Their change in eating begins today

The food bowls go down and come up in 20 minutes twice a day.

In my previous post I mentioned that my vet wanted me to start feeding all wet food since my Bear seems to be getting crystals. Well I switched back to Authority with a can or two a week of Wellness for cost reasons. I began getting them used to this change as well as not leaving a lot of dry food out all day.

So this morning the wet food went down at 7 a.m. Gabe our new kitten already has this down pat and ate up all his food as did Lokk. Scratchez and Max also ate a good portion but didn't finish it all, they still like to go back an hour later and nibble. Bear nibbled as he is just starting to get used to the wet food (of course the one who needs it the most ). Aura and Jack didn't even touch it. Aura is just finicky and Jack does not seem to like wet food at all. I even put down a 1/4 cup of dry for him and he just turned his nose up. He will be the hardest to get on this schedule. Aura just needs to learn that she gets nothing until next feeding if she decides to be a priss.

I am still not sure I am giving them enough. It seems as though I'm not. I'm splitting one 6oz can between 5 of them each meal time since Jack doesn't even bother with it. I can't help think its not enough food yet I always end up throwing out a few tablespoons worth. Gabe I give half a 3oz can of kitten food each meal and he gobbles that down plus tries to kill off the rest of the food the others leave. I end up having to stop him because his belly gets huge and he doesn't seem to know when to stop himself plus I think his overeating is causing his diarrhea.

I don't know why but I just feel like a bad meowmy. I left two cats hungry this morning and I am already worrying about what to do if Jack doesn't eat for 24 hours. I don't want to cave but I am so weak-willed when it comes to my kitties. I just know I am going to give in and put out the buffet again.

Can Jack be fed separately, maybe in a bathroom or bedroom? That way he has more time to eat and adjust to being fed on a schedule without giving others access to food for longer periods of time.

I have thought about doing that but I'm not so sure his issue is not having enough time to eat. I'm afraid I got him addicted to the dry food being out all the time before. He used to eat wet food readily and then I switched to Chicken Soup dry in addition to the wet and from then on that was all he would eat. He became a grazer just nibbling throughout the day.

It's tough because two of the cats really need the schedule, Scratchez is just turning into a tub of lard and Bear if given the choice will eat the dry over the wet. If it wasn't for those two I would leave out dry food for Jack all day since the others really don't over eat the dry and readily eat the wet.

I, too, have five cats. I feed only raw now, but when I offered wet food, I gave them two cans split five ways three times a day, considerably more than you're feeding.

Can you offer the wet food three times a day or even four until they become accustomed to eating wet food, and eating it quickly?

And/or, can you leave the food out longer? I know opinions vary on this, but I left it down for several hours many times and never had a problem. Even a couple of hours would give your kitties more time to decide the offering is good to eat after all. *silly kitties*

Transitioning is seldom an easy thing and the stress is often at least as much on the meowmy as on the furkids. I wish you the very best of luck!!

I do wish I could feed them three times a day but my SO and I just can't make it home at lunch time.

I do think I am going to just leave the bowls out but put them up on the table after they are done so the kitten can't eat until he explodes .

I have also devised a plan to keep the one bowl of dry out for Jack and Aura. I am just going to put it up on a higher table since Scratchez at this point can't jump really big distances. Seriously he couldn't even jump over the baby gate when we had it up for Gabe and he cried and cried until we opened it to let him in .

As for how much I'm feeding... I did start out with splitting two cans between the 6 of them but I ended up wasting almost a can and a half. I think my plan is to add more as they start eating more faster. I would be truly happy if they would scarf down 2 cans a meal and just snack on dry at lunch. I think I'm living in a kitty dream world though with that .

Originally Posted by Mai_kitties

I do wish I could feed them three times a day but my SO and I just can't make it home at lunch time.

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I don't know what your schedule is, but you might be able to still feed them 3 times a day even if the meals aren't evenly spaced out. On a typical work day, I'll feed my cats at 6:30 am when I wake up and then I feed them again at ~7 pm when I get home. I feed them a 3rd time at around 9-10 before I go to bed. Even though the last 2 meals are only a couple of hours apart, I find that schedule works well for me. I only feed a measured amount at each meal, so rather than wolfing down a whole lot of food and getting sick after 12 hours with no food, they eat what I put out and that's it. By bedtime, they're ready to eat again and feeding them right before bed keeps them from harassing me for food all night.

Well things are starting to fall in place.

We are now feeding the kitten separately because the little guy just goes spastic over food and not only inhales his but will just try to scarf down everyone elses. My SO remarked the other night as Gabe was eating his food on his desk that he acts like he has never eaten before. But thanks to us making sure he is only eating his own portion he is no longer having diarrhea from overeating.

With Jack we decided not to press the issue of making him eat the wet food. He is now taking a few bites of the canned Friskies I put down for him, Bear, Max, and Aura but he really likes the dry and he drinks lots of water so I am OK with this. He eats his fill now and the left over dry just stays out so that the others can have a snack.

The other two are happily eating Authority and will polish off whatever is left of the Friskies. They are also learning that the wet food gets taken up after 30 minutes. Every day there is less and less food in the bowls .

I don't have any advice, but I definitely feel your pain. I have 3 cats and am attempting also to get them on canned food, per my vet's advice. Spooky is way overweight, Snowball is always hungry and gobbles her own food and then tries to steal somebody else's. Mouse really only likes the dry. Glad your situation is starting to work itself out. Cat just despise change, don't they?