This is a great question and can actually make a big difference to the health and happiness of your cat.

When it comes to keeping pets, traditional views and practices can be difficult to move past. People tend to keep doing things just because that’s the way they’ve always been done. Since cats stopped being used for pest control and made their way into our homes and our hearts, there has been a tendency to feed them like dogs, with one or two meals a day. In fact this doesn’t suit your cat or their digestive tract very well.

Pet cats may have been domesticated for thousands of years, but they are still very similar in many ways to their wild ancestors and their wild-living, modern-day cousins. They are obligate carnivores, which means they have to have meat or meat products in their diet. They are hunters by nature and, as anyone whose cat has brought home a delightful “gift” will know, feeding them does nothing to remove this ingrained instinct. When cats fend for themselves, they spend hours and hours a day searching for prey and will eat between 10 and 20 small meals a day. Their digestive tract is relatively short, so eating little and often is what suits them best.

Obviously, a pet home is very different to the wild living scenario. Not many of our cats expend as much energy as they would when fending for themselves, and our busy lives pretty much rule out giving 20 meals a day! But we can do more to mimic a natural balance than one or two meals a day.

Feeding multiple meals a day

Ideally, cats should have several small meals a day. Between five and eight meals is ideal, depending on your cat and the food they eat. This helps keep them slim (if their daily ration isn’t exceeded), and keeps them interested and feeling fuller through the day. It also makes them less likely to pester you for food or steal food from worktops.