Kibble cat and meals

katachtig

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I have successfully have 3 of my cats on regular meals with wet food and commercial raw.  They understand that food will be out for a half hour in the morning and evening.  If they eat fine, otherwise they wait until the next meal. 

My problem is Lucy.  She will not consider a wet diet though she eats a couple of bites of Carly's wet every few days.  So she is on kibble.  Because I don't want the others to eat kibble, I can't keep the kibble out for any length of time.  So now we are stuck with Lucy taking a few bites and wandering off.  I pick up the food and in 5 minutes she's back demanding food.  This is extending much farther in the day than I would like.  Any ideas about how I can get out her whining for food all of the time?  I'm wondering if I should just put her in a room with her food for 1/2 hour in the morning and evening when the others get fed.  This will throw everyone else off and they won't eat right away, but maybe all of them will adjust in time?
 

vball91

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Carolina did just that with her kibble addict during the transition to raw. They did all adjust. The timed meals are key although I would try to fit in a 3rd meal if you can. Cats are geared toward more frequent smaller meals. Most adult cats do fine on 3 meals a day (sort of a before work, after work and before bed schedule).
 

irinasak

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From my experience, scheduled feeding seems to be the hardest part in transitioning to wet. My Sophie lost weight, I thought she was becoming anorexic and I started counting her calorie intake. It took her about two months to understand the concept of schedule. She still takes longer than the others, but at least she eats more in one sitting. I feed her separately because she needs her time.

I totally support what vball91 in saying, adding a third meal seems to work best. Actually, while transitioning to scheduled feeding I actually fed Sophie 4 times a day for a few weeks to make sure she was eating enough.

Regarding the transitioning to wet, I think that finding a topper Lucy really likes is the key. For Sophie that was Thrive chicken freeze dried. I have more brands of wet food than a pet shop and I would have wasted quite a lot of it, if it weren't for my other two that would eat anything that smells like food.
 

ldg

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Another trick: Carolina used a very high calorie (high protein, medium fat, not low fat), nutrition-dense dry food so Lucky didn't need to eat very much to get all of her calories. At the time, she was using EVO, but they had a recall. The recommended feeding amount was 1/2 a cup, I think, but Lucky only needed about 1/4 cup?

At first, Carolina used an enclosed feeding station that was programmed to open when triggered by Lucky's microchip, so only Lucky had access to it (well, I believe she designed it for Bugsy). This way Lucky had access to measured free-feeding food, but she kept on working on meals by I THINK taking her to the bathroom and sitting with her while she ate, as she would eat if given the attention during the meal.

I'll PM Carolina. :lol3:
 

laurag

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My little Charlie is like that. She actually seems repelled by the smell of the wet food and enjoys it dry and stale. She's like a ninja so I put her food up higher to dry out and then she can eat it later. But she is often stalked by some of the more giganto cats who simply sit and wait for her to leave. For whatever reason she is easily chased away from her dish by this behavior. The high up feeding sometimes works, but one of the others can get to it to and so he does. Charlie ended up losing 3 pounds because of this and she wasn't a big cat in the first place.

I wish the others would lose 3 pounds, but that is a different story.

I've split the feeding over 3 meals-breakfast, dinner and bed snack because the youngest wiry one needs that bed snack or else it will be a constant whining and pawing at my face from 3 AM to 6 AM.  While I never give in...she never gives up so the bed snack is essential to my night.  If I could get away with giving it to her and to Charlie with out the others needing a taste, I would.

The trouble with cats and differing feeding habit.
 
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