Grown cat trying to eat kitten's food - HELP

Hi there!

I have been having an issue with feeding my two cats, and I am hoping someone can give me some valuable insight.

My first one is nearly two years old.  She is overweight and on an oral care food that was recommended by my vet to help keep her weight at least stable.  She has an automatic feeder that feeds her twice a day, but she grazes whenever she wants.  She loves wet food, but after I gave her a new brand and it gave her tummy troubles, I have only been feeding her the vet-recommended dry food.

My second cat I just got on Thursday.  He is two months old.  The shelter had been feeding him Royal Canin Babycat wet and dry twice a day, so I have continued with that.  I asked them what I should do to keep them from eating each other's food.  They told me to keep the kitten separated in another room when he eats.  'That's fine,' I thought...

The problem is, if I shut the kitten in the room by himself, he won't eat, and even if I sit there with him, he will eat a little bit and then want to play.  Then, my older cat will sneak in and try to eat his food (especially if there is any wet food left).  I have been taking the food dish away and giving it back whenever the kitten cries and I figure he is hungry, and then I take it away again once he has eaten a bit.  This has been annoying but has worked out alright for the past few days while I was home, but today, I had to go back to work.  I gave the kitten slightly less wet food this morning and watched him eat it, hoping that because he only has dry food left, my older cat will leave it alone.

My older cat is sneaky about it - she knows she should not eat his food, but she tries anyway.  I am worried (A) that the food will give her tummy troubles or make her gain weight and (B) that the kitten will not get enough to eat!  I don't feel right about separating them all day while I am at work.  I have a feeling my older cat will cry and scratch at the bedroom door to get at the kitten (she loves him!).  I also don't feel comfortable with trying to put them on a schedule and forcing them to eat all at once.  With my older cat, this would be fine, but with the kitten, I fear that for the first little while, while I am training him to eat on a schedule, he will not get enough to eat - and he is a growing boy!!  There has been no problem with the kitten eating my older cat's food, except for when he gets really hungry and his food dish is not out, then he will wander over and start to chow down.  Once the kitten is six months, I may be able to put him on adult food, but for the next four months I have a feeling this will be a trying issue.

I am taking my kitten for his post-shelter check-up on Thursday, so I will ask him then what he thinks, but I was hoping someone would have an idea for me that I have not thought of yet.  I have a feeling that my vet will not agree with only feeding at scheduled times.  He has a cat that is diabetic and has said before that he thinks there should always be food available to them if they want it.

These are my babies, Dina and Simon.


Thanks so much :-)

Angie

Welcome to The Cat Site. Your furballs are adorable!
I have only had one cat, so can't really address the feeding two cats.
But here is a thread about feeding two cats, one of whom needs to lose weight.
I would read some of the stickies in this forum to get some general basic information about cat nutrition.
In particular, I would read Is your cat overweight, Chosing the right food for your cat, and Wet versus Dry, the Epic Debate.
www.catcentric.org is another good website.
Is the oral care food dry? Most dry food has many more calories than wet food and in my opinion, the worst wet food is better than the best dry food. Also free feeding can lead to problems later, mainly weight issues.
There are a lot of kinds of wet food--perhaps your cat didn't like a particular ingredient in the wet food. I would go to the store and get one can from a number of varieties/brands, and see which one your cat likes. (By the way, dry food does NOT help teeth. But that's a topic for another thread!)
Fancy Feast CLASSIC and Friskies PATE are decent supermarket brands, and relatively low in carbohydrates.
I don't have a diabetic cat, but I've never head about free-feeding a diabetic cat. I would think that leads to a weight problem, and one of the primary factors in a cat becoming diabetic is if the cat is overweight. I'd like to know his rationale.
Finally, if you switch foods too quickly, regardless of the quality of the food, your cat may have a tummy ache or loose poop. You should transition slowly; there are some articles on this forum about that. Good luck!

I appreciate your pointing out those threads for me; however, I don't think you read my post very carefully.

I do not want to switch either of my cats' food.  I am simply wanting to know any tips for making sure my grown cat does not eat the kitten's food.

