# I Don't Think A Cat has Ever Starved To Death Overnight **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 12, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178 "2009-08-12T14:32:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/1 "2009-08-12T14:32:32Z")
So why does my SO have to put out food for them? Dry food so they can crunch it and make pigs of themselves. On the bright side I guess they don’t wake me up to be fed. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/2 "2009-08-12T14:37:07Z")
Meh. It wouldn’t bother me. You’re right, a cat’s not going to starve to death overnight, but do you _really_ want them meowing in your ear at 6AM because they feel it’s breakfast time? Or following you into the bathroom at 5AM (as one of our kittehs tends to do) because since you’re _up_, you’re obviously ready to provide food! I leave food down for my cats all the time. I’m not saying that’s the right thing to do (I tend to think for most things, there _is_ no ‘right answer’), but it’s how we do. Then I put out a small serving of moist food, because the kitten is too young to eat enough dry food to sustain her rapid growth. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/3 "2009-08-12T14:41:16Z")
It makes no difference. These eating machines still meow at 5 am because their favourite breakfast isn’t out (and the milk may not be cold enough for their liking!) ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/4 "2009-08-12T14:57:07Z")
I figured out that my cat likes to get up around sunrise and yell at me to get up. If I don’t, she comes back to bed a few minutes later. This wasn’t a problem in winter, when sunrise is something like 7:30, but when it’s 5:30…well, summers are fairly short here, or I’m not sure she’d survive. I know she’s not yelling for food because she always has food down then, it’s just that she has this demented cat idea that sunrise is a good time to get up, no matter how late I went to bed. I’m told she had her previous people trained to give her canned food at 3 AM. I haven’t given her canned food even once. I refuse to even think about going there. Uh-uh. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/5 "2009-08-12T15:04:45Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > So why does my SO have to put out food for them? Dry food so they can crunch it and make pigs of themselves. > > On the bright side I guess they don’t wake me up to be fed. You’ve answered your own question. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/6 "2009-08-12T15:06:18Z")
Sad part is they do- I am sure it is not to check that I slept well. It is more to tell me that the other cat drank more milk than they did. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/7 "2009-08-12T15:20:23Z")
I got an automatic feeder for them and it still isn’t enough to keep them quiet every day. If Joey doesn’t get over there fast enough and Oliver eats everything Joey still comes running and crying for food in the morning. It has helped a lot though and I highly recommend them. Be warned though that it takes the cats about 48 hours to get used to them and that can be a difficult 48 hours. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/8 "2009-08-12T16:21:09Z")
I keep dry food down at all times for my cat. She’s not overweight, she doesn’t wake me up in the morning to feed her, I don’t have to worry about getting home at any particular time to be fed, and she can be left for a full day and night as long as I give her a large serving to last her through that time. Just seems to make sense to me. If I had a cat that had food problems - one that would eat it all and then throw it up, maybe, as one of my mom’s cats used to - than I would change that habit. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/9 "2009-08-12T16:54:50Z")
It depends on the cat. I think cat raised from kittens with constant food, regulate it better. I had a cat, who, right from being a kitten was given access to dry cat food and “tender vittles” type of cat food. She never over ate or bugged us for food. I have known adopted cats from the alleys and such tend to scream for food and gulp it. That is because they learned that food isn’t available constantly so they gulp as much as they can while they can. Most cats will learn to regulate dry food left out constantly for them. Of course there is always that “chubby” kitty that will eat everything regardless 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/10 "2009-08-12T17:06:18Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Most cats will learn to regulate dry food left out constantly for them. Of course there is always that “chubby” kitty that will eat everything regardless 🙂 Right- a “self-feeding” cat is easier and generally healthier. And, it’s easy when you go away for a couple days, just put out more dry food. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/11 "2009-08-12T19:11:58Z")
2 minutes of fun…especially the hungry kitty at 1:29 [http://www.simonscat.com/catmando.html](http://www.simonscat.com/catmando.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-a-cat-has-ever-starved-to-death-overnight/506178/12 "2009-08-12T19:24:12Z")
I’ve been told not to feed in the early AM so as not to create expectation that waking the humans = food. We don’t, and don’t have this problem, but I can’t extrapolate that to say anything was proved.