my demons are on 200g per day each, i give them a pouch in the morning and then around evening time they get another, but they go crazy wanting food at 4am ish, not good for 9am lecture starts! i had my exams last week and latened all their feeds, so that i wouldnt get woken up at 4, so they had their final meal around 1am, when i was done revising and ready for bed. Exams are over now, and i still have them on that routine, they dont seem to beg for food now, but my sister was saying feeding them this late will be bad for them, they are still active at night but they are not scratching and biting at me due to hunger, but is this late feed bad for them? any thoughts? also is the amount im feeding ok? or do they need more per day?

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Shadow - Black moggy boy born 26/08/2011
Lightning - black and white moggy boy born 26/08/2011

Domino - black and white moggy boy born 14/03/2012
Oscar - black and white moggy boy born 14/03/2012

Nutmeg - Torti moggy girl born 29/03/2012
Fifi - black fluffy moggy girl 29/03/2012

RIP Fluffy girl always missed x

Left to their own devices, cats eat small meals when they can catch them, or, if they are free fed, they tend to snack.

I have always left food available and have found they will eat a little, then go off for a snooze or whatever, then snack again when they feel peckish.

My reasoning was that my boy came to us having been rescued and described as a stray, so I worked on the assumption that he might have not always had food available and I wanted him to know that he would always have food so there was always something there for him when he checked his bowl out.

I did the same with Maisie because she was living rough in the garden when we moved in and would just sit there until I fed her.

I find that if they go for any length of time without food, overnight maybe, they tend to gulp their breakfast and bring it back up again.

I can't see that feeding them late would be bad for them, they do the same kind of things at night as they do in the day

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Also I find they stop when they have had enough.

Most foods have a guide for how much to feed, either on the packaging or on the company website, if you aren't sure, although I must admit to not using those. I would just leave food out and see what happens, but if you need to keep to set times, then perhaps give them a little bit more each meal time.

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I try and fit my feeding time in with my work pattern to help them out.

I used to feed:
6am - 100g of wet.
1pm - top up their dry.
8pm - 100g of wet.
10pm-11pm - top up dry if required.

But now I only top up their dry when I am going to bed (very slowly weening them off it), between 10pm and 11pm. However, I try and feed them wet around the same times.

I am still woken between 4am and 5am though, but I think this is more attention than hunger as when I have fed them even around 6am, they don't seem overly greedily scoffing it down.

Mine get fed when I get up... So 6.15am when I'm in work, anytime from 8am-10am if I'm not... They get 100g each of wet.

I leave a small amount of dry down for them to snack on.

Then at tea time (so between 5.30-7.30pm) they have another 100g of wet.

If they nag later, I give them a small amount of dry for the night.

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Debs

Lives with a wonderful husband, 2 adorable rescue kitties Harry and Sabrina, and a flock of pampered pet chickens.

Kittens could eat for England in the Olympics if it were allowed!!!! They are just pure little guzzle machines.

Any food they eat is burned off very quickly so it is best, if you can, to feed little and often. Some folks feed their kittens up to 8 times a day.

IMO, 200g for a kitten, per day, is not really enough. They need at least double that each. If you are out all day, I would suggest a feeding pattern of:

1.As soon as you get up.
2.Just before you leave the house.
3.As soon as you get in.
4.Just before going to bed.

On feeds 2 & 4 I would put down extra food to last through the day or night. Thus, letting you get some decent sleep. Or, you could leave some dry food out ( a good one like Orijin) for them to graze on.

Cats do eventually self-regulate as they get older. Abby & McGee have recently, in the last month or so, stopped being little guzzle-monsters and are approx 18-20mths old.

I hope that helps.

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I work during the day and OH works nights so I feed them 100g each in the morning at about 8am, OH feeds them another 100g each at about 3pm, I feed them 100g each when I get back home at about 7 or 8pm, then leave out 100g each at about 11pm before I go to bed. Seems like a lot of food - but they aren't on any dry

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Basil & Sybil

mine arent on any dry gives them diarrhea the one time they did have it they had such little control that one of them released some whilst they was playing poor thing they both had to get a bath after that, ive mixed some with wet a few times but too many and it messes them up, they seem to be really sensitive to it
i worry about giving them a large amount of wet and it going bad or something, recently they struggle to finish 100g in a sitting, and it gets left out so ive been giving them half a pouch each but more frequently, shadows at the moment only has his canine teeth, and maybe one of the back ones, although they are growing quite rapidly hes really struggling to eat so hes been having the pate type foods, lightning although has his teeth i noticed a lot are wobbly just dont seem to be budging, so again uncomfortable for him too, poor guys i hate watching them eat they struggle so much, well hes on pate too now until his teeth sort themselfs out, but they will only eat about half in each sitting and if i leave them to it i dunno whos had what so yesterday they had about 6 feeds half a pouch each time, they didnt seem interested in about 2 of them

last time i went the vet she said i should give them some wet each time they appeared hungry, i did that until recently but even then they wouldnt eat a great amount, and ive noticed when they overeat, they are so lethargic, i guess the equivalent to us eating too much - cba doing anything.

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Love all my babies
Shadow - Black moggy boy born 26/08/2011
Lightning - black and white moggy boy born 26/08/2011

Domino - black and white moggy boy born 14/03/2012
Oscar - black and white moggy boy born 14/03/2012

Nutmeg - Torti moggy girl born 29/03/2012
Fifi - black fluffy moggy girl 29/03/2012

RIP Fluffy girl always missed x

In that case, try feeding them just before you go to bed - give them a bit extra if it makes them lethargic, that's what you want at night-time.

I have always fed just before bed-time and rarely have any interrupted sleep. Many folks do for the same reason.

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I hope not - my two get thier last meal of the night around 2-3am - that being said, they dont get breakfast until 10 am ish (hubby works evenings/nights and as I'm not working atm it was easier just to adjust to his schedule else I wasn't getting enough sleep).

Atm they fed at approximately

10:00 -11:00 am
1:30 - 2:30 pm
7:00 - 9:00 pm
10:00 - 11:00 pm
2:00 - 3:00 am

They get about 1/2 a tetra of Bozita between them each meal (sometimes a little more if they finish the first bit quickly) - so about 170g between them (I put down 2 bowls but they share them by choice so I just put approximately 1/4 of a tetra in each bowl).

My two are grazers, so apart from when I first get up, and during thier late afternoon/early evening nap their bowls are rarely completely empty throughout the day. If their 3rd meal was late (due to them being asleep), then we skip the 4th one.

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notsure