cats are wild animals(house ones may be tame but thier bodies are the same) and can handle bad food better then humans. however the rule of thumb that a health inspecter goes by for "human food" in the same scenario is 7 days. but if i was bad i am sure your cat woiuld not eat it. good luck.

Instead of throwing it out, reconstitute it with water. Mix it up, then serve. That stuff is too expensive to waste on a finicky cat!

You feed your cat 1/2 teaspoon twice a day? I feed my cat 1/2 can in the a.m. refrigerate the other half and give it to her at night. My other cat will only eat dry food so I never put the entire can out at once. Sometimes I forget and open a fresh can at night, in that case, I use the old half can in the morning and keep the newer half can for evening. If I put food in her bowl and it stays there until the next feeding time, I toss it out.

It should last for 2 - 4 days. I used to feed my cats a tablespoon of canned food once a day and leave dry food out all the time, but they refused the canned food so often, that I just started leaving dry food out for them. They seem perfectly happy with that, so you might just try that.

A half teaspoon? Are you serious? That's such a miniscule amount, why bother? Or maybe your teaspoon is much larger than mine. LOL. If you cover the leftover food it won't dry out and should be good for several days. Most cats do not like cold food, though. You could warm it up on the stove or mix it into some hot tap water.

I wouldn't think cat food goes bad after a day but I have noticed our cat won't touch the stuff after it starts to dry out. "Foots" has me trained to keep a bowl of dry food out 24/7 and offer her 1/3 of a can of wet in the morning and evenings. We found some cheap stuff called "Fine Feline" she seems to love but I share your concern about waste. Maybe try a little less wet. As long as the dry is available he won't be under fed. Cats are finicky by nature so it's kind of hard to say whether the problem lies with the food or his mood. I love cats. They are domesticated but on their own terms. I just love that independence.

I feed my cat the pouches because he couldn't get through a whole tin either. The pouches are 100 grammes each (three and a half ounces) and he needs three a day, or two and a bowl of dried food. That's three quarters of a tin a day, or half a tin if he has dried food too. Most cats dislike the food chilled (cats don't have dentists) and once it starts to separate so there's liquid in the tin its well and truly off. I would never risk using the same tin for more than two days - you are not supposed to refrigerate human food still in the can because its dangerous - we are supposed to tip stuff out into plastic containers instead, aren't we? One night in a tin is probably all it can take. Its true that cats have a sense of smell 14 times more acute than ours and they rely on that in the wild to tell them what's safe to eat, so they know what they are on about if they refuse something. Its also true that a cat can be as picky as anyone else and if you were given mac & cheese every mealtime for two or three days, you'd start to refuse it even if it was still 'fresh'. TRUST THE CAT, feed it a bit more and maybe switch to pouches - they cost more but not when you factor in the food that gets wasted in tins.

Right after opening a can, freeze half of it in a sandwich bag. You can cut off portions of it, then mash the piece with a little hot water. If you read the ingredients though, you will find that canned cat food is a lot of "junk". I give my cats canned mackerel, which is pure, high in protein (which cats need), and has other extra nutrients in it. Sometimes you can also get canned salmon on sale, and don't throw out the idea of giving your cat fresh-cooked meats from your plate. The canned salmon & mackerel are larger cans, so you would have to freeze it in more portions. I mash it all up with the liquids before I freeze it. About 2 tablespoons a day would be about right. This is my cat's special treat but i also use it to get them in at night. They can now tell time. They know when it's treat time + I get them in for the night.

IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU THROW THE LEFTOVERS AWAY AFTER 3 DAYS

probably not long