Can I train my skinny grazing cat to eat raw food on a schedule?

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Cats are unique and don't always follow the rules. You can meal feed cats and you can set the time for the morning and evening meals. My cat used to have food out all the time until I had to change his food to canned for a medical condition. Now he is fed in the morning and at night. He eats most of it but comes back to some of it later. So cats are not exactly like dogs. I have clients who feed their cats twice a day and they eat it all right away. You will just have to see what Tiger does. With cats you can't force anything! I hope this helps and good luck!

If Lulu is at a good weight I wouldn't alter her feeding at this time. If she does start to gain weight then my first recommendation would be to cut out the wet food. Also keep in mind that the feeding guidelines listed almost pet food bags are based on animals that have not been spayed or neutered. So if she starts to gain weight decreasing the amount recommended by a fourth it's also a good idea.

There is no evidence that raw food is safer or healthier for pets. A good-quality commercial cat food should be good for Litchi. As long as she isn't overweight, letting her choose wet or dry food is fine.

I don’t recommend raw food diets as they can be very difficult to formulate, balance and also to safely provide without risk of gastrointestinal infection from contaminated meat. I would suggest a home prepared diet if you are interested in avoiding mainstream packaged food brands. Here is a link explain what a Home prepares siet it. There is also a source which will help you formulate a home prepared diet. https://www.petcoach.co/article/how-to-create-a-balanced-homemade-diet-for-your-pet/ For any diet change, we recommend slowly switching over to the new food by adding increasing amounts of the new food to the old food during meal times over a week. Hope this was helpful and thank you for using PetCoach!

if your cat is of normal weight and gets enough exercise, you can leave it at that. If you prefer to feed individual meals (2-3 times a day) you should slowly transition to wet/canned food and slowly reduce the dry food. Wet food overall is better for your cat, especially when a cat gets older. It contains less carbohydrates (cats are obligatory carnivores, so mainly need protein, not carbs), lessens the chance of your cat becoming a diabetic, and ensures that your cat gets more moisture with its food rather than having to drink more. If you feed canned food, stick with pate-type food, as cats tend to only lick off the gravy in chunky type foods. They prefer the ground mouse approach :D

If you are not giving a vitamin and mineral supplement, I would recommend going to www. balanceit.com to formulate an adequate diet and to purchase a supplement of vitamins and minerals. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

I have a couple of suggestions for you. First, one of my friends used a latch to create an opening in their laundry room door that only the skinny cat could fit through. They left food in there for the skinnier cat to free feed throughout the day and meal fed the heavier cat. Second, if your skinnier cat will eat from food balls or no-bowl feeders, I would feed all meals in that way. Third, I would only feed twice the amount of food that the heavier cats needs twice daily. That way the skinnier cat has enough to eat, but there isn't enough extra for Luna to eat. The skinnier cats tend to get this concept after a couple of days and eat more at a meal instead of grazing as much. Finally, you could consider changing to or adding a canned food meal. That may help the skinnier cat eat a "meal" instead of grazing. Canned food is less "addicting" and less fattening than dry food, so it might be beneficial for both cats. I use a timed feeder (CatMate C20) with canned food to keep my cats from waking me up too early in the morning. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.