Feeding Problem: 2 Grazers 1 Overeater

I have 3 cats. Two are a nice, healthy weight, and 1 has always had issues with food (overeating).

I measure out their food everyday, but, it is not helping the overweight cat. He steals the others' food because they leave some of it. They prefer to eat little bits all day whereas Tigger (the heavy one) eats a bunch at once.

I have to watch them all day to stop this which is impossible.

Does anyone have a solution? Thanks.

Have you considered switching them to timed meals?

I do feed them at specific times (there is no bowl out all day), but, the 2 normal weight cats never eat enough if I do the timed feedings and then take the rest away.
They basically want to snack all day and the overweight cat wants to eat a lot at once.

Do you feed dry or wet?

I feed both wet and dry food.

I would love to know if there is a solution because we have a similar problem: We just adopted a new kitten last week who keeps eating the resident cat's food. We did the whole keeping the kitten in an isolated room and introducing them slowly thing... but now that they both roam parts of the house, we have a difficult time with feeding.


The problem is that Bella, like your cats, is a grazer. She lets her food sit there and grazes throughout the day. We feed her twice: once in the morning, and once before bed. The kitten, however, keeps eating Bella's food. The worst part is that Bella won't even do anything about it! She just sits there and watches this baby cat eat her food! We try putting the food bowl in a high enough place where the kitten won't reach it, but then Bella can't eat. We try moving the food bowl to a different room or place, but the kitten always finds it. Shy of keeping both cats locked permanently in separate rooms, I'm not sure what to do. 

They both eat wet food. (Our older cat, Bella, eats hypoallergenic food due to food sensitives, and our 4 mo old kitten still eats kitten canned kitten food.) Our kitten Sylvie, suffers from no want of food of her own, btw. We make sure that she is fed and try to encourage her to eat from her own dish. But I think she is curious about the variety. 

If anyone has advice about how to keep eager-eaters from chomping down a grazer's food, I'd be eager to hear of it. 

Many thanks! 

cc0000 said:

I do feed them at specific times (there is no bowl out all day), but, the 2 normal weight cats never eat enough if I do the timed feedings and then take the rest away.
They basically want to snack all day and the overweight cat wants to eat a lot at once.

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Grazing is not natural for cats and it is not healthy either. It keeps their digestive system occupied all the time. You can do more research about this.

I would recommend that you stop the grazing habit with your other two cats. After a while keep the food back, yes your cat will be still hungry after the first meal but it will train them finish their food faster next time. It might take up to 4 days for them to adjust (don't worry you will not starve your cats or affect their health). You are providing them food at regular intervals they just need to change their habit and hunger will change the habit. Once you have stopped the grazing it will be easy for you to work on the overweight cat and cut his access to the other cats food.

If you are concerned that the cutting off grazing suddenly will be too much of a change for your cats then you can do this gradually. 1st meal keep food back after 1 hour, next meal keep it back after 50 mins. Keep decreasing the time until the habit is gone.

Tiggers said:

 
I would love to know if there is a solution because we have a similar problem: We just adopted a new kitten last week who keeps eating the resident cat's food. We did the whole keeping the kitten in an isolated room and introducing them slowly thing... but now that they both roam parts of the house, we have a difficult time with feeding.


The problem is that Bella, like your cats, is a grazer. She lets her food sit there and grazes throughout the day. We feed her twice: once in the morning, and once before bed. The kitten, however, keeps eating Bella's food. The worst part is that Bella won't even do anything about it! She just sits there and watches this baby cat eat her food! We try putting the food bowl in a high enough place where the kitten won't reach it, but then Bella can't eat. We try moving the food bowl to a different room or place, but the kitten always finds it. Shy of keeping both cats locked permanently in separate rooms, I'm not sure what to do. 

They both eat wet food. (Our older cat, Bella, eats hypoallergenic food due to food sensitives, and our 4 mo old kitten still eats kitten canned kitten food.) Our kitten Sylvie, suffers from no want of food of her own, btw. We make sure that she is fed and try to encourage her to eat from her own dish. But I think she is curious about the variety. 

If anyone has advice about how to keep eager-eaters from chomping down a grazer's food, I'd be eager to hear of it. 

Many thanks! 

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How old is your kitten? How often are you feeding the kitten? Are you giving him enough variety? Is Bella getting dry food?

