From what I've read in cat books and online, you shouldn't leave moist food
out longer than an hour or two to avoid bacteria growing on the food.  I
take up leftover canned food within about 45 minutes - assuming there's any
left!

Gail F.
Owned by Lao Ma, Ephiny, Minya, Melosa

I put down food in the morning and then go off to work. When I get the
can for the evening feeding, the boys sometimes go to work on what was
left from the morning, before I take it away from them.

The other day I put out some salmon on a plate in the kitchen for them
at dinner time and they sniffed it and walked away. Being a non-neat
sort of housekeeper, it just sat there overnight. The next morning it
was still there, but a few minutes later I noticed that most of it was
gone. The boys decided to eat it after it dried out a bit.

They're cats. I think they bury stuff out on the velt and dig it up
and eat it later. Some big cat hauls a carcass into a tree for later
consumption.

I go to Microsoft's NY headquarters a few times a month for various
user group meetings, and inevitably some earlier group has left excess
food around, and, being programmers, we eat it. We don't get sick or
die. I think we're tougher than it appears, and cats are tougher than
us.

It stays out until the next meal around here. Sometimes the cats work
on it gradually: sometimes they won't touch it after the first 2 hours
or so. Don't forget they have excellent senses of smell and can
probably detect spoiled food faster than we can. I'd have to agree.
that they don't have the same threshold as us. You can leave it out and
let them figure out what they want to eat and what they don't. Haven't
had any problems doing it this way for 10+ years.