here’s a discussion on feeding. yes you will need to feed them after they eat up everything in the soil.
auto and photo fems are just different. there’s no real easier, except maybe that with autos you don’t have to worry about light leaks as much because the light isn’t going to affect their flowering schedule. downsize is you have no control over when they flower or how big (or small) they’ll get. with photos you decide how big you want them and flip them into flower when you determine. you also want to be careful not to traumatize autos too much because they have such a short veg time. you typically would not transplant them or top or train too vigorously. they won’t have time to recover.