Snowflake wolfs down his food......

I have a problem that seems to irritate me a little. I've had Snowflake for a year now. Anytime I feed him, he literally dives right into his food like he hasnt had anything to eat in days. Yesterday he dived right in, 10 minutes later he threw it up. The food was still whole and it was still hard. I watched him when I fed him later, and he doesnt chew his food at all. He is literally like gulping his food. I got some pouches of wet food and mixed it with his dry food, but I dont think that's the trick. Buttercup takes her sweet time and chews her food just fine. He came in as a stray, but it's been a year already, I"d think he's used to eating everyday by now.

What can I do?

A couple of ideas.

One is can you give him small amounts at a time and space it out for him.

The second idea is to raise his food dish. I got that advice because Much will eat and then promptly throw up. I think raising the food dish helps it pass the esophogus.

This will probably sound crazy but another thing you could do with kibble is throw it out on the floor so he has to gather each piece.

Or do like we had to do with the horses that bolted their food. Put some good sized stones in the bowl. (wash them up and clean them first) That way he has to take his time finding the food around the stones.

And if, in his haste to wolf it down he ends up ingesting some stones? They might not be eliminated as easily as the cat food.

Originally Posted by Larke

And if, in his haste to wolf it down he ends up ingesting some stones? They might not be eliminated as easily as the cat food.

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I'm assuming they would be large enough that he couldn't eat them but would have to eat around them, working to get at the food.

What about using a treat ball? He'd only be able to get a few pieces of kibble out at a time.

well, a treatball doesnt always work. I have a cat that doesnt gulp on her normal food, but she does when it comes to special treatfood, aka anything thats not currently in her bowl. And if i put it in the treatball and put it on the smallest setting, she ll actually spend hours on getting it out, eating, not stopping and basically trowing up anyways.
It is worth a shot though.

Have you asked your vet about this?Im not sure, but if he suddenly started doing that it could be sign of diabetes, i think.

What you can also do is leave out as much food as he wants, he ll trow up a lot in the beginning until he realizes its not going anywhere. There are typically two reasons why a cat does that:1) the food is going to disappear and i must must must eat while i can, 2) there are other cats/rivals that want my food so i must grab as much as i can.