Total Cat Mojo: The Ultimate Guide to Life with Your Cat

by Jackson Galaxy

We have to make the distinction between scavenging versus opportunistic hunting. One lifestyle suggests grazing; the other suggests HCKE. Free feeding is leaving food out for your cat 24/7 and is basically analogous to scavenging. It’s food for the taking, with no effort involved. It’s unearned and, therefore, unrewarding. No Mojo. My experience is that free feeding undermines the work we try to do, not to mention the cat’s own physiology. Cats are built to eat several small meals a day, optimally around five to six hours apart. I advocate somewhere between two and four meals a day, matching the rhythm of your home. The difference between a wild cat who is hunting all the time and your cat is that your cat’s circadian rhythm is hooked into yours. When your family wakes up in the morning, energy in the house skyrockets, and so does your cat’s. So, ideally, that’s when it’s HCKE time. You come home from work, and the same thing happens: your cat’s energy rises. And then once again before bed. Every time there’s a ritualistic rising of energy in the home, you should be ritualizing play and food (HCKE) around that.