Feedback please

My cat Pumpkin, domestic shorthair, will be 8 yrs. next month. I am in school and decided to try for a second time to get him on a automatic feeder. He LOVES to eat! LOVES it! He's greedy like the dogs I used to have in my younger years.

Here is the problem. I invested in this Furry Feeder. it's sturdy and it works great. However, over the last week that I've had it, he has thrown up about 4 times. The feeder dispenses more food than he normally was getting when I hand fed him. I need this feeder because he was waking me up at insane hours of the morning begging. Now he allows me to sleep. I have him taking all his meals on it. I work full time and I'm in school, I cannot afford not to sleep.

He was checked by the vet for this problem earlier in the year (the throwing up). Vet found nothing wrong and had me switch him to science diet, hairball formula. Because he's greedy, I chose to put him on SD hairball light. He is otherwise healthy and active.

Any suggestions for food. Is it the food, is it because the portions dispensed are too big? He is throwing up undigested food only. No hair, no foreign objects, no blood etc.. I use the furminator on him, so his shedding is down. He has no fever, no lethargy and he like I said is playful.

What can I do differently. If it makes a difference, we are experiencing a massive heat wave in my area of So Calif. for the last week.

Sorry its so long, but I had to cover all the bases.

Sounds like a scarf & barf scenario because he's eating too much too quickly. If you switched his food too quickly, it could be that it's too rich for his tummy. If it was me, I'd start incorporating 2 wet food portions, one in the morning and one in the evening and leave out a significantly smaller portion (measured so you don't overfeed) of dry food for him to munch on throughout the day. Have an intense playtime before bed and then feed him a nice portion of wet food. That will help him make it through the night.

The wet food is actually better for him and it will help keep things moving better, including hairballs and the like.

I would love to do that. But he's greedy and can't free feed like many cats. Like I said when it comes to food, he's like a dog. He eats everything you put in front of him. It's very inconvenient. Hes been on SD Light Hairball for a few months, so there isn't the change issue.

After he yacked up the portion that came out of the feeder last night around 9:30 p.m., I waited a bit then gave him a small portion of canned. He almost never barfs up canned because he's forced to eat it slower. He had no problems with the canned at all. I've got to find a way of slowing him down with the dry that comes out of the feeder. The feeder dispenses about 1/4 cup at a time. That's a little more than I used to give him by hand. He is a large, Domestic shorthair with an orange/white coat. So he needs a bit more food than a smaller cat, but still, he's really greedy.

Hmmm....I have a scarf and barfer, so I know what you're going through. Since he hardly throws up the wet, can you increase the amount of wet food and feed once in the morning and once in the evening and then portion out a smaller amount of dry food periodically throughout the day? Also, since he only hacks up the dry, he could very well not be able to tolerate some of the fillers and such in it.

I found a small ceramic dish at Target that I put in the feeder area. I watched him eat his dry as the feeder dispensed. It slowed him down considerably. He had to work for it a little because the angle was awkward. So hopefully that clears it up.

I will also take your suggestion about putting him on canned and dry. I was doing that but the vet wanted him to lose 1 or 2 pounds in June. I'm pretty sure he probably has by now. I wasn't feeding him very much at all. So thanks very much.

A lot of the SD foods have really small kibble pellets. They are small enough that 'scarf and barf' type eaters can basically inhale them making the wolfing the food down to fast and puking problem worse IMO.

I'm following my better instincts and switching him back to Blue Buffalo. This time I am trying the high protein wilderness brand. I was never comfortable feeding him SD because it contains corn. I'm going to transition him slowly and per one of the other posters, incorporate more canned.

The ceramic dish slowed him down a great deal. He has not yacked in a few days.

Great update! Keep us posted on how it goes.