Our kitten is four months. Both Bella and Sylvie, the kitten, eat different wet foods. We feed the kitten Royal Canin kitten food, which comes (as best I know) in only one flavor. It's what they fed her at the shelter, and I didn't want to switch her food unnecessarily. We could feed her more, though she frankly doesn't always finish what we do give her. So we are still sort of getting a sense of how much food exactly she wants and needs, and when the best times for feeding her will be.

I hadn't realized that grazing was bad for cats! Does it pose many risks? Our older cat has a *lot* of various food sensitives and allergies that add to her feeding woes. 

I'll try to make them eat at specific times. I didn't know grazing was bad. I am concerned about doing this because I experienced the nightmare of liver failure in the past with a stray cat and there have been times when one of my grazers was sick and would not eat. He had pancreatitis once and has had bad hairballs and a bad tooth that stopped him from eating. He had these emergency situations and was fixed, but, I'm scared to limit him particularly because of his past health issues.

Oh my goodness! That sounds so frightening. I'm so sorry to hear about your poor kitty. Please keep us posted as to how the timed feeding goes. Good luck! <3

cc0000 said:

I'll try to make them eat at specific times. I didn't know grazing was bad. I am concerned about doing this because I experienced the nightmare of liver failure in the past with a stray cat and there have been times when one of my grazers was sick and would not eat. He had pancreatitis once and has had bad hairballs and a bad tooth that stopped him from eating. He had these emergency situations and was fixed, but, I'm scared to limit him particularly because of his past health issues.

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I can understand it may be difficult for a cat with medical history to change its habits. If it doesn't work then certainly don't push it.

One possible reason that your cats may be grazing is because they are not excited and interested in the food that you are offering them. It is fairly easy to test this. Offer them some food that they will certainly love like Sardines or Tuna (although Tuna is not healthy for cats if fed too much but it is worth giving it out to test if food is the cause). If they finish their Sardines or Tuna in one go then they are certainly capable of finishing their meal in one go. Now you just have to find the 'meal' that they will finish in one go. Variety also helps with this, you can switch between different brands to create this variety.

I feed my kittens raw meat and I know very well which meats/fish they like and don't like. I have seen the grazing behavior with them when I feed them some meats that they don't like as much. It takes them up to 2 hours to finish their meal.

What works for us is about five small feedings -- all of wet food both cats like a lot -- per day. It does take time for cats to get used to a feeding schedule but Ireland, our formerly hesitant eater who used to be a grazer, now eats as quickly and as much as her piglet sister.

I should add that Ireland also seems to have had a minor nausea issue. Sometimes cats that seem picky have something else going on; in Ireland's case, I noticed occasional lip licking, which is often a sign of nausea. That went away when I started feeding one meal a day of cooked homemade food; our vet thinks it was the pork pancreas in the supplement helped. As @Zoop notes, cats also have to enjoy their foods: I think it also helped Ireland that I switched to more raw foods, which she has come to prefer over canned foods. Which raises another issue: cats' tastes can evolve! Dramatically! Variety help tremendously, too, as does occasional use of a topper: I sprinkle Pure Bite dust on leftovers.

Tiggers said:

 
Our kitten is four months. Both Bella and Sylvie, the kitten, eat different wet foods. We feed the kitten Royal Canin kitten food, which comes (as best I know) in only one flavor. It's what they fed her at the shelter, and I didn't want to switch her food unnecessarily. We could feed her more, though she frankly doesn't always finish what we do give her. So we are still sort of getting a sense of how much food exactly she wants and needs, and when the best times for feeding her will be.

I hadn't realized that grazing was bad for cats! Does it pose many risks? Our older cat has a *lot* of various food sensitives and allergies that add to her feeding woes. 

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Yeah, it certainly looks like allergies and past experience is what is making your older cat a grazer. If a cat has a bad experience with a particular type of food (digestion or vomiting) it will avoid that food for a couple of days or weeks sometimes. It is understandable that your cat is a little scared of eating her food too quickly because of past experiences associated with food (although you have switched the food but the cat still sees food as the cause). Regarding health risks of grazing it all varies but it is certainly not natural or healthy behavior, you can do some google searches on this topic to inform yourself.

