Do you have the sort of feline who paws at your face at an ungodly hour of the morning up until you lastly relent and get up? Does s/he then continue to meow and whimper until you fill up their food bowl? Its not that your feline is uncommonly gluttonous; it could be that theyre informing you that its a natural feeding time for them.
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In the most current episode of The Upgrade, animal behavior specialist Zazie Todd told us that felines are naturally inclined to consume 5 times a day– not just two, like many of us tend towards with our animals. This is because cats are natural hunters, and in the wild, they might be hunting and consuming throughout the day.
For more on looking after your pets, inspect out the video below:.
Because if you think typically a feline would be catching mice throughout a cat and the day may catch maybe 10 mice in a day, that would be like 10 little meals. If we can try to approximate that, thats good for the cats.
Do you have the kind of feline who paws at your face at an ungodly hour of the morning till you finally relent and get up? Its not that your cat is uncommonly gluttonous; it could be that theyre informing you that its a natural feeding time for them.
If she does, of course, every time you get up, youre rewarding her for waking you up.
Picture: mik ulyannikov (Shutterstock).
Timed feeders can be a blessing if you dont have a feline that naturally self-regulates (i.e. is able to avoid devouring their whole bowl of food at once). If you do have a cat that self-regulates, then just making certain their bowl has some food in it at all times works well.
When it comes to the morning harassment, Todd recommends the following:.
[M] aybe provide her a last snack before bed … But if you can spread her meals out a bit more and after that tire her out prior to bed, then hopefully she wont wake you up quite so early. If she does, naturally, every time you get up, youre rewarding her for waking you up. So you might wish to attempt and move that a bit later in the early morning if you possibly can.
As Todd describes:.
[C] ats prefer to be fed 5 times a day, if thats possible, rather than simply two times a day. [Its] helpful for them to spread their meals out. Due to the fact that if you believe generally a cat would be catching mice throughout a cat and the day might catch perhaps 10 mice in a day, that would resemble 10 little meals. So if we can attempt to approximate that, thats great for the cats.
And all of this makes sense when you acknowledge that felines have not been domesticated for as long as pet dogs. Theyre still a little bit wild when you think of it, and as Todd puts it, “if we didnt exist anymore, our cats might continue to exist rather happily by themselves.”.
To hear more about how to much better look after your cat, check out the full episode!
