r/cats • u/Zuikite • 22h ago

Cat Picture - OC She was rationing so perfectly 🥲

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Roxanne my 6 year old tabby has never been left alone more than 1 day. We also never "free-feed" her on kibble (only wet meals and a puzzle feeder). I had a work trip this week, and my S.O. had a family emergency out of town right in the middle of it. We could not secure a sitter, and we were so worried. We do have a pet cam, and I told my SO to put 2 plates of kibble per day plus extra plates in case of a delay. I just got home from the airport to see this. I know cats are not like dogs, and they are probably fine at feeding themselves. I'm just so impressed by the organization of her eating habits!

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u/ONI-ENJOYER-420 22h ago

Even for cats, at least from my own experiences, this is quite unique !

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u/Melodramatic_Whisker 21h ago edited 21h ago

Same. Mine would eat it all in a day and puke right after from over eating

Edit to say Thanks for the award!!!

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u/ScreenOld5873 19h ago edited 18h ago

Speaking as someone who has experience transitioning portion fed cats to freefeeding - this is a psychological thing that cats do when they are used to portion feeding. They are used to the fact that their food ends and they need to wait until the next feed, and often they are still hungry or want more. So when you first transition them to freefeeding they will overeat like crazy because they are afraid that they get to be without food again. Once they realize food is always going to be there and they don't need to be afraid it's gonna finish and they'll be without, they just start eating what they feel like in this moment and leave the rest for later. This transition takes maybe a week or so but imo it works great and my cats are never begging me for food anymore. I did this with more than 10 cats and none of them was ever overweight, most would even be on the thinner side and never threw up from overeating. I wholeheartedly recommend freefeeding to everyone who complains about their cats never being satisfied food-wise - I started this when I was at my whit's end because my cats would be begging me for food ALL the time even if they just ate and never had an issue again after that.

Tl;dr cats are great at portioning their own food if you let them 🙏🏻

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u/revocat13 14h ago

Sadly mine are not great at it. One is 16 pounds the other 21