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?!

Biscuits down all day and three sachets of wet food. One is a ginormous ginger tom, the other a dainty girl. Both free to roam outside.

When I first had cats, the vet told me not to leave food down for them and 5 mins only to eat their meals. I soon strayed from that and let them have food when they want it. They regulate their eating and aren't always a their food bowls. I'd hate to think of them being hungry.

Mine have dry down all the time - they’re not big fans of wet and mostly when I put it down it gets sniffed at and left. One has to have grain free but he hates grain-free wet food so I just let him have the biscuits else he won’t eat. They get tuna and chicken once or twice a week too.

Dry down all day, never feed them wet.

My foster cat gets half a pouch of wet food for breakfast, the other half for dinner, and two kinds of dry food down permanently for her to graze. I have a third kind of dry food that she REALLY likes but I only give her a few of those a day as a treat. When I first got it I put down a bowlful - she scoffed the lot in two minutes and then threw up.

My cat is prone to being over weight so he gets 3 meals a day and clears his bowl immediately each time. No treats either.

If I left food for him to "graze" it would be a disaster. It's been hard work getting him near his target weight and keeping him there!

One measure of dry food for breakfast, one for tea, and all she can catch from the hot-and-cold running field mouse buffet. She can’t self regulate, and is overweight, but if we cut down her food we provide she just catches more!

Mine have dry in a bowl topped up twice a day. They still whinge for ham or whatever they can scrounge. I also know at least 2 other neighbours feed them too (and we feed other neighbours cats as well!) so I refuse to put more down!

Our two get two pouches a day between them and crunchies left out all the time. One is a dainty little lightweight, the other is chunkier (and in the food bowl six times as often!) but the vet is happy enough with her weight.

I've just read all of these and feel like I've struck gold with my cat.

He's a rescue cat so I don't know his history but his day looks like this:

• in the morning he's given half a can of Gourmet Gold Pate (those cans are only 85g)
• His bowl is quarter filled with dry Whiskas.
• In the evening he get the other half of the pate.
• His bowl is refilled for overnight.

If he eats all of the dry food from the morning by lunchtime I'll give him some more, but since getting him he's only done that a couple of times. It's actually quite unusual for him to finish off all of the pate that he gets. He's fed pate because he won't eat chunky food. Since getting him he's only put on 200g and that was after a couple of steroid shots which increased his appetite temporarily. Otherwise, the vet is very happy with his weight.

He never whines for food, he never pesters or comes to wake us up in the morning, he just waits patiently. If we go out for a few hours, he never eats when he's alone. We do give him a few extra bits if we're roasting a chicken, but he hardly ever gets any of our food. I'm hoping this never changes and he doesn't become whiney or starts pestering!

That would be very unusual! Mine would be scratching my door down if I didn’t give them a midnight snack and then again at 6am. They aren’t bothered after that though until about 8pm. I just couldn’t go out without leaving dry food down just Incase.

Grazing here. 1/2 a pouch morning and evening and a scoop of high meat dry food once every 24 hours for my two.

Sort of grazing...we do give him what he is supposed to have and he will whine for more. He has put on weight and needs to loose some, though I think he is being fed elsewhere.