Do you let your cat graze?

[AyeAyeFishyPie]

Ours has 3 meals a day - two of dry and one of wet. But she whines incessantly for food. She snaffles what she is given very quickly.
Should I just fill her bowl and keep it topped up?!

No, but that's because one of mine would just eat the lot every time the bowl was put down, even if he exploded in the process. I give two meals of wet a day then a little dry for supper. They constantly try to mug me for extra but they're full of energy and haven't wasted away yet, so I think they're fine.

I think dry can sometimes make them feel hungrier depending on the meat content?

When my cats were young i didn't let them graze as they had a tendency to gain too much weight so they were on max three meals a day. Now they are elderly cats I let them graze whever they want or they get too thin. Depends on the cat, how much exercise they get and their age.
They whinge whether you let them graze or not. My old girl constantly asks for food but she has food on the floor right there

Briette she has very high meat content dry (Purizon) so it should be keeping her full!

I would but ddogs x4 have other ideas.

Yes, they've had a bowl of dry (usually Royal Canin) down all the time since we got them home (at 12 weeks ish). They don't over-eat, just have a bit when they need it and walk away.

They then get wet food three times a day (breakfast, after work/teatime, bedtime), plus beef trimmings on a Sunday after our roast because I'm a soft touch

Yes, ours has dry food (royal canin) out all day, then wet food twice a day. I don't think he's that keen on the dry food though so only eats it when hungry.

Mine has one pouch a day split between morning and early evening with unlimited access to dry. She's not a fan of dry so only eats when really hungry

Mine get a pouch each twice a day and dry left down (AVA 60% chicken) all the time. They aren't greedy though and don't eat it all at once

Mine goes absolutely bananas for biscuits. She wouldn’t eat any wet food if a bowl full of dry was down all day and she’d probably get very fat. She has 1-2 pouches per day and a controlled amount of dry food.

No, he doesn’t know the meaning of the word graze! Last time he had a large bowl of biscuits we ended up at the vets as he’d eaten so many he’d damaged his unstable jaw!

Newboy - if he liked the food - would just finish it there and then. So No. I have to control his consumption.

Purizon here as well. They adore it I keep telling myself it’s one of the top ones for quality but bloody hell it must be addictive they see obbsessed with it. I’ve just bought three bags. They have half a sachet of wet twice a day as well but they only eat that if they are desparate.

I free feed mine on mainly dry food but he still constantly pesters is for wet food. He’s not overweight so regulates what he eats. My brother has cats though and he can’t free feed because they massively overeat. Suppose they are like people, some eat more than others. Free feeding works for us as we’re at work and just have to make sure the bowl is always topped up (a once a day job).

Are some of your cats small or inactive? Mine has at least 5 pouches of wet food a day, won't touch dry.

There're fewer calories/ carbs in wet so would have to eat more of them to get the same intake as the dry food. I free feed dry and they both have 2 pouches each of wet per day

My two have half a pouch each of wet food in the morning and the same in the evening and dry is out all the time. Neither of them gorge themselves on the biscuits. They'll pop down once or twice a day, have a few then wander off again.

Yes - mine has 2 portions of wet food a day and has dry food (Hills) to graze on throughout the rest of the day. She seems to be able to self-regulate her food intake though, so I'm not worried about her putting on weight.

Mine have half a sachet morning and evening each and then they have biscuits hey graze on through the day

Yup - our cat is a grazer and whines if her bowl gets to 1/4 full so I just top her up twice a day. She only has dry food so it’s easy enough

Yes, my rescue cat can “ self regulate “ nicely. However, my cousin’s cat was a traumatised rescue that eats like mad because she’s fearful of not having food again. She can’t be allowed to graze.

Mine has biscuits down all day, and one wet meal a day. The wet meal she gobbles up but she grazes on the biscuits with no issues. She’s not overweight at all and isn’t a greedy girl - I think it depends on the cat.

Mine has (high protein) dry food down all the time and gets wet food in the evening. He doesn't over eat though. He just gets stressed when he can't eat on demand, so we prefer it this way.

Our last two cats stopped when they were full so I gave them food when they asked.

Got our new cat in Jan and he put on 1Kg in 6 months!! Only ever has wet grain free food but aways finishes his bowl and asks for more no matter how much I give him. My previous cats tricked me into thinking he would stop when he'd had enough. Now on a restricted diet to get his weight back down and it is hard work.

On the plus side, it's saving us lots of money!

Newboy has four pouches distributed throughout the day to cover 5 meals. Plus ‘treats’ on request - although the number of requests are going down. (He weighed in at 3.8 at the vets in August - I’d be content with him at 4, give or take, though.)