For Those Who Feed Their Cats Wet Food: Heat Up or Not? (eating, smells)

[jazzcat22]

I need to find out if I am shirking my responsibilities as a cat mom. Belina is the only my second cat and the first one who eats wet food. I've read that refrigerated canned food should be heated up in the microwave. I was doing this, but she hates to wait while I stick some food in a glass bowl to put in the microwave (that little 8 pound girl can definitely CATerwaul!). And sometimes I heat it too much and she goes really crazy while I have to wait for it to cool down. I do add some water to it (room temp water) to ensure that she drinks some. The past couple of days I've stopped heating it.

So---for those of you who use canned food, when it's refrigerated, do you heat it up or not?

[CSD610]

First of all I will never, ever refer to myself as a cat/dog "parent", "Mom/Dad", aunt, uncle cousin or any other relative.

I have one dog and one cat who share our home but I am NOT their Mother and I DID NOT birth them.

Second, why would you put the food in the refrigerator and then heat it. I feed my cat Friskies wet food and it is not heated in the microwave nor anywhere else. It is in the pantry until I feed her then it is put in her dish and given to her room temperature. I also have a friend who has had cats her entire 61 years of life and none of her cats ever had food heated before given to the cats.

[subject2change]

Cat/dog Mom here.
I have 3 so I don't have extra, but when I had just one I did reheat it, in the microwave because she wouldn't eat it cold. Before long she didn't want it microwaved either (and I was careful not to have hot spots). Much later, I learned here that it's better to heat the food in the dish in hot water. I also learned here that some cats actually prefer it cold.
So there's no right answer, just what's right for you and your cat.

[jazzcat22]

CSD, I buy the 5.5 ounce cans to save money. Belina gets 1/4 of a can twice a day. It's refrigerated in between feedings.

And I am fully aware that I didn't give birth to Belina-----but see nothing wrong with referring to myself as her "mom"---will also say I'm her person. Ironically, I would never refer to myself as a "girl" at my advanced age, but will call Belina my furkid. Hope most people don't find it too silly/obnoxious!

[moved]

Snickers get a 3oz can in the morning, and he eats the entire can. But for dinner, he gets about an 1/8 of a 5.5oz can, and I warm it up with hot water. Since it's been refrigerated, the hot water just makes it warm, but not hot.

[rockrchick]

Wet food is wet food to my cats. They don't care how it's given to them

[AnonChick]

I often buy the bigger cans (5.5 ounce) of BFF (a Weruva off-shoot) and give my cat half of one, and refrigerate the other half.

And now with her new feeding schedule, she's getting only half a 3-ounce can in the morning, and the other half in the evening (or rehydrated freeze-dried pellets from Stella and Chewy).

I don't like giving her cold food, so I just add a teaspoon or two of hot tap water and mix it all in to get it closer to room temp. I don't heat it though.

[catsmom21]

I do not use the microwave to warm canned food up, not only because I don't have a microwave, but because I would worry about it zapping nutrients.

I warm ALL their meals, whether from a freshly opened can or from previously opened left-overs stored (in glass food storage containers) in the refrigerator.

I run hot water over the ceramic saucer. Then I put the food in the warm saucer, then I place that saucer in another saucer which has hot water in it (picture double-boiler type set up) and let it sit like that for a minute or two, stir the food around to even the temperature, then serve.

I do this for three cats 6-7 times a day, because I schedule feed, and while they get 3 meals a day, each meal is divided into two or three small servings.

I have been feeding cats this way since I went to all canned food in 1985.

PS I didn't vote in the poll because, while I do warm the food, I do not use a microwave to do it.

[Happy in Wyoming]

Cat/dog daddy and proud of it.

My cats have always liked food at room temperature. My present one eats more like a dog. Rather than nibble on small meals he devours one 3 ounce can in the morning and one in the evening. If he only ate part of a can at a time I'd leave it out. It won't spoil in a few hours.

I feed my dogs from the can in the morning and warm it slightly at night to help disguise a pill my older dog takes chopped up. My cat doesn't snitch much of the warm food from the dish without the medecine. The one with is out of his reach. My dogs seem to like it either warm or cold so I split.

[Gummifuzz]

My cats really don't care if it's hot or cold, as long as it smells good