How long to leave wet food out?

[goldpendant]

Hi everyone

Just wondering how long is ok to leave wet food out for?

Our 1 yr old boy eats about half a pouch mixed with dry food, but rarely finishes it in one go.

I'm a bit lithe to leave it out too long as it smells and seems a bit grim - he will however come back to it.

He's still fed twice a day, should I switch to a wet morning feed, clearing it away, then leave some dry out in the evening?

Advice much appreciated!

I clear it away after about 30mins. Generally if they haven't eaten it by then they're not going to and it goes manky quickly.

Ok this is helpful thanks.

Is he old enough to drop to one meal a day? And if so, what time would this usually be?

I feed our cats three times a day. Breakfast, dinner and bedtime. They get half a pouch each and dried food is down all day with a large bowl of water. All my cats have been like this since they were four months old. I’ve found that otherwise they just leave it and it attracts flies (yuck) goes hard and crunchy and they them turn their noses up at it, or, they try and bury it and flick it everywhere (grim!).
They have me trained to remove it once they’ve wandered away from the bowl.

@Bargebill19

I feed our cats three times a day. Breakfast, dinner and bedtime. They get half a pouch each and dried food is down all day with a large bowl of water. All my cats have been like this since they were four months old. I’ve found that otherwise they just leave it and it attracts flies (yuck) goes hard and crunchy and they them turn their noses up at it, or, they try and bury it and flick it everywhere (grim!). They have me trained to remove it once they’ve wandered away from the bowl.

Same.

Though my cat is very good at telling me if she is hungry.

Does yours bang the bowl with their paw ?! That’s our cats signal for ‘feed me now slave’. 🤣

I leave my cats wet food out for about two hours. She eats a bit and then meanders off but returns again later. I stir the food when she reappears so the nice squishy bits are moved to the top.

I tidy it away about an hour before her next meal. She’s fed three times a day. I leave her supper out overnight as she nibbles on it overnight.

Yes it smells but she doesn’t seem to mind. If it’s off she won’t eat it.

She gets ad-lib biscuits and a water fountain.

@Bargebill19

Does yours bang the bowl with their paw ?! That’s our cats signal for ‘feed me now slave’. 🤣

No, mine brings something to me and aggressively chews it. If she can't find a toy, she'll find something else to chew. Plastic is her favourite. 🙄🙄😂

We leave the wet food out for afew hours, she comes and goes to it. Dry food is left out all the time too... We then replace 2/3 times in the 24 hours

She then gets 1 chicken breast a week, and one Tin of tuna a week which she will eat over afew hours, coming back and forth.

Obviously water is always left out, which we change every time we are at the sink, as she washes her paws in the bowl, so it gets grubby 🤷🏻

@QuestionableMouse

I think I get off lightly with bowl banging!

I'd take that over aggressive chewing 😂😊

Mine get wet food twice a day and dry out all the time. They get half a pouch between them in the mornings & a full one between them in the evenings, and they are most definitely grazers when it comes to food! I came down this morning to find Girlcat happily chomping on the remains of last night's supper (so had been down around 12 hours).

If you think about it, cats are designed for little & often e.g. the equivalent of a small rodent per feed. Slightly grizzly way to look at it, but that's what happens in the wild.

I leave dry out all the time and give wet 2 or 3 times a day (depends if they ask for a lunchtime snack!). I just scrape out the old wet food at the next feeding time if there's any left

cats aren't really a one meal type of animal. They like to graze and come back and forth to the food dishes throughout the day

When I had a cat I used to leave dry food out but the wet food I would give a couple of spoonfuls 2-3 times a day then immediately washed up the bowl when they walked away. To my mind it's like leaving your own food out between meals and it encourages flies.

So we changed this around last night and this morning and he has already eaten better - finished bowl of wet food in one go this morning so I could wash bowl immediately. Dry food will go in around lunchtime for him to graze on this afternoon!

We have a motion activated feeder so when they're not eating, it keeps the moist food from drying out and any flies from getting at it. It was pricey but has probably saved us a fortune in wet food being chucked out.

Those bowls are a lot cheaper on Zooplus www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_bowls_feeders/feeders/programmable/564235