The short answer for a Cornish Rex: two, sometimes three
An adult Cornish Rex usually needs two proper meals a day, spaced roughly twelve hours apart. That rhythm gives his stomach time to empty between feeds, keeps hunger from building into mischief, and matches the way most households actually live. The Cornish Rex is where the generic two-meal rule most often bends, though. This is a fine-boned, muscular cat wrapped in a short rippled coat, with very little insulation and a high level of everyday activity; he burns through his day at a rate a heavier, sleepier breed does not. If your Cornish Rex is the restless, always-in-motion type who stays genuinely lean on two meals, dividing the same daily food into three smaller sittings is a reasonable, often better pattern for him.
Why grazing suits this breed badly
Leaving food down all day is a poor match for the Cornish Rex temperament. He is an engaged, food-interested cat who treats an available bowl as an ongoing invitation, and free access blurs the difference between hunger and entertainment. Meals, by contrast, give his day structure he can predict, and they give you information: a cat who eats two defined meals shows you immediately when his appetite changes, while a grazer's intake is unknowable until the bag empties suspiciously fast or his silhouette changes.
Deciding between two and three for your cat
Use condition, not character, to make the call. On two meals, a Cornish Rex in good shape feels like a cat should: ribs under a light covering, a defined waist behind them, muscle you can feel along the shoulders and thighs, and no sharp hip bones. If he holds that picture and eats both meals eagerly, two is his number and no lobbying changes it. Move to three smaller meals if he is persistently lean despite a full ration, if he regularly vomits from bolting an oversized meal too fast, or if long gaps produce frantic, food-obsessed behaviour that disrupts the house. The total daily amount does not rise when you add the midday sitting; you are slicing the same pie into three pieces instead of two.
Timing the meals around a Rex's day
Anchor the two anchor meals to your own morning and evening, and if there is a third, place it at the natural midday lull rather than whenever he performs loudest. A Cornish Rex is a heat-seeking, people-following cat, and a meal that arrives right after his big play session will satisfy him far longer than the same food served to a cat who has napped all afternoon. Many owners find the evening meal works best served in two acts: half before an evening play burst, half after, which stretches the satisfaction without adding a gram.
Appetite signals that override the schedule
Treat the meal count as a healthy-cat framework and abandon it where health speaks. A Cornish Rex who starts leaving food, at any meal count, needs watching for a day and a vet if it persists, because this breed's appetite is normally robust. The opposite shift matters too: a cat who becomes frantic for extra meals while losing his lean outline, drinking more, or seeming restless at night should be examined rather than simply fed more. Sudden hunger in a middle-aged or older cat is a symptom to explain, not a portion problem to solve. Bring his meal pattern and any weight change to that appointment, as the history helps your vet judge what has shifted.
Fixing his two or three daily feeds as KinsLe Care Teams duties, each ticked off with a timestamp when served, means every carer feeds the same number of meals and nobody's soft-hearted extra sitting sneaks into his day.