Since my cat has a sensitive stomach (and was on a food for such for a little while), I will NOT go and try out a bunch of different brands, and especially not without talking to my vet first.  Like I said, my grown cat LOVES wet food.  I'm sure she would eat whatever wet food I give her.  I didn't say she was picky.  I said she was stealing the kitten's food.  And I am concerned that having a new food will upset her stomach.

The oral care food is dry, and the bits are bigger to force them to chew the food well, and I'm assuming this is how their teeth are kept more clean - by the bits rubbing on their teeth.

Since my vet is just that, a vet, I am going to trust his opinion.

Thanks anyway.

Additionally, I think the vet's reasoning for free-feeding a diabetic cat is that their blood sugar could drop, and if there is no food around, that is not good.

Maybe your vet could recommend a " all life stages" cat food, that your adult cat and kitten can both eat

What the poster above me was trying to say is feeding wet is better than dry for cats health. BUT it's not always possible. I have two cats with sensitives stomachs and they cannot tolerate any wet foods I've tried, high or low quality. They also don't do well with food changes. 

I have three cats. They are all on the same food, but should be getting different amounts. What you're probably going to have to do is feed the kitten multiple meals a day. If she's getting 1/4 a day, break that up into even smaller meals. Kittens have a short attention span and just want to play. You are already doing that, which I know you said is annoying. 

It's expensive ($120, same as other feeders) but there is an automatic feeder option that I'm considering. I'm not sure if it would work for you. It's called Wireless Whiskers.    http://www.wirelesswhiskers.com/htmldocs/shopnow.html

It's for cats and small dogs (under 18"). Basically it identifies each cat (or dog) and knows how much to feed them. It can be programmed for 8 pets. Each pet wears an ID tag. When they go up to the feeder it opens for the cat wearing the tag and closes when they've had their limit. It only holds one type of food and only dry. But it's an option for the kitten. It would only open for her, not the older cat. You could feed the wet food in a different room (as you are doing). Most cats gobble the wet down quickly. For now just give smaller amounts throughout the day, when she is older she will start eating full meals. When my guys were younger the 3 of them couldn't finish a small can in one meal. At 6-7 months they started eating full meals. 

Because you mentioned it, kibble doesn't clean teeth. It's like saying potato chips clean your teeth. If you look at the teeth after they probably have kibble left on them, which sits there unless you brush their teeth well. Vets also have very limited nutritional training. I'm not exaggerating here, they take about 4-6 hours of animal nutrition. That's it. I know people who are vets, vet students and work in the pet nutrition field. So don't trust everything the vets tell you about food brands. They are also heavily influenced by Science Diet, who sponsors them. If you look at the ingredients, they are actually very low quality. When it comes to how to feed with medical condition, I trust the vet (the advice, not the brand). 

GemsGem said:

Maybe your vet could recommend a " all life stages" cat food, that your adult cat and kitten can both eat

Click to expand...

That is a good one. I don't think I'd heard of this kind of food before.. just came across the term today. I will ask him about it on Thursday.

Kirk said:

 
What the poster above me was trying to say is feeding wet is better than dry for cats health. BUT it's not always possible. I have two cats with sensitives stomachs and they cannot tolerate any wet foods I've tried, high or low quality. They also don't do well with food changes. 

I have three cats. They are all on the same food, but should be getting different amounts. What you're probably going to have to do is feed the kitten multiple meals a day. If she's getting 1/4 a day, break that up into even smaller meals. Kittens have a short attention span and just want to play. You are already doing that, which I know you said is annoying. 

It's expensive ($120, same as other feeders) but there is an automatic feeder option that I'm considering. I'm not sure if it would work for you. It's called Wireless Whiskers.    http://www.wirelesswhiskers.com/htmldocs/shopnow.html

It's for cats and small dogs (under 18"). Basically it identifies each cat (or dog) and knows how much to feed them. It can be programmed for 8 pets. Each pet wears an ID tag. When they go up to the feeder it opens for the cat wearing the tag and closes when they've had their limit. It only holds one type of food and only dry. But it's an option for the kitten. It would only open for her, not the older cat. You could feed the wet food in a different room (as you are doing). Most cats gobble the wet down quickly. For now just give smaller amounts throughout the day, when she is older she will start eating full meals. When my guys were younger the 3 of them couldn't finish a small can in one meal. At 6-7 months they started eating full meals. 

