Please talk to me about your indoor cat feeding schedule

[Homeiswherethedogsare]

I have a BSH, she is a neutered female, 1 year old. Indoor only, quite lazy.
Vet told me she seems to be carrying a bit of extra weight around her belly so might want to cut calories.
Breeder feeding guidance was to only ever stick to dry food (pretty much unlimited) past the first 6 months as they seem to self regulate and overall eat less/only eat what they need and this approach prevents eating disorders as they are natural grazers. I trust the breeder, he has a lot of experience, however I do sometimes question whether it is the correct approach given she has a) already gained weight and b) I am sometimes concerned that she is not getting enough hydration (normally find at least 2 wet lumps in litter but the other day just one).

If I switch to a combined diet, what is the best approach? I am thinking one wet can or pouch in the morning and then a handful of kibble (would follow guideline on box) in the evening. I also like that she has food down at night so doesn’t wake us up for breakfast and don’t have space for an autofeeder.

Keen to know what others do!

Marvin has a very complicated feeding schedule - largely because of me fussing 🙂 He has up to a pouch of Felix in the morning - fed in two halves. If he doesn't finish the first half I don't bother putting down the second one. Early - mid afternoon he gets another half pouch plus some dried kibble - around a handful. At about 7.30pm he gets half a pouch of better quality wet food, plus topped up dry food with dried chicken fillet sprinkled on top. The dry food stays down all night as does the wet food during the winter as he often goes back for more in the early hours. Treats get put in a puzzle feeder mid afternoon for some extra stimulation. He looks well on it but basically I'm running a cat cafe 😐

She was overweight at one point so we measured the food until she dropped back. Just had her annual check and weight is normal. Half a pack of wet food twice a day is ample when she has dry food to top it up twice a day too. She is a lazy arse but gorgeous company and lying next to me just now ♥️

I stopped free feeding as mine was getting too chunky
now he gets an 80g tin of wet food, am and pm. I scatter about 10 bits of dry food into a snuffle mat for him and that’s it
he’s about 7kg

I have five indoor cats. Three do self regulate, two are unashamedly gluttonous. Currently I have dried cat food (the fatties don’t really like, but the others do.) out all day. They get a small pouch of wet food twice a day, plus one snack at night. So far it’s working ok. I use purine one with occasional felix/whiskas. Treats are a variety of dreamies/webbox/felix/catit/supermarket own brand treats.

My BSH also indoor, has access to a good quality dry food, Canagan, all the time and gets a small sachet of wet food in the evening and treats later on.
Weight is fine.

Thanks! What do people mean when they say a “small” sachet? Aren’t they all usually the same size? Or do you mean you give him half?

You get 50g sachets too
Gourmet mon petit and sheba fresh and fine are smaller

My experience is that some cats self-regulate and some cats really really don't. A bit like humans!

Our schedule:
Cats wake at 6am and start wailing that they have never been fed before in their whole lives. We ignore them.
7 am - cat breakfast time. Little tin wetfood each, handful grain free kibble. Cat least capable of self-regulation (Julie) is fed kibble in a slow feeder or she inhales her breakfast and then vomits. Byron has his in a microchip feeder so Julie can't nick it.
8 am - coffee time. Cats assemble for treats. Julie is so desperate that we have been able to teach her sit, down, high-five in return for treats.
9am to 4pm - sleeping. Byron is banned from outdoors due to helping himself to all the cat food in the village
4pm - cats start to think it is dinner time
5pm - Byron really really thinks it is dinner time and starts helpfully pointing out the cupboard food is kept in. This cupboard now has a child proof lock on after break ins.
6:30 pm - Actual cat dinner time. Same as breakfast.
Rest of evening - cats wander around in hope of a bit of human dinner. Bed.

I've had cats you could free feed. Unfortunately they've always lived with cats that couldn't. Always ended up with a fat cat on a diet.

I can’t free feed mine, she doesn’t regulate. I give half a pouch wet food in morning, a little more wet food at lunch plus some kibble. Then 6pm more kibble, then 10pm some kibble for overnight. So, little and often. I think she’d feel hard done by if she never had the wet food.

