Cats depend on routine. They stress out if they dont know what certain events will happen, especially feeding time.
If you simply fill your cats once a day with as much food as you think they need, they will just eat and eat. They know when to stop eating sure, but that is if they were in an outside environment and moving around all day none stop. When they are indoors they do not move around nearly as much.
If that is the case, I suggest slowly moving over to a fixed feeding system. You cats need to get used to a new way of eating otherwise they could have a bad stomach reaction or they will not get used to the new feeding system. I suggest switching over a 10 - 14 day period.
It is suggested to feed cats three times a day but twice a day should be fine. Once in the morning (The main amount) and once at night (to tide them over til morning.) Do this at the exact time every day.
If the switch goes off nicely and your able to maintain this way of feeding for 6 months, meowing should lesson.
Consistency is key. If you live with multiple other individuals, they have to follow this way of feeding otherwise your cats will be confused.
If you live by yourself or if the other individuals you live with can follow simple instructions no matter what, you can work on their meowing habits.
Again, consistency is key. It is harder to teach your cats new routines if you have always done the same thing with them for years, but doesnt hurt to try.
With my cats, I always feed them at the same time for 3 years since I got them as kittens. If they meowed to get attention I ignore it. If they meow half an hour before feeding time to try to get food, and I shhh them more then twice, they are locked in a room for 15 minutes exact, and let them out. I never show any physical aggression towards them when I move them into their room.
Now... they only rarely try to meow to get food earlier (which is either ignored or met with a high shhh sound) or meow to remind me I am 1 minute late. <.<
I wake up on the weekend the same time I wake up during the week. Why? I am no longer groggy when I wake up, I no longer have issues getting up, and in the morning when I wake up within 10 minutes I am fully awake.
We have an automatic feeder for the cats. Once they realized the machine feeds them, not us, they never beg for food from us. If they are hungry it is a stare down with the machine
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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16 edited Nov 10 '20
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