Adjusting the cats to only two feedings daily(one of them's only 3months) to prepare for a weekend o

[matts mom]

Matt-3years 14.6lbs

Midnight-14weeks...was 2.6lbs on august 27th

They'll be dropped in on twice a day, at 9am and7pm while I go camping for the weekend.....but right now they're used to 8am, 2pm,8pm, and11pm

I have them on a 80-20 wet-dry ratio, which I thought I might change to 50/50 to allow for some free-feeding while I'm gone. 

My dilemma is how to make the transition back from wet to dry, and cut their daily feedings from four to two.

The kibble is 470Kcal/cup, and Matt is to have about 238cal./day. I think the average can was about 200 cal, so I need to sort out how much dry to give him if he's to drop to  only having half a can.........and then how to take his feedings from four to two

And the kitten's been on a can/day and about 1/4cup  kitten kibble a day, but since he's growing fast, I could get away with letting him have a little more, since this is an all-stages food. And again, how to go about cutting from four to two feedings without stressing his little digestive system.....He'll have to learn to free-feed, so I wondered if I should just give him 1/2 cup twice daily, and decrease it until I figure out what he eats? Right now I feed him when ever he asks. (that's where the schedule came from, he set the times)

 

[karkel59]

I was wondering also how to switch 64 from wet to dry, I leave dry out all day, she hardly eats any but she loves wet...so how am I to go away for a day or two like people say you can and leave dry food ? She's about 10 weeks old, so the vet thinks, since we found her we don't know for sure. She weighed 2.6 lbs about a week ago.

 

[lcat4]

With respect to the timing of the meals, i just went through something like this. My cats eat three times a day, raw and home cooked. We went away for a week, my in-laws came in twice a day to care for the kitties. So two meals were taken care of as normal. For the third meal, they set up timed feeders with blue ice and fed the cats canned food for that meal. Since that meal was free for all (no guarantee who actually ate the food), I had her give more at the two meals she was there for, and less for the last meal.

Could you do the same but have the two fed meals be canned food and have the timer set to open with two smaller dry meals at about the time they normally eat? I used the CatMate 20. If your cats can eat next to eachother, you only need one and have it filled each time the sitter is there. Otherwise get two and they only have to set them once a day, both sides, and set the timers to open accordingly.

 

[matts mom]

unfortunately, the kitten is still in his isolation period, being only allowed out when someone can supervise the two together to make sure that any  fighting is only in play. I brought him inside as a feral-born about a month ago. and the timed feeders I've found around here are about $60 each, which is somewhat pricey for a three-day use. I doubt it would get used once I'm home again to feed on schedule, since I'd put them right back to wet-all-day with kibble as their late night snack(the current schedule) routine.

However this does mean that free-feeding the baby is possible, if I can go about training him to leave some for later. If it comes down to it, Matt's feedings were twice daily before the baby came in, and he'll survive without his lunch

............I just might want to lock up any food source lol!

 Although what might work for Matt is that Cat-it toy where the cat has to work for it's food.....If he's really hungry, he'll find a way to get the kibble out lol I could have Grandma put his lunch in here....
 Midnight's kibble of course would go in his bowls, because he'll be left in his room, except when Grandma comes over to play...meaning Matt can't steal his food when no-one's looking either

With these solutions, I could have them split a can each time she comes over, and not adjust anything but their feeding times