Nope our schedule was definitely forced by DCat1’s food obsession! He was a stray and basically yelled for food 24 hours a day (scoffing everything we put down in seconds!)- it’s food anxiety which is triggered by them constantly needed to search for their next meal on the streets. The schedule sorts the anxiety because it gives them confidence when the next meal is coming. He starts appealing for food about 2 hours before time and can tell us to the minute when it’s due! We tried feeding him earlier and the next day he just campaigned even earlier 🙈. If I put 10 meals a day down, he would eat them all 😂. DCat2 only mildly better than this but was put on the same militant schedule on day 1!!!

Bless him❤️

I think what's being fed can be as important as how much.

Both DSis & I have 1 self regulating cat and one fatty. We both moved to "lightweight" formula dry food & watched our fattys losing weight while the self regulating ones didn't lose any. My Tobias would dive on his food like he was starving when I put the wet down, but now he realises he will get fed regularly & there's plenty of kibble available he's got so much better - even grazing on the wet rather than gobbling it down as soon as it's there.

Mine is another self regulator. She has a pouch morning and evening, and apart from that, dried food always available (she doesn't eat much of it).

I have had an overweight cat before - I sought vetinary advice and fed a mixed diet, weighing out the recommended amounts, from what I can recall.

If you can afford a vet appointment for advice, they should be able to recommend what amount your cat needs of wet and dried. And then you just have to be ruthless and stick to it.

At least, with an indoor cat, they can't go and pester the neighbours for food!

Poor thing

Is it some sort of cat version of Prada Willi?

Not all cats can regulate with food. Most are grazers but some don't have an off switch.
Weigh food out and use kibble as treats until you get to the desired weight. Mine prefer drinking out of our glasses too.
Mine have dry food down all the time and 2 or 3 small pouches of wet and some cooked fish/chicken during the day. If I'm home they give me hungry cues and I feed them. If I'm at work they power down and sleep all day apparently...DH can be home but they don't bother him for food. (As he doesn't notice them asking)

I was always told not to use dry food for cats, it makes them balloon

My old boy had half a can (40g) morning and evening and a measured amount of dry food left down in the bowl. That way he could graze, but if it was gone it was gone. He never suffered and was generally overweight rather than under. The good quality dry stuff is quite calorific so you don’t want them eating too much. We have new rescues and one is an absolute fiend for food so feeding time is a nightmare and I daren’t leave anything down. Plus one is on renal food so can’t let them have the normal stuff……keep side eyeing chip feeders and wondering if they would be worth it.

I have an indoor cat. Until recently she only ever ate dried food. She started licking the gravy in the dogs food and now has a pouch for breakfast, kibble is down through the day for her to graze and half a pouch for tea.
She doesn’t eat a full pouch at teatime bit does have kibble down all the time.

Sorry but what do people mean with “small pouch”? Aren’t they all the same size?

Nope. They're not all the same size. My cats like the Sheba fresh ones that are a measly 50g. The normal size ones are 80g I think.

You get 50g sachets too
Gourmet mon petit and sheba fresh and fine are smaller

(I used this answer earlier when you asked the first time)

Mine get wet food twice a day and unlimited kibble - but we buy dry food that they eat but don't gobble. On occasion when we've bought very popular dry food boycat in particular will pack it away, so it goes off the menu.
Its also a bit seasonal with their weight here as mine go outside and in the summer will be out most of the day and night hunting, but at the moment they are asleep inside most of the time and get fatter

I think it's just a trauma response to being homeless and hungry. All our cats have experienced some form of trauma or abuse and a few have been greedy; he's just the most extreme case we've ever had. DP is feeding them at the moment and I can hear him ( cat not DP 😂) headbutting the door to the kitchen where the others are being fed. He's locked up between the kitchen and the back door and has already finished his food. We've had to fit a special latch to the kitchen door to stop him.

I think that very much depends on the individual food. Mine were originally on standard Royal Canin Indoor formula which is a little less likely to pile on the pounds, then when Boycat developed CKD I had to use special Kidney food to try to get his weight up, and poor svelte Girlcat was circular within a couple of months. When we had to have him PTS & Tobias came home they went back on the Indoor & Girlcat lost the excess weight pretty quickly.

Tobias was always a bit of a podge so I changed their main kibble to the RC Lightweight and occasional anti hairball (Girlcat is the Queen of hairballs). The weight is slowly coming off Tobias, and Girlcat still has her perfect figure.

@Homeiswherethedogsare Mine have the Hi Life tuna pouches at breakfast, and those are 70g a pouch.

Sorry didn’t see that! Thanks!