If you want to let your cat eat freely, it is best to put food in the bowl for about half a day at a time. Pay attention to the freshness of the food. If the dry food has been left for more than a day, replace it with new one. If it is canned or the like, Don’t let cats eat wet food freely.
Timed and quantitative VS free feeding 
Guys, stop worrying.
Come and see Which one do you pick?
free feedingWhen there is no food in the bowl, refill it and try to keep the bowl from being empty. This is also true for many automatic feeding machines.
advantage
In line with the nature of cats, cats are very aware of hunger and fullness. Unlike dogs, dogs can easily eat too much and cause health problems if they are fed freely, but cats will not eat when they are full.
It’s very friendly to lazy people. Put a big bowl of rice in the bowl, so you don’t have to worry about it. Just wait for the bowl to be empty before adding more rice.
shortcoming
It may cause cats to be picky eaters and have no sense of urgency about food. Anyway, there will always be food in the bowl, and it doesn’t matter if it is finished. Moreover, due to the freshness of the food, food that has been left out for a long time will generally be thrown away by the cat. Replace it with a new one. Over time, the cat will not like the rice in the bowl. Anyway, you will pour it out and put something more delicious, so you won’t eat it! It's difficult to monitor how much your cat eats every day, so potential health problems can easily go unnoticed.
Therefore, if you want to let your cat eat freely, it is best to put food in the bowl for about half a day at a time. Pay attention to the freshness of the food. If the dry food has been left for more than a day, replace it with new one. If it is canned or the like, wet food, don’t let cats eat freely-
Timing and quantitativeAs the name suggests, the cat is fed a fixed amount of food at regular or fixed times. At other times, there is no food in the bowl.
advantage
It can keep cats with a relatively high desire for food, because there is not always food to eat, and cats will pay attention to meal times, otherwise they will not have anything to eat, so relatively speaking, cats are less likely to be picky eaters. ! Artificially controlling the amount of food a cat needs to eat can keep the cat in a healthier state and avoid overeating!
Therefore, if allowed, it is recommended that the cat should be fed regularly and quantitatively. If you want to feed the cat freely, you only need to pay more attention to the freshness of the cat’s food and the cat’s health status. Those who feed themselves the way they eat must be the most attentive~