Besides the potential for obesity anyway.
Sadie is my tiny adorable problem child. When I first got her I fully intended to feed her canned food until I could find a decent way to get her to eat a raw diet. She loved canned food! I had at least 6 different brands with various different flavours and I made sure she had something new to look forward to each day. This worked great for the first, I don't even know, maybe 6 months? Slowly but surely she stopped eating almost all of her canned food flavours and types. It was a slow decline, it started with pates, so we moved on to the chunkier foods, then on to the shredded chicken kinds until there was maybe 2-3 types left over that she will only eat a tiny portion of on the right days and at the magical right times.
So now she primarily eats dry food. It isn't ideal, but it is what it is.
She has gotten into the habit of eating the tiniest meals that I have ever seen a cat eat in my life. There are times she may eat as little as five individual pieces of cat food before walking away. Typically I sit with her while she eats (she will only eat in my room with me in it and the door closed, so I just spend time on my laptop until she's finished). It is a huge struggle to get her to eat enough food some days, so I do give in and feed her several times a day each day (probably anywhere from 4-10 times depending on the day). Even then, she's still a little on the thin side, especially after just recovering from surgery where I could only feed her her dreaded canned food for a full week.
Obviously with just having had surgery (to her mouth region especially) she has been to the vet. There wasn't anything that the vet felt was a red flag to her weird eating habits (besides obviously the blocked salivary gland, but that's been dealt with!). She still does eat, roughly, what she should in a day. There are days where she eats too little and days where she'll eat a bit more than she should, but I'm not sure what else to do at this point.
I'm just worried that eating frequently is going to have negative consequences. I know I've seen a lot of push for a few large meals a day rather than several small ones spread out over the course of a day. I do make sure to monitor how much food she is getting, so she isn't just eating as much as she wants all the time she wants it.
Here's a picture of Sadie to show off how much you can't tell how skinny she is:
Granted that was before her surgery, so she is slightly thinner looking now. Her hair is so crazy thick! She looks nothing like the cat I adopted a year ago who was supposedly fully grown! I just love those whiskers!
(also please ignore the dog snot prints all over the window, that is the best seat for all to watch birds from, including the terrier)
Sadie is my tiny adorable problem child. When I first got her I fully intended to feed her canned food until I could find a decent way to get her to eat a raw diet. She loved canned food! I had at least 6 different brands with various different flavours and I made sure she had something new to look forward to each day. This worked great for the first, I don't even know, maybe 6 months? Slowly but surely she stopped eating almost all of her canned food flavours and types. It was a slow decline, it started with pates, so we moved on to the chunkier foods, then on to the shredded chicken kinds until there was maybe 2-3 types left over that she will only eat a tiny portion of on the right days and at the magical right times.
So now she primarily eats dry food. It isn't ideal, but it is what it is.
She has gotten into the habit of eating the tiniest meals that I have ever seen a cat eat in my life. There are times she may eat as little as five individual pieces of cat food before walking away. Typically I sit with her while she eats (she will only eat in my room with me in it and the door closed, so I just spend time on my laptop until she's finished). It is a huge struggle to get her to eat enough food some days, so I do give in and feed her several times a day each day (probably anywhere from 4-10 times depending on the day). Even then, she's still a little on the thin side, especially after just recovering from surgery where I could only feed her her dreaded canned food for a full week.
Obviously with just having had surgery (to her mouth region especially) she has been to the vet. There wasn't anything that the vet felt was a red flag to her weird eating habits (besides obviously the blocked salivary gland, but that's been dealt with!). She still does eat, roughly, what she should in a day. There are days where she eats too little and days where she'll eat a bit more than she should, but I'm not sure what else to do at this point.
I'm just worried that eating frequently is going to have negative consequences. I know I've seen a lot of push for a few large meals a day rather than several small ones spread out over the course of a day. I do make sure to monitor how much food she is getting, so she isn't just eating as much as she wants all the time she wants it.
Here's a picture of Sadie to show off how much you can't tell how skinny she is:
Granted that was before her surgery, so she is slightly thinner looking now. Her hair is so crazy thick! She looks nothing like the cat I adopted a year ago who was supposedly fully grown! I just love those whiskers!