Regarding your kitten, it certainly looks that he is craving variety. Kittens are adventurous and they like to explore which is why he eating Bella's food. There may also be some ingredients in Bella's food that are not in kittens food which he is curious about (fish? liver? flavoring?). Think about introducing more variety in the Kitten's food. Kitten's digestive system is much more resilient to new food compares to older cats who have been on one food for a long time. It is a popular opinion that adding variety to your cat's food help them both in physical and psychological/social development. By adding variety you also avoid them developing into pick eaters and by introducing their digestive system to various types of food (chicken, fish, beef, duck) you can prevent future food allergies because you are developing their digestive system to accommodate to  different types of food. I would suggest you read this article and do some research to make up your own mind towards adding variety. http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/09/21/cat-diet-variety.aspx

Thanks for all of the advice. I'll definitely try to stop the grazing.
I have a question about giving them a variety of foods, though. I've always heard that a cat's digestive system is sensitive so you have to be careful when giving different foods. If I give them different varieties of wet food (dry is definitely an issue when changed too fast/often) would it hurt their stomachs?

Thanks.

cc0000 said:

Thanks for all of the advice. I'll definitely try to stop the grazing.
I have a question about giving them a variety of foods, though. I've always heard that a cat's digestive system is sensitive so you have to be careful when giving different foods. If I give them different varieties of wet food (dry is definitely an issue when changed too fast/often) would it hurt their stomachs?

Thanks.

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I don't believe cats digestive systems are sensitive it is actually more robust than humans. Their digestive enzymes are stronger and can digest a lot of foods that humans can't (like raw meat, bones etc). Their shorter digestive tracks are also not prone to bacteria as much as our systems are.

Cat's systems can become sensitive if they don't get enough variety tho. If you never ate meat or spicy food in your life then you will certainly have trouble digesting it when you eat it the first time.

With my kittens, I am comfortable with trying out new food (dry, canned or raw) since I know that they are used to the variety.

However with your cats, especially the one with a medical history you may want to move a little slower.

First, ensure that the new food you are introducing is the same or better quality that the regular food you are serving. Will be great if it was the same brand different flavor. Read the ingredients and compare it to the current food you are feeding.

It is recommended that you mix in 1/4th of the new food with the old food initially, then 1/2 then next day, 3/4 next day and full serving the 4th day. This is really incremental and will give your cat's system enough learning time, also your cats won't get stressed out because of a sudden change. If there are digestive issues during this increment then it is likely due to a particular ingredient in the food that you cats are not used to. Compare the new food ingredients with the regular food and you will have your culprit, never buy food with that ingredient again.

Once successful you can just alternate between the new and the old food each meal. Now your cats are having two varieties. After a week or so of this diet without any issues, you can get more adventurous and introduce more variety. You can follow the incremental steps again or if you are confident about your cat's digestion and the new food doesn't have any questionable ingredient that they are not already eating then you can move faster as well.

Thanks for the information. I'll start by using different wet foods from the same brand.

I have two middle aged cats, they share s 5.5 ounce can if Merrick pate morning and evening. They may occasionally get freeze dried chicken treats befor bed, that's it, no dry food. They finish their meals immediately. One used to vomit, but no more since dry food removed. They love Merrick or whole earth farms pates in duck, beef, and rabbit!

bonepicker said:

I have two middle aged cats, they share s 5.5 ounce can if Merrick pate morning and evening. They may occasionally get freeze dried chicken treats befor bed, that's it, no dry food. They finish their meals immediately. One used to vomit, but no more since dry food removed. They love Merrick or whole earth farms pates in duck, beef, and rabbit!

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So, they only need about a can of wet food per day to maintain a healthy weight?
The cans I use have 193 calories/5.5 oz.
I also have issues with knowing exactly how much to give an overweight cat who doesn't know when to stop as there are so many different answers given. The advice to just give less isn't very helpful either as there is the risk of liver problems when trying to get an overweight cat to drop a few pounds.

cc0000 said:

So, they only need about a can of wet food per day to maintain a healthy weight?
The cans I use have 193 calories/5.5 oz.
I also have issues with knowing exactly how much to give an overweight cat who doesn't know when to stop as there are so many different answers given. The advice to just give less isn't very helpful either as there is the risk of liver problems when trying to get an overweight cat to drop a few pounds.

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The amount that bonepicker feeds -- and your 193-calorie cans, too -- would work for a lot of cats. Every cat is different and there are lots of factors to consider, like starting weight, target weight, activity levels, and the like.

@LTS3 is great at these weight/calorie calculations and might have some thoughts for you on how much to feed.