Millions of dollars of pet food wasted because cats are fed when not hungry

I genuinely have difficulty in deciding for sure when my cat is hungry enough to eat the entire contents of a sachet of high quality wet cat food.

Too much wet cat food is wasted because people feed their cat before they are hungry. The potential wastage of wet cat food encourages cat owners to feed dry which I think people now accept as less than ideal.

Just opening the can or pouch will render wet cat food unusable quite quickly in terms of palatability to a cat.

Hungry cat

The only sure way of knowing if your cat is hungry is if he eats all the food you have provided or whether he leaves part of it; sometimes a lot of it. By then it is too late. And high quality cat food is as expensive or more expensive than human food on a price per gram comparison. Waste is undesirable. Waste is also a problem with refuse collectors as it is an excellent medium for maggots and so on.

Crudely and cruelly speaking, if you starve your cat for a couple of days he is bound to be hungry but that is obviously a non-starter.

How do you know when your cat is hungry? Yes, cats sometimes ask for food by meowing when hungry but not all cats do this. More demonstrative cats will probably rub against your legs and pester you for food when hungry. But they might do this when they are not hungry just because it is part of a routine.

There are times when your cat likes to eat so you feed him at those times. You don’t really need to know if your cat is hungry. Except you’ll waste cat food if he is not truly hungry and ready for a meal.

If you feed your cat dry cat food exclusively there is no problem. Dry food can be put down permanently and your cat can graze on it when hungry (please see M E King’s comment below: dry food bowls need changing regularly). But this is not a solution. Cats need high quality wet food.

The problem I am referring to concerns wet cat food which does not last long once in the bowl. In hot climates it would be unpalatable to a cat after a couple of hours unless he is starving.

So tell me what do you do to ensure that your cat eats all the wet food on the plate other than putting down tiny portions. Tiny portions are good but the can or sachet is open and the remainder will go off.

Those of you who will provide feedback will probably tell me that your cat always eats the entire bowl! Is that true?

12 thoughts on “Millions of dollars of pet food wasted because cats are fed when not hungry”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. Hi! I believe Petzfoodware could help with this, they have silicone containers made for situations like this. The resealable bags are good for if you use half a pouch, or like you mentioned giving tiny portions but don’t want the food to go nasty. They have lids if you use cans too. These were actually made for this exact reason as the owner of the company was losing out on money due to the amount of waste!

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