Problem feeding 2 cats

So sorry if this is a common question, I'm sure it is, but through my research online, I was unable to find an answer to my particular problem.

We have 2 cats.  As it turns out, Eevee isn't fat (we discovered after recently grooming), just extremely fluffy.  Willow is leaner all around.  I've tried separate room feeding, but it seems unfair to Willow.  We already do timed feedings.

We have a small bowl of dry food that the cats slowly snack on throughout the day.  It's a smaller dish and we only need to refill it every couple of days, on average.  They get their fancy wet food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The problem is, Eevee has the capability of almost literally inhaling her food, done in a minute or two.  Willow likes to pick at it.  She eats a little, walks away, comes back for more.  Willow takes, quite literally, about two hours to eat one meal because she doesn't like doing it all at once.  Eevee is unwilling to wait for Willow to do this, and will try to dive headfirst into Willow's bowl as soon as Willow walks away the first time.  So I'm constantly eagle eye staring the bowl to make sure chubby stays out so Willow can keep coming back to it.

I wasn't sure if there were any good ideas floating around.  I can put Willow in a separate room, I just didn't want to lock her away for hours to make her eat if there was another solution.

You could try a slow feeder style bowl for Eevee, or even just spreading the food in a thin layer on a dinner plate (think spreading butter on bread) so it takes her longer to eat it.

Totally removing the free fed kibble is the only way you're likely to get Willow to eat faster - so long as she has 24/7 access to food she's going to be far less likely to clear her plate in one sitting. Adding toppers to encourage her appetite might speed her up too - crumbled Purebites are a very popular topper, and come in lots of flavours too.

Alternatively, if you're around during the day, you could try giving more, smaller feeds - the kind of size that Willow WILL eat in one go.

The last, possibly most extreme, solution would be to set up a room that's just for Willow, and install a microchip triggered cat flap in the door (programming it to only let Willow through). That way, Willow could go back and forth to her food bowl without Eevee's 'help'.

Good luck with this - it's never the easiest problem to fix. Hopefully something I've suggested will work for you

Columbine said:

You could try a slow feeder style bowl for Eevee, or even just spreading the food in a thin layer on a dinner plate (think spreading butter on bread) so it takes her longer to eat it.

Totally removing the free fed kibble is the only way you're likely to get Willow to eat faster - so long as she has 24/7 access to food she's going to be far less likely to clear her plate in one sitting. Adding toppers to encourage her appetite might speed her up too - crumbled Purebites are a very popular topper, and come in lots of flavours too.

Alternatively, if you're around during the day, you could try giving more, smaller feeds - the kind of size that Willow WILL eat in one go.

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These are great pieces of advice that summarize what we do with our two cats. FourNSix's Eevee=our Edwina and FourNSix's Willow=our Ireland.  We spread out Edwina's food but serve Ireland's piled on a flat dish because she eats best from a flat dish. We also separate them at feeding times, during which they get small meals: if we don't separate them, Edwina tries to poach Ireland's food.

Over time, Ireland has picked up a bit speed in her eating. To make things more complicated, I think she sometimes gets minor nausea that slows her down: that's pretty much gone away, though, since I've been feeding the cats homecooked food once a day. I make that food with a supplement that contains digestive enzymes. Ireland now eats more food, with a degree of gusto I'd never seen before. She eats much more quickly now, though still much slower than Edwina!

Good luck!