# Can you train a cat to eat at a certain time? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 10, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001 "2008-09-10T21:41:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/21 "2008-09-11T13:24:34Z")
I used to have a cat food dish with two lids that opened on a timer for when we went away on the weekend. This prevented the cats from eating everything on Friday night. You could set it for early morning and hopefully kitty will be happy enough to let you sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/22 "2008-09-11T14:53:16Z")
I shouldn’t even attempt to comment here, since my furry overlords have trained me to feed them four times a day, but… I was having a lot of difficulty with them waking me in the morning, until I read that I was causing the problem by feeding them first thing when I got up. The cure has been to wait until I’ve been up at least an hour, that way they don’t associate “her eyes are open!” with “time for breakfast!” Also, I reinforce this by shutting any early meowlers in the laundry room. They’ve pretty much got the message. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/23 "2008-09-11T15:03:12Z")
Cats are nocturnal. I leave a bowl of dry food out so he can eat at his active time. That does not save me from pet-jobs on demand. He will jump in bed and demand a 2AM pet-job.(or 3am or 4 } ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/24 "2008-09-11T15:08:44Z")
> [@Algorithm](#): > > After 10 or so years of feeding our cats canned food at 6 PM every night, they’d still typically be going crazy by 5 PM. Earlier, if they saw someone in the kitchen (human in kitchen = food is coming!). They were even free fed dry food, so it wasn’t like they were starving. They just learned that after everyone was home, and when someone was near the kitchen, something tasty was about to happen. I don’t think they have internal clocks. HA! They most certainly do. See: the morning after you move the clocks, around 6:30. They don’t change the clocks in their heads. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/25 "2008-09-11T15:17:47Z")
My mom was tired of being woken up at 5am by the cat, so she bought an automatic feeder ([Le Bistro](http://www.amazon.com/Petmate-Bistro-Electronic-Portion-Control-Automatic/dp/B000BVWVUA)). This completely changed the cat’s behavior. Now that the cat knows that the feeder feeds her, and not a human, she just lies on the bed in the morning and doesn’t attempt to wake up my mom anymore. As she gets hungry, she starts hanging around in the kitchen near the feeder. My mom swears by this thing and my sister ended up getting one as well. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/26 "2008-09-11T15:25:11Z")
> [@fluiddruid](#): > > My mom was tired of being woken up at 5am by the cat, so she bought an automatic feeder ([Le Bistro](http://www.amazon.com/Petmate-Bistro-Electronic-Portion-Control-Automatic/dp/B000BVWVUA)). This completely changed the cat’s behavior. Now that the cat knows that the feeder feeds her, and not a human, she just lies on the bed in the morning and doesn’t attempt to wake up my mom anymore. As she gets hungry, she starts hanging around in the kitchen near the feeder. My mom swears by this thing and my sister ended up getting one as well. I might try that. I’m not sure how much it’ll help us because our problem is that our cat likes us to pet him while he eats. He can have a full bowl of food but wants our attention. ---
**Author:** ![Azhure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71c47a/32.png) [@Azhure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azhure)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/27 "2008-09-12T03:12:09Z")
My [kitty](http://www.flickr.com/photos/azhure_nz/2849173405/) always has plenty of dry food available 24/7, and is fed wet food once daily before we go to bed. We used to feed him as soon as we got home from work, but decided to transition him to being fed later. Once he realised that he wasn’t going to get fed the moment we stepped in the door he seemed to just accept it. He is quite polite about asking to be fed anyway, will follow us from room to room but only with a few ‘mrrps?’ to remind us he would like food. ---
**Author:** ![pipperroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@pipperroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pipperroo)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/28 "2008-09-12T03:40:10Z")
Stop feeding the cat in the morning. We have one cat who used to try and get fed an hour before we needed to get up. He would jump all over us and if that didn’t work, start shoving things off dressers. He got locked in the basement over and over and never seemed to learn. We got tired of getting out of bed to lock him in the basement and eventually stopped feeding in the morning. It took awhile, but he stopped trying to be an alarm clock since there was no reward in it. As for free-feeding, it worked when we had one cat. When a second cat was added to the household, it stopped working. One cat would eat all the food to prevent the other cat from eating and she got very fat. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/29 "2008-09-12T04:04:20Z")
If you sleep with your head in a bowl of cat food, all your problems are solved. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/30 "2008-09-12T06:21:18Z")
Deer Dopperz: Mi hooman iz lasy n won ged up 2 fed mi untel hiz cluck goz oph at sex. Mne tyms mi haz tacked hooman at phor, butt hooman dozen lern. Iz hoomans traneable? Hy Opal.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Righteous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Dr.Righteous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Righteous)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/31 "2008-09-12T12:59:08Z")
Just chiming in to add that I used to feed my fuzzy overlords first thing in the morning, but got annoyed when they wanted me to wake up early on weekends. I switched to feeding them around dinnertime, and they adjusted to that. ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/32 "2008-09-12T14:01:24Z")
My [cat](http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e260/dogbutler/Pets/008-2.jpg) has trained me to feed him his gooshy food at 5:50A.M. He does have a bowl of kibble, but that’s just for throwing at the dog. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001/33 "2008-09-12T15:08:09Z")
> [@CutterJohn](#): > > Maybe this is a stupid question, but whats wrong with just leaving a dish of food out for the cat and letting him decide when he wants to eat? We had a cat when i was a teenager, and thats all we did for his food. So far as i can tell, he never suffered for it, and lived to a ripe old age. > > Of course, stepping on my head at 4 in the morning would have also earned him a swat. This doesn’t work for our cats. We do the free-feeding thing but they will still demand “fresh” food in the morning, even if there is some still left in the dish. Might actually try the Le Bistro feeder. We tried the Le Bistro water thing and it was great except for the fact that one of our cats goes psycho over the gurgling noise and the air bubbles. He will eventually knock the thing over and get water everywhere in his attempts to catch the bubbles. So now we just give them water in the dish and don’t attach the reservoir, which kind of defeats the purpose. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-train-a-cat-to-eat-at-a-certain-time/463001.md?page=1)