Automated Feeding for Morning - Two Cats

[scoseg]

Hello,
I have lived with cats most of my life but our two newer rescue kitties have me searching for help. They are now one year old and amazing but one of them is extremely food anxious and it's keeping me from sleeping. I have a feeding schedule (dry food in the morning and wet food at night) that accommodates the calorie needs prescribed by our vet.

I feed right when the alarm goes off at 6:30am each morning hoping that would teach them that when they hear the alarm it's time to eat. Only one of them will wake me up prior by jumping next to me in bed (if not already there) and meowing by my head. I don't feed before 6:30 but after months of trying to show her that food does not come out until the alarm I have made no progress.

I know there are feeders you can program but with two cats I need to separate them in different rooms for feeding or else the food-anxious cat will eat hers quickly and then run over to try to eat the food from the other cat.

Is there anything that might have a timer for feeding that would keep the cats separated, or allow just enough space for one to eat from a bowl at a time? I'm thinking of a feeder contained with two separate cat areas?

Evening feeding is never an issue. Just the morning with dry food and trying to avoid early wake-up calls.

Thanks for the help and advice!

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
This is a long shot and I don't know how viable my thinking is here, but since I don't believe there's anything like what you describe, what if you used a timed feeder that is set up with small amounts of food that opens every 15 minutes starting at six, just for the food anxious cat?

 

[scoseg]

Thanks! That's a great idea. Maybe I could get two cheaper feeders and "hope" that if I schedule just a little food to come out that both cats will be able to eat it before the anxious cat runs over to the chill cat's bowl. Then maybe I have it dispense the rest of the food at the normal time and anxious cat will be a bit more chill, having some food in her belly from 30 minutes prior. I can look online but does this site have recommended feeders? Would not need anything fancy other than something I could program to drop a little food at 6am and a little more by 6:30 but I do need it to be pretty accurate on the amount it dispenses (scale?) so that I don't overfeed them. Thanks again!

 

[ladytimedramon]

I don't know if it will help, but they do make microchip feeders that only open to the assigned cat's microchip. They're not timed though, and I don't know any way to make them timed (they're battery operated, no plug option). But they do keep Ms. Chunkybutt out of Ms. Grazer's food dish (Delilah will eat anything and finish Fancy's food). And now that they have to be on 2 separate diets (one can't have fish, the other can't have poultry) it's been a lifesaver.

I also have a drop feeder for kibble, which I can program by time AND I can control by remote. For example, if I'm stuck at work later than their dinner time, I can remotely send another kibble drop by the app from my phone. I can also use the camera to see who's hanging around the food dish.

 

[Furballsmom]

I can look online but does this site have recommended feeders?

We used to have a section for user recommendations but because of the way Google's algorithms began to function, the site owner had to delete that section .

 

[scoseg]

I don't know if it will help, but they do make microchip feeders that only open to the assigned cat's microchip. They're not timed though, and I don't know any way to make them timed (they're battery operated, no plug option). But they do keep Ms. Chunkybutt out of Ms. Grazer's food dish (Delilah will eat anything and finish Fancy's food). And now that they have to be on 2 separate diets (one can't have fish, the other can't have poultry) it's been a lifesaver.

I also have a drop feeder for kibble, which I can program by time AND I can control by remote. For example, if I'm stuck at work later than their dinner time, I can remotely send another kibble drop by the app from my phone. I can also use the camera to see who's hanging around the food dish.

Thanks! I did just run across some and seemed like a great idea but unable to find one that also drops food on a timed schedule. If I added food before bed the anxious cat would eat it all immediately and still wake me up in the morning for more. Will see if I can find one that has an option to both store food, drop it on a schedule and also have RFID so only one cat from eat from each one of the two I buy (I may go broke). I'm all for timed feeders for two cats that split the food but seems that the splitting may not be completely accurate between the two bowls (they eat the same amount of calories per day)...maybe it is good enough...

 

[ladytimedramon]

Thanks! I did just run across some and seemed like a great idea but unable to find one that also drops food on a timed schedule. If I added food before bed the anxious cat would eat it all immediately and still wake me up in the morning for more. Will see if I can find one that has an option to both store food, drop it on a schedule and also have RFID so only one cat from eat from each one of the two I buy (I may go broke). I'm all for timed feeders for two cats that split the food but seems that the splitting may not be completely accurate between the two bowls (they eat the same amount of calories per day)...maybe it is good enough...

I did this search on amazon and there are a ton of options on 2 cat timed feeders.

Amazon.com : timed cat feeder 2 cats

 

[scoseg]

I did this search on amazon and there are a ton of options on 2 cat timed feeders.

Amazon.com : timed cat feeder 2 cats

Many thanks! I found many as well and purchased one. I was referring to a timed two cat feeder that was also RFID enabled. I'll give the feeder a try and as long as anxious cat does not eat the food from chill cat it will do the job!

 

[Furballsmom]

Let us know how things go

 

[FeebysOwner]

I don't think I saw anything mentioned above about it - what time is the evening feeding? Maybe your cats would benefit from more than a twice a day feeding schedule. If you work, it might just be that this cat can't bug you before the 2nd meal like she can when you are at home and in bed before the first meal? I know a lot of folks like to use a twice a day feeding schedule, but sometimes there are cats that don't do well with it.

 

[scoseg]

I don't think I saw anything mentioned above about it - what time is the evening feeding? Maybe your cats would benefit from more than a twice a day feeding schedule. If you work, it might just be that this cat can't bug you before the 2nd meal like she can when you are at home and in bed before the first meal? I know a lot of folks like to use a twice a day feeding schedule, but sometimes there are cats that don't do well with it.

Thanks! I think that is what I'm going to do. I currently feed dry food around 6:30am and wet food at 4:30-5pm. I'll probably split the morning dry meal into three snacks and feed at 5:30am, 7am and 10am or similar. That will hold them to the wet food and get them some food prior to their normal morning meal.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Thanks! I think that is what I'm going to do. I currently feed dry food around 6:30am and wet food at 4:30-5pm. I'll probably split the morning dry meal into three snacks and feed at 5:30am, 7am and 10am or similar. That will hold them to the wet food and get them some food prior to their normal morning meal.

5pm to 5:30am might still be too long between feedings. If your cat still bugs you with the new schedule, you may have to consider feeding somewhere within that nearly 12-hour span.

 

[ladytimedramon]

I have a 3am food drop myself, which helps if they're hungry during the night.

 

[arr]

I would try feeding a wet food meal right before you go to bed, as much as they want to eat. Maybe it will hold them longer. Also, I would do the math of 20-25 calories of food per pound of body weight per cat, and, reading the labels, figure out exactly how many calories are in all the food they are eating, just to be completely sure they are getting enough. They might have grown some since the last time the vet prescribed a certain amount, and at a year old, they are still growing, so might need a few more calories.

 

[scoseg]

Thanks again! Set up the feeder last night with dry food split between 4am and noon and then feeding wet at night around 7pm. Also weighed and confirmed calorie counts to make sure they were getting the proper amount which they were. All has worked well so far. Cats had no problem adjusting to it. Hopefully they learn to complain to it instead of me when it's about time for a meal. They were much more calm this morning since they had some food at 4am but the alarm still triggered a though that they would get more. Thanks again for all of the advice and here's to hopefully sleeping in past 6am on the weekend....

 

[Furballsmom]

This is great news!