Because you mentioned it, kibble doesn't clean teeth. It's like saying potato chips clean your teeth. If you look at the teeth after they probably have kibble left on them, which sits there unless you brush their teeth well. Vets also have very limited nutritional training. I'm not exaggerating here, they take about 4-6 hours of animal nutrition. That's it. I know people who are vets, vet students and work in the pet nutrition field. So don't trust everything the vets tell you about food brands. They are also heavily influenced by Science Diet, who sponsors them. If you look at the ingredients, they are actually very low quality. When it comes to how to feed with medical condition, I trust the vet (the advice, not the brand). 

Click to expand...

Thank you, Kirk!! That is such a cool feeder! That is definitely something I will consider. Hm... sounds like vets have about the same nutritional training as medical doctors, which is sad. It is in fact Hills that my vet recommends, but he said if I am buying from a retail store (which I am, PetSmart) to get Science Diet, which is made by Hills. I will have to see next time I bring Dina in if he can tell a difference in her teeth since switching her to the oral care food.

Also, shows what a brainiac I am... I didn't even consider breaking Simon's meals up into smaller quantities throughout the day.  I just put it all in the dish and hope I can supervise the cats when the food is around. haha. Although this doesn't work the best if I am away at work during the week.

Thanks for your advice.

Okay... an update if anyone is interested. Day 1 seems to have gone well. I can't say Dina didn't eat any of Simon's food, but a lot of it remains, so maybe as long as I make sure not to leave any wet food out when I'm gone all will be good. I think I sure lucked out with some sweet kitties.

    I am going to  start this by saying I have only 5 1/2 months of cat experience... but I do have a mildly similar situation with a mildly successful solution. We got our cats when the mommy gave birth on our patio... they started eating real food right on schedule and were weaned by the time they were two months old (pretty much). The mom cat has tummy troubles and cannot eat foods with poultry as the main ingredient. Since we feed them Friskies that limits us to the seafood pates for her. The kittens, however, had trouble with the pate and would only eat shreds... which the mom can't eat since even the seafood varieties start with some type of poultry in the ingredient list. We also free fed kitten dry for a while but not anymore because mom chunked out.

   We feed three times a day; morning, early dinner, and before bed.  Each cat has its own food dish and, from the very beginning, we supervised mealtimes. We would push mom back to her dish when she came sniffing at the kittens dishes...and the same for the kittens when they showed interest in hers (which was rare as she would eat so fast). We thought for a while that we would always have to supervise meals because the mom would eat everything and anything in sight as fast as she could (we think she went hungry before she joined our family). Magically, after a few weeks, they all started to eat only out of their dishes! Now we are to the point where we just need to be up and walking around the apartment for them to know we are 'watching' and that they can only eat their own food. If we sit down in the other room the kittens check out the other dishes ... but only after they finish their own dish. We make sure they are all eating enough by measuring out individually for each cat on a little kitchen scale. We determine what is right for them based on their weight; friskies says 1 oz  of food per pound for cats and up to double that for kittens. The kittens get wet food three times a day with some extra kibble at bedtime and the mom gets wet for breakfast and dinner and dry for bedtime.  They never took all that long to eat... so its not impossible to do before work in the morning and just pick up the dishes when they are finished.

     I don't know how this would work with the diabetes, but at least you could probably train your cat to stay away from the kittens food and switch to a food for all life stages. Sometimes we worried about some of the kittens not eating enough, but we just kept trying different flavors until we found ones that they all liked. Sometimes it just seemed like they weren't all that hungry for a few days then they would suddenly just decide on their own that they were ready to eat. 

    Another idea we had (because one kitten is eating massive amounts) is setting up a box with an entry hole only big enough for the kittens where you could leave dry all day but the older cat couldn't squeeze in to get it.  This seems to be a homemade version of that fancy programmable dish that Kirk mentioned.

Good luck with feed your kitties!

These are great tips! I think I will end up doing three feedings a day, as well. I also think Dina is starting to get the hint about not eating Simon's dry food because all I have to say is her name, and she walks away. I don't know if she can help herself with the wet, so I'll have to keep supervising that. ;-)