Food Issues or Cleaning Issues

[madamk]

Hi everyone.  I adopted two rescue cats about 6 years ago.  They both had been nearly starved to death.  Feeding has always been an issue for them-- they fight over food when I feed them, and it has been intensifying over the past few months.  Recently, the male cat has started pulling out his hair.  A vet recommended letting them feed as they please rather than having set meal times and meal sizes.  So we started doing that, and they both seem much calmer.  However, the female cat has gained a significant amount of weight, and she seems to be unable to properly clean her back end, so now we constantly have to wash her off, which also upsets her.  So, I feel like I am stuck -- either they have unlimited access to food and my male cat stops pulling his hair, but my female cat gains weight and is dirty, or I manage food, which means my female cat is a healthy weight, but my male cat is stressed and pulling out his hair.  Any ideas for how to resolve the issue?

 

[Willowy]

Set meal times but feed them separately? Might be worth a try. Do you feed them only dry or some canned, too?

 

[madamk]

Willowy-- we feed them just dry food.  When we first got them, we tried feeding them separately, and it worked OK.  I sometimes have work that keeps me away until late some evenings, and so I needed to switch to an autofeeder on those nights.  For a while they seemed to have it worked out (the male cat is more reasonable in his food intake, so as long as he eats first, plenty of food is left for the female cat) but it seems like the hierarchy has been upended for some reason.