Adult is eating kitten food (and vice versa).

[nonstop]

I have a 22 month old male, and a 4 month old female. The adult is fed twice a day otherwise he over eats, though he tends to like to leave a little in his bowl to snack on throughout the day/night. The kitten, I feed with the male (as well as leave hard food out all day).

They eat each others food! More than anything it seems the kitten likes to eat the adults food. So today I tried some different kitten food, the best I could find. I set their bowls down at the same time, the kitten went right for the adults (as usual). I picked up the kitten and set her by her bowl with the new food and she dove right in, she seemed to love it. The adult was eating his food happily. I thought I had it figured out. I stepped out of the room and came back a few minutes later and they'd switched bowls!

What kind of options do I have here? It doesn't seem like there's anyway to keep them from eating each others food. Is there any type of food they can share? Could I just feed them both adult food and give the kitten some type of supplement?

 

[missymotus]

The only way is to feed them in separate rooms.

 

[ldg]

It won't hurt a 22 month old kitty (if he's not overweight) to have kitten food, though kitty should have his higher protein food.

We have multiple cats, and we free feed - meaning we leave dry food out all day for them to eat.

The kitten food is higher protein and had a stronger smell, so everyone wanted to eat it. We solved the problem by buying a large plastic box at Walmart, put the top on it, and cut a hole in one side of it - small enough for kitty to get in, but not large enough for any of the other cats to get in. They could get their paws in there - but we bought a box large enough that they couldn't reach all the way to the other side, so couldn't swipe at the bowl to get it to spill.

You could get a large box, put kitty's food down in it, and set kitty in it. The problem with this is that he can probably just jump out of the box. But having to go the extra step may be enough of an incentive for him to stay there and eat his food.

The only other answer is the one already pointed out - feed them in separate rooms.

Laurie

 

[strange_wings]

Is the male cat pushing the kitten aside or is the kitten pushing the cat aside?

I have a problem with my kitten Tomas pushing Sho aside, Sho lets him do it every time. There's two bowls so they usually just switch. This is a problem with Tomas trying to be dominate and thinking the cat has better food then him.

Feed them the same food, or feed them separately. Another option is to sit over them and repeatedly redirect the kitten back to her food. This has worked some with Tomas, mainly I do this when feeding wet food.

 

[nonstop]

Usually it's the female kitten eating from the male adults bowl. He doesn't seem to mind, and he *loves* his food!

I originally had separate rooms and the kitten would just run down to his bowl and eat from it. I moved her bowls closer so it'd be easier to pick her up and set her next to her own bowl.