How Many Times a Day Does a Cat Feed Need Feeding?

Just like all other pets and creatures out there, cats need to be fed. You’ve stocked your cat’s favorite wet or dry food, hopefully a bit of tuna too.

You know what you are feeding your cat, but that said, how often do you feed it? How many times a day you need to feed a cat is an important topic to tackle if you want to keep your cat healthy and happy. There are 3 different feeding methods to be discussed.

Free Feeding

Some people who are not too concerned with maintaining a proper feeding schedule choose to go with the free feeding method. This means leaving the cat’s food out all day long, and therefore allowing the cat to control its own feeding schedule.

With this method, at what time it eats is all up to the cat. It’s beneficial because cats can eat smaller meals on their own time, which is the most comfortable for them.

However, be aware that wet food cannot be left out all day or else it will go bad. Moreover, this feeding method can in some cased lead to overeating, obesity, and related health issues.

Meal Feeding

What most people do to feed their cats is to maintain a solid meal schedule, generally twice per day. Most people are going to feed their cats when they themselves eat, or roughly. You don’t have to feed your cat breakfast and dinner like you eat, but it is beneficial to maintain a regular schedule.

Most will agree that twice daily feedings are best, especially because it is easy to control portion sizes, you can track how much your cat eats, and what its appetite is like. This method also helps provide cats with some structure in their day, and although your cat may not care much for the structure, it will make your life easier.

A downside to this feeding method is that cats will often end up begging for food between their scheduled meals. Also, cats know how much they want to eat, and their bodies know if they are getting the right nutrients. With this feeding method, a cat cannot control how much or what it eats, which can be a drawback.

Combination Feeding

Combination feeding involves providing your cat with 2 meals of wet food per day at set times. In this way, it is like mealtime feeding. However, in this case, you will not provide the cat with quite as much wet food for those mealtimes, just a little less.

Combined with this, you will also leave your cat some dry food to nibble on throughout the day. This method is ideal to prevent having your cat begging for food and it also lets them control their own food intake, to a certain extent.

At the same time, it also allows you to monitor appetite and food intake. The issue here is that just like with free feeding, this method may also lead to overeating and obesity.

Conclusion

How many times a day you feed your cat is up to you. However, in order to maintain a schedule and some semblance of order, most will choose to go with two feedings per day, usually breakfast and dinner.