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Fat Cat & Skinny Cat Feeding Issues
buzzard0627
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
First off, obligitory kitty photo.
OK, so I've got one fat cat and one skinny cat as you may have gathered. The fat one is starting to experience some issues that absolutely necessitate that she lose weight. They both have been on weight control food for over a year. The vet finally decided to put her on even more weight control food (less calories high protein). This is all well and good, but now the skinny cat is starting to lose weight and we don't want that as he is just about perfect in terms of weight.
We think that the fat one is eating more than her share of food. We feed them small servings twice a day. The vet recommended that we separate them while they eat. The problem is, the skinny one is a slow eater - he basically picks at his food all day (we did in fact try this, but it doesn't seem to be working all that well).
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
OK, so I've got one fat cat and one skinny cat as you may have gathered. The fat one is starting to experience some issues that absolutely necessitate that she lose weight. They both have been on weight control food for over a year. The vet finally decided to put her on even more weight control food (less calories high protein). This is all well and good, but now the skinny cat is starting to lose weight and we don't want that as he is just about perfect in terms of weight.
We think that the fat one is eating more than her share of food. We feed them small servings twice a day. The vet recommended that we separate them while they eat. The problem is, the skinny one is a slow eater - he basically picks at his food all day (we did in fact try this, but it doesn't seem to be working all that well).
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
buzzard0627 on
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So, I say put the skinny cat in another part of the house for a long period of time so she can eat her food. Slowly decrease this period of time. Cats are extremely good about learning routine; if she learns that her food will be taken away from her one hour after she starts, she will learn to eat faster. Of course, she should have learned this already when the other cat started eating her food... Anyway, it's something to try. I can't really think of anything that doesn't involve long periods of separation.
We were free feeding them and well, one cat got huge and the other managed to maintain a pretty healthy weight.
Well, we switched them to a scheduled feeding. But, like you, the thing guy would just kind of pick. So we're talking to our vet and yep...stick with the schedule.
What we ended up doing was putting down the prescribed amount of food down at the same time and letting them wander over and check it out. We removed all food the previous night so they'd get a bit hungry. Fat guy powered through it, skinny guy picked at some and wandered off.
So, we picked up his food and that was that. By the time the second scheduled feeding came around, he was feeling a bit more hungry. Both bowls go down with the proper amount of food and yep, fat guy powers through it again and this time skinny guy eats a bit more. He wanders off and up comes the food.
Repeat the process and I promise you, he'll get the idea VERY quickly that when food goes down, it's eating time.
We didn't even bother separating them. Just wasn't worth it.
what the guy does is that he puts the kittens food on the other side of a "door" with a hole in it so the small kittens can go in and out, but the adult one can't. I'm not sure if it could be something you could do since they are 2 adult cat, but maybe have a "skinny cat" shape that only he can go in
Have you ever tried to take the more obese cat on an exercise? Surprisingly enought My suggestion is to teach your cat how to swim... first with floation devices and then slowly without... it's funny because when I suggested it to a friend at first he's giving me this look that I want to kill his cat.. but yes eveuntually your cat can learn how to swim.
Oscar is as skinny as a rake, and has a very sensitive stomach. Lily is a bit over-weight, and frighteningly fast after 2 years on *uber-diet-food*. If we fed them both at the same time, Oscar would bolt down his food then throw it up.
We made ourselves a food-box. It is a large "fishing container" (a.k.a. a 2.5X1.5X1.5 foot box with a lid) with an RFID cat door on the side of it. We cut out some air holes because cat food smells strong, and only close one handle in the lid so he can jump out one side. Oscar wears an RFID collar, and Lily can't force the door open (the magnet doors are not so good).
It works very well.
If you do go down this route, I've found it handy to have two different types of biscuits for Oscar. One is "bowl only", and the other is only given out when I put Lily's food in her bowl. This stops him pushing her out the way and eating her tiny food allotment.
Mine are both female, and the orange one is the fat one in this case. I admit I don't have any better advice than has been given... luckily for me they manage their weights relatively well. You can see the automatic feeder I have in the background. The black one has learned how to steal food out of it (it's an advance on the next meal, really) so she can eat as much as she wants while the fat one has to wait.
P.S. Thanks for the compliments and funnily enough Zul, somebody else on these forums has the exact combo of cats I do
I've been trying to deal with this too, though for me it's complicated by the other cat who is a good weight. I don't want to put weight control food in the auto-feeder because I'm concerned that the skinny cat will get too skinny. I did some calculations on how many calories I was feeding them - here are the numbers (I cut mine in half since you're looking at one cat.)
My feeder only allows increments of 1/4 cup, and 1-3 meals/day which much all be the same size. So that restricts the possible number of 1/4 cups day to pretty discrete amounts, so I supplemented with some wet food once a day to hit a good number of calories.
Science Diet Indoor Cat Dry Food
~281 kcal/cup
Science Diet Indoor Cat Wet Food (Chicken)
~165.2 kcal/156g can
Original feeding plan (per day)
3 x 1/4 cup = 210.75 kcal
New feeding plan (per day)
2x 1/4 cup + 1/4 can wet food = 181.8 kcal
You can probably find the nutrition information for your preferred food online and do some calculations.
TL;DR
3/4 cup per day of normal dry food was too much for my cat. She's even still a little heavy but I think she's doing better.
i feed cats 1/3 of a cup each twice a day. We use a mix of weight management, urine, and hairball and there still ends up with food in the bowls
it actually works out well with the weight food. the one who needs to lose weight is a slow methodical eater. he won't eat if anyone is in the room, the skinny guy will eat anything and lots of it so he just eats more of it so he isn't losing weight.
Cat pics
More overweight
Are you trying to feed them an entire can all at once, or multiple feedings? If you're expecting them to eat an entire can in one sitting, I think that may be a bit unrealistic, and you should try splitting things up before you switch to a lower-quality food.
I have two cats that also get Wellness CORE, and they get roughly 1 5.5 oz can each per day, split into one feeding at 6 AM and one at 6 PM. Sometimes a small amount at 10 or 11 PM if they've scoured their plates clean.
It won't hurt the food or your cats if it sits out for a while - maybe not 24 hours, but certainly 8-12 hours during the day is fine.
We have a similar situation. Our cats were free-range for a long time and one ended up fat, and the other always hungry. Result was feeding them twice a day as you would a dog: with evenly measured amounts of a wet/dry food combination that adds up to the needed calories of cats their age. As they only the the amount of food they need, when breakfast and dinner come around they are hungry and immediately chow down.
Ours switch bowls often as they do so, but in our situation the little one eats more than the fat one so it proved pretty useful to keep the fat cat focused on eating one bowl, while the little one wipes his bowl clean.
Little cat grew nicely to be an adult and keeps a healthy weight. Fat cat has lost a good deal of weight and is getting close to looking like a cat and not a basketball.
We use this one. It is good. It does make a buzzing noise as the teeth are withdrawn into the door, but Oscar has no issues with it.
Our friends got the next model up (for their inside/outside cat) and love it.