Do you "free feed" your cats?

[pandybear]

i ticked other too because i always have a kibble dispenser filled up but they get three meals a day of can food too, if figure they might want to snack during the day like i do, i would be pretty upset if i had to wait for meals at certain times, they never gorge themselves anyway so it isn't a problem

sometimes i wonder if i feed them too much, no-one ever told me how much cats were meant to eat, i have three meals a day so i just thought that's what they should have too...

love,

felicia

 

[pat]

Originally Posted by pandybear

<snip>
sometimes i wonder if i feed them too much, no-one ever told me how much cats were meant to eat, i have three meals a day so i just thought that's what they should have too...

love,

felicia

Felicia, it depends on the food and the size of your cat (just like people they can be small/medium/large frame). Each brand of food, wet or dry, though should have a feeding guideline or recommendation on the label - saying feed x amt. per day if cat weighs between x and y. You'd then just split that total daily amt. into the feedings you want to give...3 feedings a day is fine...not all cats can handle true free feeding (bowl always full) without overeating, for some, it works as it should...them taking frequent small meals throughout the day.

click here to go to a site with a chart that helps you assess if a cat is too thin, just right, a bit overweight or downright overly plump

 

[commonoddity042]

free fed 'til fixed, then scheduled to maintain that lithe kitty-esque figure.

 

[dvandyke]

Luke has been my only cat for years and he can only eat the dry food. The canned food gives him a tummy ache but he LOVES it. So like on his birthday and at Christmas he gets a tiny can. I marked free feed only because of how rarely he gets canned food added.

 

[daidreamer]

we free feed our cats all of them - we found out Max had a urionary tract infection so we got the meds for him and changed the all the cats diet to a maintenance diet that our vet recommended. The vet said it was good to let them graze since we have so many of them it would be difficult to have the on a schedule.. the seem to be pretty healthy now and none of the seem to be losing weight or gaining either which is good.

 

[sofiecusion]

Summer is freefed, but I followed my vets reccommendation of feeding her according to the weight and measurements on the bag (the told me to stick to the lower end of these guidelines).

She is also given a can of canned food about once a week.