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Cat eats too fast and vomits. What do?
DouglasDanger
PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
My cat eats his meals as though he's a vacuum cleaner, and eats them fast enough to vomit several times a week.
I used to spread his food out on a chair, but my dog would jump on the chair and eat it.
Now, his dish is on the kitchen table. It seems he only eats too fast when the dogs are around, watching him eat.
I don't want to get another kid/dog gate thing.
Is there something else I can do?
I used to spread his food out on a chair, but my dog would jump on the chair and eat it.
Now, his dish is on the kitchen table. It seems he only eats too fast when the dogs are around, watching him eat.
I don't want to get another kid/dog gate thing.
Is there something else I can do?
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The bolded parts are pretty much all you need to read.
The cat is afraid of your dogs inhaling his dinner for the umpteenth time, so he feels his only resort is to inhale the food and run off to puke it up later. His thought process is more than likely "it's dinner time" > "the dogs are around" > "dogs have stolen my dinner in the past" > "inhale food just to make sure I get a bite to eat before the dog muscles me out of my dinner" > "get sick and vomit it up later but at least I got food".
You might have a number of options here:
1) Feed your cat in another room that the dogs have zero access to so they can't steal the food.
2) Feed your dogs more, make sure they're getting enough to eat- if they're stealing the cat's food, either they need bigger portions or they're overweight, which requires a diet and exercise.
3) Put the dogs somewhere where they won't see the cat getting fed, or put the cat somewhere to where it can't see the dogs while it eats so that sense of urgency can be dealt with.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
As for the cat, you can do a few things:
1) buy a muffin tin with small holes, and put a little in each one. This way they have to move around to eat each bit.
2)put a golf ball or something similar in there, they'll have to eat around it
3) buy an auto-feeder that slowly doles out the food
4) you can try feeding the cat less, but more frequently.
5)they also make toys where the cat has to move a ball around to get the food to fall out. This works pretty well in my experience.
He'll meow and scratch when he's done.
In this case, though, physically slowing the cat down will give the dog more opportunity to steal what's left. The opportunity has to be addressed first. If the cat's still freaking out because they don't actually know the dog can't bother them now, then you can try methods like that.
The ball in the bowl (Or for my grandfathers big dog, a large smooth rock because balls existed only to be destroyed) was an excellent way to make him work enough for the food and slow him down.
The dogs weren't around.
changing brand, changing to wet food
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
...So he vomited after eating smaller portions at a slower pace?
That might mean that the problem isn't related to how fast he's eating. Is it possible to get a second opinion from another vet? It seems like a healthy cat shouldn't be tossing their lunch all of the time.
He inhaled his breakfast again
He just inhaled a smaller quantity
And then vomited a smaller quantity
As for puzzle feeders, I actually have a little gatotraid bottle that I cut a hole out of for him to knock around:
http://revsshaffer.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/img_3268.jpg
Our cat gets wet food for his actual meals, and then has this to knock around. We have a very small hole in ours (we use blue wilderness kibble, which is uniform in shape) and it only lets out one kernel at a time, basically he has to work a lot for a snack. With dogs around, I'm afraid they'd just take it and chew on it, so maybe not the best option.
honestly, if it's anxiety induced moving his bowl is probably your best bet.
I use it to keep my cats entertained. Once the bowl is in a place the dog can't reach it, if your cat is physically unable to wolf down the food, that might fix the problem.
Placing the food bowl up high is a good idea too, though, since the dogs are causing anxiety about food.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
I'm afraid that with dogs around though, especially large ones, they would just topple over a feeder like that. one of the reason that we didn't get one of those is Spectre would just knock the shit over. They make ones with little rubber spokes, and we didn't want to teach him that bowl tipping is cool.
If shelving isnt an option, you might consider the rubbermade with a hole in it that people sometimes use for litterboxes but stick his food down in there.
Also, this might be out-of-left-field, but you could also put the feeder in a giant box while you're at it. Cats love boxes because it makes them feel protected, and this might be a case where it will help alleviate some of the stress your cat associates with eating and having to protect his food from your dog.
And I know you didn't ask about this, but longer term you might want to consider training your dog so that he doesn't eat stuff just because it's in reach. At some point he might eat something he shouldn't, so it's a good idea in general. He should not feel like it's OK to just take the food, and you shouldn't have to physically restrain him from doing so. Ideally, he should be avoiding the food and looking at you for permission to eat it in the first place.
This. You need to give him time to realize it's ok. This can take a long LONG time.
Also, put a thing in the bowl, I just used a cat toy ball with my cat and it worked wonders.
welcome to pet psychology where things break in the span of minutes that can take years to fix
One thing about this - dry pet food has a significant bacterial load. If you add water to the food, it needs to be promptly eaten or thrown away.
I'm seconding everyone who says that the cat needs to eat somewhere where he can't see or hear the dogs and the dogs can't bother him. You need to be very consistent about this, because once a "safe" place is violated (for example, if you put the cat into a closed room to eat, but a dog scratches on the door while he's in there), all progress will be lost AND, in this example, the cat will have learned that a closed door is no guarantee of safety.
Don't Shoot the Dog is a book I recommend to absolutely anyone who's dealing with problematic behavior in animals (or people, for that matter). Although it claims to be a book on training - and it is - it's actually much more than that: a clear, entertaining look into why we act the way we do, and how compassionate trainers can use that information to make life as pleasant as possible for everyone involved. It includes a thorough explanation of the theory involved, as well as a ton of practical examples drawn from the author's experience in training cats, dogs, horses, dolphins, human clients, nephews, roommates, and herself.
A) Refuses to eat wet food of any kind
what do???
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Have you tried puzzle feeders?
That said, I think questions like these are very difficult to answer without seeing pictures of the cat (and dogs) in question.
It has slowed down their eating a lot, so I definitely recommend it for anyone trying to slow kitty's eating speed.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"