Number of Bowls for Eating?

i have three cats. i've recently tried to have them each eat from their own bowl. that way i'd know exactly how much each cat ate. but it didnt seem to work out. the cats would switch bowls very frequently, and then when i started adding warm water to their dry food they would all eat out of the same bowl at once then all goto the next one. this happened dispite moving them to seperate bowls - their persistance to eat out of only one bowl at a time is very very strong.

so i decided to use only one bowl for all of them. i watched them and they seemed to be eating an equal amount.

is it okay to do that? the bowl is big and allows access to all the cats easily.

or would it be a good idea to try harder for seperate bowls?

thanks
dream

I have 2 bowls for food and 2 for water.I have 3 cats, and they have no problem with it.When it comes to special treats though,I do give each a seperate bowl and make sure each eats their own treat.

Depending on if the cats are picking up weight too fast or one is not getting enough I would have 3 separate bowls.

You could put one cat in a separate room till they were done. Or put them far apart in corners in the same room. All my cats had little separated dishes and they all eat out of their favorite spots - like one on the treehouse, one in a cage, etc.

My cats get one big bowl that I put thier dry food in (2 cups of Felidae lasts them a couple days) and then I have three separate bowls to feed thier wet food. They usually switch off and on though. One will start on one bowl, then walk away and another cat goes to that bowl, then the cat who walked away goes back to the other cat's bowl. They seem to think that one bowl may have better food than the other, even though I put the same thing in each dish!
If one cat is skinny, I'd probably separate that cat at feeding time in another room so he wouldn't have to compete. And maybe give him an extra feeding during the day.

I have two cats and two separate bowls for food. They don't always eat at the same time and I don't care if they eat from both bowls. When they do want to eat at the same time, they clearly are happier with two bowls because two heads can't get the food at the same time in one bowl.

I have noticed something when i put food into their bowls. They both will come over and my older cat waits until the younger cat picks a bowl to eat from. My older cat knows from experience if she picks a bowl first that the younger cat will try to eat from the same bowl. I think that shows my older cat is pretty darn smart!!

As ideal as it would be to get them all to eat out of their own bowls, cats just seem to like sharing one big bowl! If you watch cats in the wild, after the kill, they all gather around and group feed. I sometimes wonder if that trait is somehow still intact with them.

I have two for wet food, one for dry, one for milk/water. They eat out of their own bowls, only problem is that when Jasmine has finished her food, Charlie licks the bowl clean! *seriousely thinking of buying him a treadmill*

I have six cats and they all eat out of one dish. They seem to prefer it that way! I do make it a point to make sure they are all eating, though.

Zoey has two food dishes .. one for dry one for wet

Kandie has one for wet and one for raw

They use the same drinking glass

I have one cat, and two "half-cats", who live with a neighbor, but show up here at meal time. Per cat, I have a dry food bowl (for breakfast), a cat milk bowl, and a canned food bowl (for dinner) every day. Iin addition, there are three water bowls and a Petmate drinking fountain in our house. Since we're a two-person household, the dishwasher is only run every other day, so I normally have around 20 cat dishes to put through. Just in case, I have loads of extra bowls, so I'd estimate the total at 50 to 60! I've never counted them, and wouldn't be surprised if the actual number were 70 or 80.

For 2 cats - we have 6 bowls

2 for each's dry food
2 for each's water
2 for each's wet food

They usually eat out of both dry food bowls, but Davidson usually gets to it first, and Harley just goes to whatever one he's not at
They both usually use the same water bowl, usually at the same time, even tho there are 2 there for them to use. They just like to be complicated

Yikes! We have one cat, Jamie, plus two "half-cats" who live with a neighbor, but eat here. Each cat has a bowl for dry food (breakfast), cat milk, and canned food (dinner). Additonally, there are three water bowls spread throughout the house at all times, and a Petmate Fresh Flow fountain in the living room. Since we're a two-person household, the dishwasher is only run every other day, so we have a lot of extra bowls. i've just done a quick inventory, and we have 82 cat bowls! I guess I'd qualify as a "cat bowl hoarder"!

Wowie! 82 bowls.

We feed each cat (4) their wet food in separate locations, Elsa has her own dry food bowl because the other cats intimidate her. The other cats eat dry from a communal bowl. And there is a Petmate fountain that is used by all the animals!