I have a question about feeding Cats…?
We have a total of 11 cats. We rescue them from the local kill shelter, and as long as they are spayed or neutered and have their vaccines, in my county there is no limit to how many you can have. I have 3 cats that are 10+ years, 5 kittens that are going to be a year old in march, and 3 cats that range in age from 5-3 years. All Cats are healthy, up tp date of vaccinations, fixed and are NOT fat, they are about perfect weight. None of these cats have any medical problems, fleas, mites, ect.. they aer all totally litter box trained we have 6 litter boxes which get CHNAGED not scooped everyday. Now, my question…. I "free feed " my cats, meaning they have access to foor all the time, and i nelieve that as long as they are not overweight or unhealthy, they SHOULD have access to food when they want it. I have a 4 quart (one gallon) container that i fill once in the morning and once at night with a quality INDOOR cat food. and i also provide them with treats once a day, tons of toys and TONS of love.. Each cat has its own personality… I love these cats like they are our own kids, since my hubby and i cant hae kids.. and he feels the same was about them also. However, the youngest cat we have (almost a year) SCREAMS anytime the food bowl is empty. i can literally drop one morsel of hard food is his bowl at night, and he is fine.. until a cat eats it. I have tried feeding this cat 3 times a day in a seperate location, to make sure it wasnt getting bullied out of food, but he refused to eat but maybe once. So with 11 cats, im feeding them appproximately 2 gallons of hard food a day. Is this cat just one that needs to know the food is there? Ir should i make sure to continue feeding him seperatly, even though he isnt eating when i do? He isnt underweight, and is actually one of our friendsiest, loveable, cats with the best personality. So what do i do? Im out of ideas here!! Thank you in advance for you help! BTW.. our cats names are Bootsie, Big head, food stamp, light switch, Big D, Runt, Stripe, Guilly, Little B, Moe and Tucker.. and we have 3 small dogs (which we feed seperate, where they cant get to the cats food, and the cats cant get to theirs.. and a snake.. which has nothing to do with this.. but we are lovers of all animals. and we just lost our rat, Lucky, 3 months ago to old age 
he lived to be nearly 5 years old. all of our dogs and cats sleep in our bed… (dont ask.. hubby and i rarely have a chance to turn over.. lol… they are totally spoiled just as our kids would be.. and they even each have their own snuggie, jammies and "go out" outfits.. i have 2 children from a previous marriage and the love these animals so much, one cat in particular, when my daughter comes home from her dads every other weekend.. he actually climb onto her and wrap his paws around her neck and "hugs her" and wont let go.. she sleeps with him like that.. these animals are SO spoiled.. which is why i think he is doing this… but any other suggestons would help! (sorry for any typos.. i have the hiccups! LOL)
they have plenty of catfood, and we also have the cat toy where they have to work for their food… thats what we put their treats in… im totally lost here at what to do about this ONE cat who MUST have food is his bowl at all times.. i dont want them eating out of boredom while im sleeping. I even take up all dog food when im sleeping. The only thing thats left out is water,
i also have tried a "self feeder" where u fill it up and the food keeps coming out bit by bit until its empty, but i was having to fill it 3-4 times a day.. we have a watering "trough" like that, which i fill twice day, needing it ot not, an im going to get rid of it tomorrow because there are places you cant reach to clean, and i dont like that. If i wouldnt drink ot of it.. i wouldnt expect them to! im just going to get a very large bowl i can wash everyday.
Cats are like potato chips, you can’t have just one. 
I had a cat named Mickie that would hunt you down and paw and mew at you until you filled his bowl up. I think cats are like people and have their own little weird traits so I’d assume the cat just isn’t happy with change and gets upset when the bowl is empty? I’d continue just letting them eat when they want and if he cries fill the bowl up. About the not eating thing, maybe he doesn’t like to be watched? Like I said, cats have their own weird traits. Hope this helped. 
Can animals get the hiccups?...?
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Just buy catfood from zellers and feed it to them
make sure to call it jingles as a nickname!
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Ok you should buy one of those things that they can paw the fod out of the paw so you dont have to keep refilling there bowl
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We have one…
Cats are like potato chips, you can’t have just one.
I had a cat named Mickie that would hunt you down and paw and mew at you until you filled his bowl up. I think cats are like people and have their own little weird traits so I’d assume the cat just isn’t happy with change and gets upset when the bowl is empty? I’d continue just letting them eat when they want and if he cries fill the bowl up. About the not eating thing, maybe he doesn’t like to be watched? Like I said, cats have their own weird traits. Hope this helped.
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A higher quality food may allow you to feed them less. (this is not according to the things the company claims, but to the actual ingredients) As for the one that screams, it may be annoying, but if you keep giving in to him he will continue to do it. Also since he his under 1 year, he should be on kitten food, kittens require higher protein content than adult cats. If nothing seems to work and you can’t stand the screaming anymore, maybe he would be better off going to a good home were he is an only cat, or feels he has less competition.
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I used to work at the Nevada SPCA dealing only with the cats. We had 740 cats at that time and I cared for all of them every single day! The way it was set up, there were about 80 food and water bowls, if not more…anyways as long as it’s dry cat food, just keep the bowls full at all times (cats wont eat themselves to death) Now if you want to feed them canned food, well, that’s a different story completely! We only gave soft food as a treat once a week and the next day after doing that, the 60 cat boxes were horrible to clean! (soft food gave them bad diarrhea) Anyways, you tend to have less finicky cats when they only eat hard food. Once you start with canned food, you will always have to deal with the feeding times and the constant meowing and begging and pawing especially when they hear the can opener!
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