Cat Feeding/Food Issue

[Fhloston]

So we have two cats. We usually feed them canned food (Friskies). Our male cat vacuums his food up, gone in a minute, etc. Our female cat is a pretty finicky eater. Nibbles, comes back later for more. Male cat would eat his food, then go over to our other cat's food and eat hers. We fixed this (or so we thought) by putting our female cat's bowl on our kitchen counter.

She would jump up and eat there. Figured our male cat was too lazy/fat to get up there. Apparently he upgraded his legs recently, because now he gets on that counter and goes buck wild. Thinking I should just get one big bowl and feed them at the same time, but with dry food. I know there's a lot of shitty, cheap dry brands out there, but, I want to buy them quality food.

So I ask you, BG, what do you feed your cats? Any recommendations on dry brands? Also, a good place to buy them from? Petco is retarded expensive, even with their Petpals discount, on dry food. Thanks!

[Rocl]

water bottle post

[Hiryo]

Would she eat all of her food in the first couple of days of it being on the counter? If so, and now she doesn't, then it is probably because that "feeding ground" is no longer "secure." If this is the case, the more secure her location is, the more she should eat.

[Clash Perez]

Have you tried hitting him with a water bottle?

I have a male and female cat who act in much the same way. I've given up on trying to regulate their eating behavior. I am lucky that the male prefers wet food, and the female the dry stuff, so I give wet in the morning and dry in the evening.

Does your female cat seem malnourished or anything? If it is a significant issue, you can try physically separating them at feeding time.

I feed Taste of the Wild for dry, and I've forgotten which wet food brand it is that I buy (I buy it by the brand label I guess, rather by looking at the brand name.)

[Sepukku]

If you thought your cat was a finicky eater before, going from wet to dry is REALLY going to piss her off....

Cats know their bodies, just let the male cat eat it all for a couple days, female cat will learn to chow when its available. Shes not dumb.

Also, love how people are already jumping all over this thread immediately but not a single offering of help to the man's math problem 30 minutes ago. Cats > Math

[Kwijiboe]

Fat cat is developing bad eating habits.

One possible reason is because you're feeding them too infrequently, and when you do feed them, it's perhaps too large of a portion.

Feed them both smaller portions throughout the day. I think it may be wise to split up fat cat, however, for at least a few days.

[Cail]

throwing a water bottle at it is the only solution

[Fhloston]

I usually feed them when I get home, around 8AM-ish, then in the evening at 6-7PM. Vet recommended half a can per feeding, so we did that. We also mix dry/wet sometimes. They're really picky on dry, since wet tastes better to them I'm sure, but they will tear that shit up when they're hungry. Female cat will normally finish her food in a day. Her habits haven't changed, surprisingly. She's no angel herself, she goes for fat cat's food sometimes. Probably since it's easier to access. But, like I mentioned earlier, she eats so little at a time that it isn't really a problem when she goes for fat cat's food. Also, female cat is at a "perfect weight", according to our vet. Fat cat is, well, fat.

[Sepukku]

Build a box with a cat/dog door that only female cat can fit through and put her food inside that box.

[TacoTaru]

When we feed our cats wet food we have to separate them because they compete with each other to see who can eat faster and take the others out, which usually ends up with one of the cats choking. My wife and I just get the attention of each of them, and then put the other cat in another room and shut the door. That solved all our problems with them eating fast and going after the other cat's food. As far as dry brands, I couldn't tell you since my wife usually buys it but I think it's the Friskies brand. They don't ever compete for dry food since that's the norm and wet food is more of a treat for them.

[Kerberoz]

When she gets hungry enough, she'll eat faster. Cats don't starve.

[Raldo]

I use this for my two cats. (Purina Healthful Life)
http://www.catchow.com/Assets/images...fe_product.png
When we first got them, we got a two-part food bowl. We'd buy several different types of food, but whichever side we put this food into was always empty first. If you don't like taking a blind recommendation, I suggest doing the same multi-food test with your cats, since your cats' tastes may vary.

I buy from Petsmart, but I don't really price check pet items.

I refuse to deal with wet food because of stories like yours.

Note: Make sure your male cat won't gorge himself on dry food before you set a giant bowl out. My sister's cat will literally eat itself to death if given the chance (she can't even use the corn-based cat litter because it will eat that shit).

[Alolbont]

I use iams for dry and pick up some wet every now and again. With wet we just get two separate plates and give one to each, then we watch as they both eat fast regardless. When one cat is finished we just remove him from the kitchen.

[Dolmen]

We feed our two cats Natural Balance Original Ultra dry food which we free feed, and then they each get a little wedge from a 6oz can of Natural Balance Indoor Cat Formula at night. Our cats kind of feed from both of the wet food bowls and don't really inhale their food, and I'd attribute that to the free feeding dry food they have. When we originally adopted them from the SPCA they were on Royal Canin, and I gradually switched them over. Now, they won't touch any other food aside from Natural Balance. Their coats are extremely soft and vibrant, great teeth, great builds, no hairballs ever, etc..., and I attribute that to the Natural Balance.

For places to purchase, we hunt Amazon for sales or use mrchewy.com, as their prices are normally at least 10% cheaper than Petco for the food (25%+ cheaper when they're running specials).

[Ddz]

I feed my cat whichever food has real meat as the main ingredient. The filler stuff is garbage (corn meal, etc as main ingredient). I don't have multiple cats, so the competition thing is out of the equation for me. Sometimes my cat gets fat-kid syndrome and wolfs down her food and then she will throw up though, which pisses me off, so I try to just feed her smaller quantities at a time and monitor her for a few minutes after I pour the food. In your case, it is probably the male trying to be dominant in the house. If you have the time, I would try feeding the female cat privately first, and monitor it making sure she gets what she wants, then letting the male cat go hog wild on the rest since he seems to be a greedy ass!

[Deadgye]

We've always fed our cat(s) both dry and wet food. We keep the dry food bowl full at all times and put out a small can to a big can per day. Our kitty sometimes decides to push the dry food into the wet food so he can have a hybrid meal.

[Cream Soda]

Just feed as you were before you noticed anything. Darwin doesn't need your help.

[Sylphet]

I use Iams. It's pricey for a store brand but it's less expensive than the pet store 'fancy' brands. I only feed my cat dry food, mostly because I don't want to have to clean his teeth any more than necessary. Also his stomach doesn't handle wet food (or cheap store brand).

If it becomes necessary to feed them separately I would put them in separate rooms for a little bit to make sure that the smaller cat eats her fill.

I would certainly try some dry foods to see what they like. Dry cat food is way better for their teeth than wet food any way so you might want to consider working it into their regular diet.

[Effluo]

Blue Buffalo all the way. We have three cats and used to feed them the crap you can buy at any grocery store. One cat was constantly overweight, and there were always hairball issues. We decieded to switch them over to Blue Buffalo to see how it would work. Fat Cat is much less fat, and they all seem to have more energy, and the hairball issue has almost disappeared. I feed them with three separate food bowls, all the same size, on a folding table so the dog does not eat their food. They get feed once a day, in the morning before I leave for work, and I put 1/2 a cup in each of the three bowls. There is usually food left over in the mornings when I refill the bowls. They seem to like the Blue Buffalo, and honestly I have noticed the difference between quality pet food, and crap grocery store food. Our dog is also on BB, which seems to have helped his food alergy. Couldn't figure out what it was, but we figure since there is no wheat/corn/soy in his food, it has to be one of those.

[Sylphet]

Do you feed wet, dry or both for the blue buffalo food? My cat IS overweight but he also does nothing but sit around all day long (and he's old). My friends say he's not a cat - he's a baby panda.