If you need to change your cat’s feeding schedule, whether it be due to a time change or you starting to feed your cats more times per day, you need to be cautious when making the transition. Failure to do so can cause your cat and you stress. Thankfully, most cats are okay if you plan carefully and can be done whether you feed your cat yourself or use an automatic feeder.
Changing Timing Of Meals
Changing the timing of meals is relatively straightforward. Start well ahead of when your cat’s feeding schedule needs to change and begin moving one meal time closer to when they’ll be fed next in small increments. For example, if you’re trying to move a meal from 8 am to 9 am, start by moving the first meal to 8:05 am. Next, feed your cat at 8:10 am. Move the time back until you’re feeding your cat at 9 am!
How Fast To Change?
How fast can you change the timing? It depends on your cat. Some cats may need 5 minute increments like in the example I just gave. Others may be okay with the switch being done in 10 or 15 minute increments.
Similarly, some cats may be fine with you making a small change each day without a pause between. However, most cats will do better if you do each step for a few days before making another adjustment. This makes it less likely they’ll even notice there is a change.
Decreasing The Number Of Meals Per Day
While I generally don’t recommend most people decrease the number of times they feed their cats unless they want a cat with behavior problems, you might not have a choice. The best method to use is similar to changing the timing of meals, but with a slight twist. Rather than moving one meal, move both meals you want to combine closer to each other.
For example, if you want to go from five meals to four meals per day, pick the two meals that are closest to the new feeding time to combine. Move the earlier meal slightly later and the later meal slightly earlier until they’re combined into one meal. Change the amount you feed, too, for all meals to prevent begging.
Increasing The Number Of Meals Per Day
Cats prefer eating multiple small meals rather than two larger meals per day so while this is complicated to do without causing significant stress, it ultimately will reduce your cat’s overall stress. I’ll walk you through a basic plan, but you’ll need to modify it slightly depending on your specific situation.
The first step is figuring out how much total your cat should eat per day. This includes all wet food, dry food, and treats (though their meals are more important). Ordering an adjustable measuring scoop for this process will make your life easier, too, because you’ll be making a lot of changes!
You can think of it in terms of calories or amount of food depending on what is easier for you to do. If you do a combination of wet and dry food, calculate each separately. You’ll need to decide which meals you want to do as wet food and dry food or if you want to combine them. For ease, I am going to explain how to do this assuming you’re just doing one type of food.
(Easy) Math
I am a self confessed math hater, but the next step involves calculating how much to feed per meal. The math you’ll need to do next is really easy even though you’ll need to do it multiple times:
- Decide how many meals you want to feed your cat daily eventually. Start with the calculation for one more meal per day than you’re doing right now even if that’s not the total number you are going for eventually. For example, if you want to feed your cat five meals per day eventually, start by calculating how much they should get per day for three meals.
- Divide the total amount of food your cat gets per day into the number of meals they’ll be getting daily.
- If you have another step, repeat this calculation for each number of meals per day until you reach your final number. In the example I just gave, you need to repeat this calculation for three, four, and five meals per day.
The amount of food you get with each calculation is how much to feed your cat at each meal.
Making The Switch
How you make the switch is important because you need to go gradually so your cat is minimally distressed. There’s a method that works really well to make this happen:
- Day 1: You’ll be feeding your cat the new number of meals per day. Feed your cat their first meal of the day with the same amount you have been feeding them. For the next meal or meals, feed them them the new amount of food per meal.
- Day 2: Feed the new amount of food per day with the new number of total meals per day.
This method is important because it makes the change gradually and prevents your cat from being stressed because their first meal be smaller than expected. To your cat, they just get a bonus snack in the middle of the day! They’ll be expecting an extra meal the day after so the smaller morning meal? No big deal.
An Example
I’ll give you a specific example in case the about doesn’t make sense. I’m picking easy numbers here and am not saying this is what you should do specifically. The concept is what’s important!
Pretend you feed your cat at 8 am and 8 pm 1/2 cup per feeding. They are getting 1 cup total per day. To make the switch to three meals per day, you would:
- Feed your cat 1/2 cup for the first meal of day one at 8 am. For the second meal, you’d feed them 1/3 of a cup around 2 pm and 1/3 of a cup at 8 pm.
- The second day, you’d feed your cat 1/3 of a cup at 8 am, 2 pm, and 8 pm.
Remember how I suggested an adjustable measuring cup? This is why!
A Slight Variation
If you want to do a somewhat lazier method, you can just split one meal in half on day 1 and then do the full switch on day 2. Here’s what that would look like using the same example:
- On day 1, you’d feed your cat 1/2 cup of food at 8 am, 1/4 cup at 2 pm, and 1/4 cup at 8 pm.
- On day 2, you’d feed your cat 1/3 cup of food at 8 am, 2 pm, and 8 pm.
This method has more risk of going wrong because you’re making more total changes so your cat may find it more stressful. One day of your cat getting slightly extra food and then immediately going back to getting the same amount of food they get normally isn’t going to cause as much stress as multiple changes will.
Regardless of which one you choose, either method is still better than just making the switch all in one fell swoop!
Repeat As Needed
Depending on how many feedings you are ultimately going for, you’ll repeat the exact same process again one or more times. For example, if you’re going from two to five meals per day, you need to switch your cat from two to three meals, three to four meals, and then four to five meals. Give your cat a few days between each switch if you can so they have time to adjust, but if you have a really compelling reason why you need to go faster (not that you want to go faster; you need to go faster), you can repeat the process immediately.
Changing Your Cat’s Feeding Schedule Doesn’t Need To Be Hard
While you’re rightfully worried that your cat may become really stressed out, scream at you, or otherwise create trouble if you adjust their feeding schedule, it can be done successfully. Plus, if especially if you go from feeding your cat two large meals to multiple small meals daily, it ultimately will make your cat happier. The effort is worth it!
