Free feeding is comfortable, convenient and takes no time to do. But it can cause many problems. Scheduled diet is right for your pet’s health, but it can be hard to keep up with, especially if you have a busy daily schedule of your own. It is not an easy job to do. So here is the question, free feeding vs. scheduled feeding, what should you do?
Free Feeding
Free feeding is a method which you leave food out for your pets to eat as many as they want, whenever they want. You refill it once it is empty. While this method is definitely very convenient and doesn’t take much to do, it has few risks to it.
The biggest con of free feeding is it can cause health issue, more specifically obesity. Most cats or dogs have the tendency to eat more food than their body actually needs. I personally seem my cat vomit couple times because she overate. This kind of eating will eventually lead to obesity. Studies showed overweight cats have shorter life expectancy than regular cats. Overweight can cause high blood pressure, the excessive burden to joints, diabetes, and other illnesses.
There is also the problems with keeping the food clean, training your pets to only eat in their own bowl if you have multiple pets and many other issues.
Scheduled Feeding
Scheduled Feeding is an excellent habit to have when owning pets. You can decide how much to feed and how many meals to feed everyday base on your pet’s species, breed, age, size, activity level, and other health factors. You can also add in medicines or supplements if your pet needs them. But it isn’t easy if you want to do this properly.
First, you need to determine how many meals to feed every day. Dogs and cats are different. Usually, cats need 3-4 meals a day with small meals. Dogs are different, dogs only need 2 meals per day. But they typically eat much more. You also need to consider whether your pet needs medicines or not, whether your pet is too active that need additional meals etc. You might want to consult your veterinarian to come up with the best feeding schedule.
Scheduled feeding is not an easy job, it will take time and work. But its benefits are obvious. You can control your pet’s food intake, feed different kinds of food for different meals, change its eating habit and more.
Conclusion
Ideally, I wish every pet owner can schedule feed their pets. However, not everyone has the time and energy to do so. So is there a solution that can have the best of both worlds?
The answer is yes, programmable automatic pet feeder will be a great solution to that. Programmable pet feeder allows you to set the feed time and food quantity for every day, it will distribute the amount of food you set on the feed time you set so your pet can be fed even you are not present.
If you are thinking to pick up a feeder, I suggest the Qpets AF-108 Plus. It has a six trays rotary design that allows you to put dry food, treat, medicine and even wet food in some cases, in the six separated food trays for a different meal. Also, a far more advanced programming system compare to the old AF-108. This makes it much easier to use compared to the old AF-108.
Hope everyone finds my information useful and have a great time with their pets!
