's only one way to find out.  Note that this is different from free feeding dry food, where some cats definitely can't self-regulate.  I guess that the lack of water in the food doesn't give the same "I'm full" signal that wet food does.

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Do you chill your own metal bowls or did you buy the kind with the ice pack? I've been wondering about this for my cat.

Thanks, @sophie1.

I feed my 3 rescues 4 times a day, and I find that they usually self-regulate well. I asked earlier as some people have commented that cats which have gone through bouts of severe hunger may eat much in excess of what they need.

The chilled bowl is an intriguing idea. I just need to get them used to cold food. My fosters are fine with stuff at or near room temperature, but cold food is usually rejected.

I bought the Frostybowlz, but as an alternate I made a homemade cardboard box with lining and an ice pack inside, and a hole cut in the top for a stainless steel dish.  It works well enough.

My cats would probably prefer warm food if you asked them, and indeed they regard a freshly opened can of food like manna from heaven.  But they handle the cold food just fine.  It's not really super cold, more like 50-55 degrees.

They probably get a higher bacterial load than most cats because of this, but it doesn't seem to bother them.  No problems in 3 years, even though sometimes they'll eat food that's been out for more than a day.  I am careful about what I feed them though.  Either high pressure pasteurized foods, or grinds from Hare Today that are frozen immediately on processing - unlike grocery meats that are dry aged, transported and then kept in display cases at fridge temperatures for probably a couple of weeks in total.

sophie1 said:

It sounds to me like the cat is just anticipating mealtime, and happens to be very food-motivated.

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LOL. Is there any other kind of cat? My cats can free-feed kibble 24/7, but they know when it is time for one of their 3 wet food meals of the day. It gives their day a nice structure & they have something to look forward to.