[Carla82]

I travel a lot for work so my pets are used to a bit of a loose routine. I’m wondering if a strict feeding schedule would actually help or if it’s just extra work. I don’t want to create more chaos by changing things. Anyone tried this with multiple pets?

[Jackson_H]

A strict schedule mostly benefits the humans, not the pets. Mine adjusted fine when I fed them at random times, and the only real issue was one cat getting pushy around dinner. If anything, a rigid routine just gave me more to feel guilty about when work ran late.

[Emma Mirren]

A strict schedule actually made things worse for us. We tried it with two cats and a dog for about a month, and the dog started pacing an hour before every meal while the cats would just scream at me at 5am. Loose routine works better here.

[Jess Runner]

I feed mine whenever I’m home and it’s been fine for years, mostly because they all eat in separate spots. The schedule thing only mattered when I had a cat on meds twice a day. For a normal crew I don’t think it’s worth the extra work.

[RyanT]

I’d keep it loose if that’s already working for you. Trying to force a strict schedule with three animals just means everyone sits around staring at you an hour early, and travel days blow it up anyway. I’d only tighten up one thing at a time if something’s actually off.

[Mike Harry]

I don’t buy the idea that changing things will create chaos. I switched my two to set meal times after a year of free feeding and they were fine within a few days. The dog figured it out even faster. If anything it cut down on the random begging.

[Tom 2020]

I’ve got two cats and a dog too and I just feed them at set times because it fits my day, not because some schedule is magic. Morning and evening, that’s it. If the loose thing is already working for you and the animals aren’t ripping each other apart, I don’t see the point in switching.

[Oliver Brooks]

I tried a set schedule for my two for about six weeks and honestly it just meant they started bugging me way earlier in the day. The food part was fine, it was the waiting around that got old. I went back to a loose routine and everyone settled down again.

[Max Connor]

I think a schedule helps mainly because you notice faster when someone isn’t eating. With three pets it’s easy to miss that stuff if food just appears whenever. I don’t think it has to be super strict though.

[JSmith]

Schedules made my three worse, not better.

[Lily___]

Changing things doesn’t automatically mean chaos. We added a second cat and kept meals at the same two times, and the transition was fine. What actually helped was that I could tell who was eating and who wasn’t.

[Hannah B.]

For me the schedule is what keeps things calm, not the other way around. My crew knows when food shows up and they mostly leave each other alone the rest of the day. Without it they were constantly circling the kitchen and getting on each other’s nerves.

[Rick Blunt]

Mine just got fat and lazy either way.

[Maya Singh]

I actually think a loose routine might suit your situation better than a strict schedule, especially since you travel. My sister has two dogs and a cat and she’s on the road half the month. She tried the whole fixed-time thing for a while and it just didn’t stick because someone else was doing the feeding on travel days, so the times kept drifting anyway. What she ended up doing was more about keeping the food and water in the same spots and roughly the same order of operations, morning and evening, whenever that happened to fall. The pets adjusted to that fine. Nobody got weird about it. So I’m not sold on the idea that you have to lock in exact times to keep things calm. If your crew is already used to a looser setup and nobody’s having issues, I’d think twice before forcing a big change just because it sounds more organized on paper.

[northshore]

Strict schedule just made my crew more demanding.

[Carla82]

I mostly lurk but figured I’d add my two cents. I tried a strict schedule for my two cats and dog for about a month when I was home more, and honestly it didn’t stick. My travel just makes it impossible to keep consistent, so I went back to roughly the same times each day and everyone’s fine with that.

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