Help... how do I feed 3 cats 3 diff brands of dry food?

pinkdaisy226

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Okay I have no idea how to do this and need advice. My cats are grazers, whenever they've eaten too much at once, they've gotten sick. So I usually leave bowls around the house for them to munch on.

However, I now have 3 cats eating 3 different brands of food. Max is eating Natural Balance for his allergies and, seeing as how it's $16 a bag, I'd rather not let Baylee eat with him (previously they had been sharing Nutro Adult). Jordan eats kitten food, right now it's Petguard which is an all-life stages kind but I might change him over to Nutro Kitten when he's done.

Anyway, how do I do this? Do I shut them in 3 different rooms and let them eat for, what 10 minutes a day, twice a day? They all get the same wet food at night (they split a large can 3 ways) but they alternate bowls so I know putting 3 different bowls in front of them won't do anything... they'll just change around.
 

sharky

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It is not easy but can be done... I was feeding two different food sto my girls ..
 

prissykitty

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Why not feed everyone the Natural Balance? Is cost the only issue? Last time I did my kittenfood shopping I noticed most premium brands only had 2% more protein than the adult formula and the analysis was very, very similar.
 

justy

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i have 13 cats, and some of them are on totally different diets. cecil is on hills prescription diet for crystals so he CANNOT get any other food or he will become very sick (beleive me i know, i was taking him to the vet every other week, at $150.00 a pop). my cat sunburst is very tempermental and WILL NOT eat if other cats are around. so what i did was bought a crate (i got a heavy metal one that is pretty open, similar to a dog one) and i got my cats used to it and i feed the ones that need to be fed indivually in the crate. it works great. i give them a certain amount of food and let take as long as they need to eat.
 
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pinkdaisy226

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Originally Posted by PrissyKitty

Why not feed everyone the Natural Balance? Is cost the only issue? Last time I did my kittenfood shopping I noticed most premium brands only had 2% more protein than the adult formula and the analysis was very, very similar.
Yes, with me not getting paid for the next 6 weeks and using a LOT of gas (ie. filling up every other day) for my new job, there's no way I can afford them all eating that expensive brand.
 

enigma

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Originally Posted by justy

i have 13 cats, and some of them are on totally different diets. cecil is on hills prescription diet for crystals so he CANNOT get any other food or he will become very sick (beleive me i know, i was taking him to the vet every other week, at $150.00 a pop). my cat sunburst is very tempermental and WILL NOT eat if other cats are around. so what i did was bought a crate (i got a heavy metal one that is pretty open, similar to a dog one) and i got my cats used to it and i feed the ones that need to be fed indivually in the crate. it works great. i give them a certain amount of food and let take as long as they need to eat.
Wow, thirteen cats, you must be very busy!!
 

semiferal

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What I've done in that situation is find one food that everyone can eat.

In a similar situation, I fed everyone dry Chicken Soup and wet Pet Guard. The cat with the food allergies tolerated these well and they are all life stages foods so the adults and kittens could eat them without any trouble. It worked well for me.

You can also just get a bigger bag of Natural Balance. The cost per pound goes down dramatically as the size of the bag goes up.
 
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pinkdaisy226

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semiferal - that's a good idea. I know some feed stores around that carry Chicken Soup and we already feed them Pet Guard... I'll try that, or at least try getting bigger bags. :eek:)
 
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