My cat Sadie is 16 pounds and needs to get down to 11 or 12. But my other cat Tallulah is the perfect weight for her size (about six pounds). Up until now my cats have had free access to the food bowl, but that needs to stop. But I am a full time college student that works part time, I can't monitor them all the time. How I can be sure that if I leave a bowl out for both of them twice a day with a healthy amount of food for each that each one gets enough and the other doesn't steal it? Both are picky and don't like to eat when I put food down in front of them, they like to wait and come back to eat it later....help!
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2 cats, one needs to lose weight....how???
- Thread starter fuzzywolf2006
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That's always a tough situation. Excellent plan to stop free feeding! Is it possible that you could put their food out for them only when you're home to monitor their intake in the mornings and evenings, for instance? Alternately, will Sadie jump up high? If not, you could always feed Tallulah her meals up on the cabinet or the refrigerator, etc. Another idea is to cut a hole in a box to a size that only Tallulah could fit through, and serve her meals in there. Just a few thoughts...
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I agree...
Can you feed them in separate rooms??
I was free-feeding and had one slightly overweight cat and one healthy weight cat. I stopped free-feeding and I now how two healthy weight cats. I'd noticed that the overweight cat grazed on the food much more than the healthy weight cat. I still use dry food, so all I did was pick up the food after about two hours. They both adjusted to having mealtimes, and started eating at mealtimes.
While feeding them in different rooms is certainly the best way to control food intake, (and the box with a small hole is a great idea) it's possible that just ceasing free-feeding all by itself will reduce the weight of your underweight cat while not affecting the weight of your healthy weight cat. It really depends on whether your overweight cat eats more food more quickly or just eats more often.
While feeding them in different rooms is certainly the best way to control food intake, (and the box with a small hole is a great idea) it's possible that just ceasing free-feeding all by itself will reduce the weight of your underweight cat while not affecting the weight of your healthy weight cat. It really depends on whether your overweight cat eats more food more quickly or just eats more often.
I would feed Jazz in the kitchen and Maggs in the living room, when Maggs was done she would head for the kitchen to stick her head in Jazz's bowl (Jazz would just step aside). Now when Maggs is done I brush her until Jazz comes into the living room and I know she has finished her food.
Brushing Maggs is a gread distraction and she leaves Jazz alone to finish her food.
What's a good feeding schedule, then? I'm in this same boat. =\\
Same here - Carter shoves Lorelei out of the way. In fact, every morning is now a ritual of tossing Carter out of the bedroom so Lorelei can eat uninterrupted. Even though I set out a bowl for him too, he ignores that bowl and hangs around in front of the bedroom door until I let Lorelei out when she's finished eating.
