Free-roaming cats need above all nutrient-rich food, which you place your free-roaming cat in three fixed meals outside or provide your free-roaming cat outside permanently.
How often should you feed outdoor cats?
Outdoor cats get their food in the wild. They eat there birds, mice or other small animals. They are not guided by their hunger, but by their hunting instinct and can therefore eat several small meals a day.
Nevertheless, you can give your outdoor cat his food in a bowl outside at fixed times. Your cat knows exactly when it will get its food from you and will get it then. If your cat does not get his food, you can put it in the refrigerator for the next ration.
The advantage of this is that your outdoor cat gets its food from you and does not go to the neighbor’s garden or somewhere else to get it. Approximately you should offer two to three fixed meals for your outdoor cat.
You can also give your cat a whole bowl for the whole day in one place, where he can get small portions again and again. Here, however, you should make sure that other cats or small animals do not steal the food.
If you are wondering whether outdoor cats only do their business in the wild, we will tell you in our current article Do outdoor cats also need a litter box?
What should you feed your outdoor cat?
You can give your outdoor cat the same food as a normal indoor cat. However, by romping around outside, your outdoor cat will consume more calories and the portions can be larger.
Outdoor cats need a particularly nutritious diet.
It is important that you feed your outdoor cat a nutrient-rich diet, as he is more susceptible to diseases and parasites when outdoors. It is even more important that your outdoor cat has a good immune system.
How much do outdoor cats eat in the wild?
Here it is difficult to name an exact amount. Because you don’t know exactly how many mice or birds your cats catch during the day outside on the hunt and also eat. Some cats hunt small animals and then leave them eaten to satisfy their hunting instinct.
Other outdoor cats are real mouse hunters and eat 10-15 mice per day. It is important that your outdoor cat gets additional access to food from you. This should be particularly nutritious food, so that the immune system of your outdoor cat is strong enough.
Special features of feeding outdoor cats
Due to the daily energy expended in the outdoors by running, romping and chasing, outdoor cats need nutrient-rich food.
When supplementally feeding your outdoor cat, the food should have a balanced ratio of vitamins and minerals. This especially protects the cat’s nose from infectious diseases.
But also a high proportion of protein and fat content should have the food to give your outdoor cat the required energy.
Because your cat is exposed to many environmental influences outside in nature, your outdoor cat needs many vitamins, prebiotic additives and antioxidants for a strong defense system.
Likewise, the ingredient biotin is very good for your cat’s coat.
What does an indoor cat need to eat?
Compared to the outdoor cat, the indoor cat consumes significantly fewer calories, because it moves less and does not use energy for hunting its food.
The indoor cat needs a balanced nutrient and mineral content in its food. This will protect the cat from urinary tract infections and keep your cat’s coat and skin shiny and healthy.
Similarly, indoor cats need a high protein and low fat content in their food. This gives your cat the animal protein that the outdoor cat gets outside by eating small animals.
Indoor cats need a lot of fiber in their diet to stimulate the shedding of fur hair that they swallow while grooming.
It is also important to have a high amount of fiber in the diet of residential cats to stimulate the excretion of fur hairs that are swallowed by the cat during grooming.
Summary – How to feed outdoor cats?
Free-range cats need above all nutrient-rich food, which you place your free-range cat in three fixed meals outside or provide your free-range cat outside permanently.
You can give your outdoor cat daily three fixed meals outside to eat. This has the advantage that your outdoor cat only gets something to eat with you and not somewhere else. You also have the possibility to place a whole meal in a fixed place, where your cat can help itself to it the whole day.
Your outdoor cat should be fed with nutritious food, as it is exposed to many environmental influences and diseases in the wild.
There is no guideline for the amount of food you can give your outdoor cat during the day, because nobody knows exactly what small animals like mice or birds your cat will eat during the day.
There are a few points that you should consider when feeding your outdoor cat. The food should have a balanced ratio of vitamins and minerals, which especially protects against infectious diseases. But also a high proportion of protein and fat content should have the food of your outdoor cat. To strengthen the defenses, your cat should get many vitamins, prebiotic additives and antioxidants.
On the other hand, an indoor cat needs a lot of fiber and a significantly lower number of calories in its food. To maintain animal proteins, the indoor cat needs a high protein and low fat content in its diet.