I have always fed my cats twice a day, 1/4 cup each at 7:30am and another 1/4 cup each at 6pm of dry food. It's what my vet originally told me to feed them, and so I've always done it that way. Recently, with my new working schedule, I have switched the schedule to 6am and 5pm.
Lewis has always been the annoying one, especially in the mornings. He usually starts an hour before the mealtime, finds me wherever I am, and walks over me crying. If I'm asleep, he rubs his face against mine until I wake up. I usually push him off the bed, which doesn't bother him - he just gets right up again. This is so frustrating to me who is trying to grasp the last precious 60 minutes in my comfy bed before I have to get up and face the day. Sometimes I hide under my covers, but that usually doesn't last long because I'm quite a fan of being able to breathe.
This has been a problem for years, and I'm getting quite frustrated with it. The other day I mentioned to my husband that perhaps we should keep food out all the time for our cats. Ebony, the female cat, would do just fine with that. I doubt she would eat more than she needed. Lewis, the fat male cat, already struggles with being overweight and he is constantly hungry. I honestly think he would just eat himself silly, and if I left food out all the time then I wouldn't be able to control the amount he eats at all. My husband doesn't think it would be good to leave food out.
Has anyone dealt with this? Does anyone have any ideas?
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2 comments:
My dog is also overweight and, after each meal, wants to eat more. He communicates this by grabbing his food bowl and carrying it out of his crate and flipping it around the living room for a while, then barking insistently. When he calms down and stops "insisting", I sometimes give him vegetables, which are good for him and fill his belly. A number of people have recommended this.
Another note: You mentioned leaving food out for the cats all the time- the previous owners of our dog did this for him, and this "free feeding" is how he became overweight. I think he'd get bored and eat, just like us humans do!
From what I've read, cats are different than dogs in that they don't always eat their fill (which is why free-feeding often works well for cats). I know a lot of cats who are free-fed and a healthy weight. Ebony, I'm pretty sure, would do great with that setup. Lewis, however, falls in the group of cats that would just get overweight with free-feeding. I think I'm going to ask the vet for ideas when I take him to get his yearly shots next month. Perhaps she will have some ideas.
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