Feeding 2 cats different foods/habits - Advice needed!

[andybriz]

I'll try and keep this as simple as possible!

I have two cats. One is on prescription food. The other one is on normal food.

I have to watch them eat every single meal as the one on normal food is greedy and a fast eater and will barge the other one out the way and eat his food.

The one on prescription food eats slowly and likes to graze, he eats for 2 minutes walks away, comes back 10 minutes later and so on until it's all gone, usually takes a couple hours. I work from home and in the mornings, I take his bowl with me to my office so he can come and go there and I can make sure the other one doesn't eat it his food. This system works well.

The one on normal food is fine to eat the prescription food, we just don't let him when we're at home as it is expensive.

However they are going into a cattery for 2 weeks as we have a holiday booked. We will give the cattery enough prescription food to feed them both for the 2 weeks however I know the greedy one will eat his food then eat the other ones food, especially as he walks away from his bowl after 2 minutes.

I can tell the cattery one is greedy and the other is a grazer, but I know they can't sit and watch them eat, they have lots of other cats to feed etc.

I haven't really thought anything of it until now, and I've started to think that maybe I've made my life more difficult than it needs to be! Once the grazer has had his first 2 minutes and walks away, perhaps I should not give him anymore food until next meal time. Maybe he will learn to eat all his food in one go?

He gets so hungry though and follows me around the house meows at me at the best of times, he'll be a nightmare if I do this!

Any advice? Can you change a cats eating habits?!

[meriad]

Not the cheapest solution but it may be the only one:
http://www.medicanimal.com/SureFeed-Mic ... Akvw8P8HAQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

a microchip feeder? it will only open for the cat that's it's programmed to. However I don't know how fast they open and close, so if the slower eater is eating and the other one comes to push him out the way just how much he'd get before the lid closes.

Another option would be to get the faster eater a bowl that makes it more tricky for them to eat:
http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp? ... ArWP8P8HAQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

so they take more time to eat their food giving the other cat more time as well?

Maybe a combination of the two?

[Kay]

rather than taking the dish away it might be quicker and simpler just to pop a cover over it - a simple pudding basin would do

[Lallum]

My two cats do not get on. They fight or tolerate each other but there's no friendship. When they go into catteries I have always asked for them to be houses separately. If you have that option then it wouldn't matter that one eats the others food. It's slightly more expensive but the one not on the prescription diet could have 'normal' food which would be a slight saving.

[andybriz]

Thanks for the replies!

Good idea re microchip feeder but I've had a bit of a breakthrough since my last post.

I thought I'd try and retrain him to not graze, so yesterday I didn't let him have any more breakfast after his first grazing session and he went on to eat all his dinner! And this morning he's eaten nearly all his breakfast which is unheard of. I can't believe he's not hassling me for more of his food right now, which he does every day without fail. In total contrast from the norm, he's fast asleep on my bed right now! I didn't think it would be this easy to retrain him.

I have thought about putting them in different enclosures at the cattery in the past but never very seriously, however I just did the maths and I'd be paying pretty much exactly the same as what I am now (slightly more in cattery fees but less in prescription food). Very interesting!!

They do get on, but I think they would be fine as long as they were next to each other and could see each other. I know the ladies open the outer corridors for the cats to stretch their legs a bit when feeding/cleaning so I could ask they are both let out at the same time to say hello to each other once or twice a day. I can imagine they might actually like it to be honest! They are fully booked for the summer now but worth thinking about next year.. Thanks!

[Lallum]

Sorry I should have said they are housed next to each other when they go to cattery. They don't exercise together as they fight.