You know how some cats can see a bowl of food and just spend the day grazing whenever they feel hungry? Our cat, Tilly, is…. not like that. She’s like a puppy, always rushing to eat food. When we first got her it was a bit of a struggle to figure out when she was actually hungry and when she was just being greedy (spoiler alert – she was always just being greedy!)

Eventually we found that splitting up her food into small portions throughout the day was far more effective – it made her feel like she was getting food all the time, so she’d stop annoying us for food. This routine also really helped with her anxiety, so was a win win. We got an automatic feeder for her dry food, and that left us to feed her twice a day for a bit of wet food. We set this to be at 9am and 4pm every day.

Tilly figured out pretty quickly how to tell the time by the sun. The trouble with where we live is that sunrise/sunset times change quite dramatically throughout the year. So things worked really well for a little while, but as it got closer to summer and the sun rose earlier and earlier in the day, she started annoying us for food earlier and earlier in the morning.

I decided to try an experiment – I set an alarm for 9am and 4pm and chose an alarm that was a bit of a song. Whenever it went off I would get Tilly all excited and make a big production about it being time for some food. Whenever she tried to annoy us with wanting food I’d say ‘wait for the song’. And eventually she learned that when the song played, she would get food and not any other time. So the 5am feet attacked stopped (for the most part lol), and now every time that song plays, Tilly loses her mind and runs between the alarm and her bowl 😀 One day I’ll get it on video!

This is the song that we use for the alarm –

Thor and I (though Thor in particular) have a habit of making up silly songs for things. When he started hearing this song at least twice a day inspiration took over and he started adding lyrics to it. Over the past few months we’ve been adding more verses…

Enjoy our silly little song 🙂 (Also for those who may not know the slang – ‘tucker’ is food

Tilly’s Tucker Time

It is time!
It’s Tilly’s Tucker Time!
She’ll do some crimes
If she’s not fed both day and night
It’s Tilly’s Tucker Time!

It is time!
It’s Tilly’s Tucker Time!
She’ll eat your soul
If there’s no food there in her bowl
It’s Tilly’s Tucker Time!

It is time!
It’s Tilly’s Tucker Time!
She’ll bite your feet
If she don’t get something to eat
It’s Tilly’s Tucker Time!

It is time!
It’s Tilly’s Tucker Time!
She’s in the mood
For a great big bowl of food
It’s Tilly’s Tucker Time!

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