How to feed cat wet food while away is a popular search term in google for many beginner cat lovers. To answer this query, we have 3 approaches;
- Buying a wet cat food dispenser
- Hire a cat sitter
- Combination of wet and dry food method
Feeding your cat while away is always worries a lot of cat parents. Most of the time, we do try to avoid going away for a long time. Mainly because of our loved feline friends.
However, this is not possible all the time. We may need to travel away for different kinds of situations and sometimes we could not be able to take our pets with us. In this kind of case, we have to keep our pets in the home along.
So, to address the feeding problem when you are away, we come with three standard solutions with detailed descriptions.
Further, we added a few more extra ideas for you. Some of them can works really good for you. However, all those depend on your living situation.
Wet food can keep edible for one to two hours, according to the majority of brands. This time restriction will be affected by the temperature in your house and the particular brand. You might place the wet meal in the refrigerator for a few hours prior to serving in order to help extend this suggested time limit. By doing this, you could extend the food’s shelf life by up to 4 hours.
Buying a wet cat food dispenser
I think this is the most common and reliable solution for people who live in apartments. Or else anyone who does not feel able to feed their pet on time because of a busy lifestyle.
Wet cat food dispensers are easy to use and support automatic schedules. Therefore, you would not need to worry about forgetting to feed your cat. Further, cats are typically fond of food routings. So it will be easy to practice a cat for an automatic food dispenser.
Best wet cat food dispensers
Here I have added 3 best wet cat food dispensers to check for you. These 3 options are the best ones for me. I think you may find some of these useful for your case too.
SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder – MPF001
This is a modern wet cat food dispenser that will cover all your feeding requirements. There are several unique features in this product that I think useful in many ways.
Microchip identification – SureFeed wet cat food dispenser is capable of identifying RFID tags. That means, it can identify your cat when it comes to the food dispenser (through its collar RFID). This feature is handy when you have multiple cats at home with different food allocations.
Wet & Dry support – Both wet and dry food supply is supported. Further, the device is capable of sealing the food for future use. So the moist food will be protected from outer disturbance (flies and ants) and extend their shelf life.
Long-life battery – 4 x C cell batteries required for the device. Normally, the device has 6-month battery life. The low battery indicator will notify you when the battery needs to be replaced.
32 profiles for 32 cats – Device has an inbuilt memory to store 32 different food supply instructions. That means you can give different food amounts for 32 different cats.
However, through the reviews, we saw that the given bowls were not that much safe for the dishwasher. You need to be careful when cleaning them. Further, this device is not capable of storing an ice pack to extend wet cat food lifetime.
If you are interested in checking further details, here’s the Amazon store link.
Cat Mate C500 Automatic Pet Feeder with Digital Timer
This one is somewhat inexpensive compared to the previous dispenser. It has five food compartments and most importantly two ice packs to protect wet cat food freshness.
Further, cat mate C500 has excellent programmable features. It is capable of scheduling your cat food giving routing through its timer. This custom scheduling is capable of feeding five times per day. It is well suited for cat lovers who may travel several days away from home.
The 10-second voice recording is another cool feature that this device has. Using this, you can record your voice and programmed to play it whenever you want. It will help your cat when he/she misses you.
However, the building structure is not that much airtight. So ice packs seem to melt quickly. Typically, around 48 hours. You can purchase more ice packs, but it may cost extra.
Here is the Amazon link to check the current price of the device
6-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder for Cats by Ancaixin
Similar to cat mate C500, yet having some different features. Ancaixin pet feeder is capable of producing 6 meals per day or one meal per 6 days. The sealing ability is much better in this product.
However, the ice pack capability is not included. That is a drawback of the system. Other than that, the device has all other standard features and approvals such as scheduling, low battery indicating, pet safe materials and FDA approval.
Check further details of this device from this link.
Hire a cat sitter
If you are planning to go for a long day away from your cat or if your cat is a very sentimental one, then this is the best option you have.
Even cats act as they do not care much about anything, they do miss their owner. If he or she is not available for a long time, then cats can have emotional breakdowns and ultimately try to escape from its home to find you.
Therefore, hiring a professional cat sitter is more suitable for this kind of cases.
When hiring a cat sitter, you need to check a few things.
- The training or experience that cat sitter have?
- How long he/she or company in this business?
- The business license or their legal acceptance
- Does the cat sitter have enough experience to handle any medical emergency?
- If the service offered by a company, then do they send different cat sitters on different days? If so, that’s not good.
- Does cat sitter is really a cat person?
- Her professional actions when you meet him/her the first time. Does he pay much attention to your cat’s personal habits?
Do not forget to ask for some references other than their website testimonials. Personal feedback from a real voice is much better.
Combination of wet and dry food method
This is a suitable method for two or three days with some behaved cats. Typically, well-behaved cats eat only the amount they want. So giving extra will not be an issue with them.
You can place two bowels with full wet and dry foods. Cats like wet cat foods most of the time. So they will ignore the dry food and eat the wet cat food first. So wet cat food bowel will be finished in the first or second day.
After that, your pet will look into the dry food when it feels hungry. Since dry cat food (do they go bad) is capable of remaining more extended periods, food will not be harmful when your cat eats it.
Ah, one thing, do not forget to keep a freshwater bowl with the food. Dry cat foods do not produce the required water amount for your cat.
Other methods for feeding your cat while away
Ask for your neighbour – This is a worry-free method. Most of the time, your cat will see your neighbour as one of his/her friendly surroundings. Therefore, your absence may not affect the cat’s life. However, this is only working with friendly neighbours who are willing to help. So, this is not an excellent option for all cat lovers.
What to do when you came from a distance trip
When you are arrived from your trip, first of all, make sure that your cat is healthy. If he/she shows some abnormal behavior, watch carefully and take necessary actions to confirm its safety.
Do not forget to give a good wet cat food meal. Clean your cat food dispenser and cat litter box properly.
The most important thing is to give some affection to your cat. He/she surely misses you. So petting him and giving some tasty treats can improve your cats’ emotional well beaning.
Final Thoughts
We can do many things to feed our cat with wet cat food while we are away from the house. Some of the discussed solutions involved with buying automatic food dispensers or else hiring a cat sitter. Each solution has its own perspective with pros and cons. So, finding the best solutions for your cat is mostly depend on your living situation and your own cat knowledge. We hope our guide may have helped you.