Dry cat food tends to keep longer and is generally safer to leave out for longer periods of time. For this reason, lots of cat owners leave out a bowl of dry food or kibble for their cat to graze on throughout the day.
"If a cat can maintain his weight, free choice feeding is okay," says Dr. Kallfelz. Even dry food left out for your cat to free feed needs to be fresh, so be sure to provide new food each day.
You can safely leave dry cat food out for several days and it won't spoil, but it's best to throw out leftovers and wash the dish on a daily basis, to keep Fluffy's food at its freshest. Keep in mind that dry food will grow stale within a day and may not be as appealing to your cat once this happens.
Store dry pet food and unopened canned food in a cool and dry place. The temperature should be less than 80 F. Excess heat or moisture may cause the nutrients to break down. If your pet is overly persistent or clever at getting into her pet food, store it in a secure location.
While Mr Whiskers may like consistency in most areas of life, it is possible for your cat to feel bored of the same food. Part of this has to do with the innate nature of cats as apex predators.
Exposure to air, light, hot temperatures, and humidity speeds up the rate at which foods degrade. To limit these effects, keep dry foods in their original packaging. High-quality cat food bags have been designed to keep out the elements.
Raise your cat's dish
Cats tend to crouch when they eat because it brings them closer to the ground, where their food is usually located in the wild (and often at home). But it's actually easier for your cat to eat when the dish she's eating off of is slightly elevated, and therefore closer to her mouth.
So, do cats need wet food? Not necessarily, but feeding a combination of wet and dry food can give your cat the benefits of both. The wet food will increase her total daily water intake and provide her the variety she wants and the dry kibble will help keep her teeth clean.
Mixing wet and dry food makes it easier for you to manage the dietary and nutritional needs of your unique cat. Together with your veterinarian, it's surprisingly easy to create a customized meal plan for your cat that's balanced to benefit their individualized metabolism.
Cats should eat at least two meals each day, about 12 hours apart. But a breakfast, lunch, afternoon, dinner, and right before bed schedule is an equally great option. If more than 12 hours elapses between meals, the stomach can become hyperacidic causing nausea.
As a general average, if you are feeding a commercially produced high-quality dry food with a good quality protein source, then an indoor cat would be fed about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of food per day. This amount of quality food is approximately between 167–250 calories.
Separate Food and Water Bowls
Cats do not like their food and water right next to each other. Cat behaviorists believe this may be due to cats hunting away from their water source in the wild. Cats also do not enjoy the scent of food while drinking water.
Here are some facts and tips that may help you to help your cat drink more: Cats are biologically programmed not to drink water which is near their food or near their toileting area - this is thought to be their instinctive avoidance of contaminating their water with potential sources of bacteria.
"Many elevated bowls are also tilted to make it easier for your cat to eat." Cats with neck pain or senior cats with arthritis and joint pain could benefit from an elevated bowl as well, she says, because they won't have the neck strain while bending over to eat.
The Problem with Plastic Pet Food Containers
Research has proven that certain plastic containers leach chemicals into food. Chemicals in plastic like BPA have been shown to have hormone-like, estrogenic and cancer-producing properties.
The FDA and pet food companies recommend that you seal your pet food because it minimizes the exposure to air, which can contaminate your pet food with bacteria. To seal your bag, you can roll down the sides and use a bag clip to close up the bag. For extra protection, use an airtight container.
Keep the Food Bag Sealed
After you scoop your cat's food from the bag, immediately seal it to prevent unnecessary air and humidity from reaching the kibbles. Both factors help the cat food degrade faster and make bacterial contamination more likely.
A Quiet Spot Away From Foot Traffic
Your cat may prefer to eat in a spare bedroom, a bathroom that's rarely used, the laundry room, or an office. If you don't have a quiet space in your home or dogs that enjoy munching on cat food, an elevated shelf or table will do the trick.
They do this to keep the smell of food and other odors away from their coat, which will keep them hidden from possible predators. Seeing your cat scratching around their food might be baffling to you, but since the food bowl is usually in an area your cat lives in, they'll try to make sure their territory is tidy!
Litter boxes should be placed in areas that easy for the cat to reach that Litter boxes should be placed in areas that are easy for the cats to access in low traffic areas away from food and water bowls. If you have a cat, you should definitely not put their food next to their litter box.
If you have more than one cat, it may be best to change the cat litter more often, every 2-3 weeks. If you use a non-clumping litter and have only one cat, changing the litter twice per week is a good guideline. If you have more than one cat, every other day may work better.
To some cats, that means moving water is preferable to the sort that sits still in a dish for hours. So it is that some cats prefer to drink aerated water directly from the tap, a fountain or even the toilet. Cats who splish their water before drinking may, in fact, be attempting to achieve a similar effect.
Where should I put my cat's water bowl? Just like their food, your cat's water bowl should be somewhere relatively quiet. A hallway, for example, may be too busy for them, even if they are very sociable. Put your cat's water bowl somewhere clean and odour-free – and far away from their litter tray!
A cat may overeat due to boredom, stress, a dry cat food diet, medications, and/or a medical issue. It's important to note that no matter how cute your cat is when they beg, or how annoying they can be when they want food, overfeeding is not going to benefit you or them in any way.
Wet food is not a special meal or an occasional treat. Cats can and should eat wet food every day because it agrees with the feline digestive system better than dry or semi-moist food. Wild cats hunt and eat bugs, rodents, and small birds.