Quote:
Originally Posted by Rowangreen
RandomGemini, you are misunderstanding what I was suggesting. I'm not suggesting free feeding. I'm suggesting that you use the cat's standard food ration, but feed it in a way that makes the cat 'hunt' for it.
Cats that feed themselves need to hunt about 30 times a day to get enough small criters to eat. So just giving them food in a bowl leaves them short of a lot of activity. In many cases cats overeat due to a degree of boredom. Depending on the cat, even if the owners are really good about playing with them etc, they may not be getting enough to do all day.
Working as a cat sitter I see cats that if you give them their daily, measured ration in a bowl will eat it within 5 minutes and then have nothing until the next meal. But give them the same ration as a 'treasure hunt' and inside small boxes etc and they'll spend 20-30 minutes searching for it and quite likely have some left for later. Sometimes if you put some in their bowls and some out they'll search for the stuff that's out and leave the stuff in their bowls for later!
You also get the occasional cat who's stuck in their ways and doesn't see anything outside the bowl as food... but that's not common. Some you have to start really easy (eg just scattering it around the bowl) others will enjoy breaking into closed boxes pretty much from the start.
Anyway, got to go... mine are waiting for their morning dry food hunt! I've also just had a Phal Flores Moon arrive from Germany (very happy!), and there's another box I'm pretty sure is some toys I bought on eBay: two Catit tracks and a treat maze. Saving that for tonight. LOL
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Ah ha! Now that makes sense! What an excellent idea!
I'm not really a cat person. I love them, but I didn't have cats growing up. The one cat I've had came with my husband when I married him. When we first got married, we lived in this rat hole and we had the only house on the block that did not have to get regular visits from an exterminator for trapping mice. The only problem with Fuzz and the mice was that he loved me and adored me, so he left me "presents" in front of the washing machine, which I would invariably step on in my caffeine deprived fog every morning. LOL!
I admired his hunting skills though and joked that he was the greatest mouser in the history of the universe.
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