one cat eats everything!!!!!! the other starves...

[larke]

There's another whole thread on the first page re shock collars for cats - I suggest you read it through before spending any money. It's absolutely the worst thing you can do to a cat!

 

[beandip]

sophie has been home for exactly 15 days as of this morning. she's at a very good weight...she's a small cat at 7 lbs. but her weight is up from when i got her from the humane society. no more boney prominences are visible...and you can no longer feel her ribs, spine, or hips. she's a pretty healthy and athletic weight now!

15 days really isn't very long, compared to maybe 2 years of barely surviving...wondering if the next meal will be there or not. I think with a bit more time, she will come around. IMO, it's worth a try.

here's my concern with the CRF food: it's a low protein food which is supposed to far from ideal for a healthy cat, especially a young cat like 2 year old sophie.

I understand, but for the short term, I think it's OK. It really seems to be the only way to keep Angel's stress level down AND build some confidence for Sophie. Cats learn from positive experiences. Once she calms down (and it may take awhile), I don't think you'll have a problem transitioning Sophie to set mealtimes, where she can have a chance to fill up on a food you want her to eat. At that point, she may nibble on the CRF food, but I don't think she'll gorge anymore.

my second concern is that it's a perscription food...my vet might have concerns if she noticed i was all of a sudden buying tons of the CRF food.

You might just try talking to your vet about your situation. He/she may have other ideas. My guess is that they wouldn't have a problem with it.

and finally, my last concern is that the CRF food is expensive!!!! sophie will eat me out of house and home! *eek!*

True, but again, I think it's a short term issue.

i've only tried letting sophie eat as much as she wants for one day...i stopped after than one day because she ate 8 times her recommended daily allowance of food and still begged for more. maybe if i free feed her for several days, she'll simmer down? i just don't want her to get fat!

8x is a lot, but she may have been starving before you adopted her. I think she'll cool down given some time (with as much as she wants).

 

[firebirdmagic]

OMG a shock collar for cats ? Seems awful cruel to me unless they display very bad or destructive behavior, like the feline torpedo that was described here a few weeks ago.Never heard of such a thing before and hope to never see it. I too experienced overeating/beggin for food when I saved Olivia from freezing to death in front of Hollywood video one morning. She has since settled, although she is overweight, she now doesn't look at their bowl, look at me, and meow that sad meow they use to get to us. I give them a quarter tablespoon of wet loaf (usually whiska's or 9 lives) twice a day, and they have dry out all day for them if the mood strikes. I usually wind up tossing the dry the next day and change to a different flavor, or healthier choice,as, I offer both...I alternate the dry because I think cats have favorites, and they don't get disinterested in the same ole thing all the time. Like, right now I'm in my french toast thing..lol.

I'm told the more expensive wet is no better for cats than the less costly wet. Just because they're in a small prettier can, doesn't make the fact that I'm feeding them wet food go away. I'm told to limit the wet (too fatty) and concentrate on feeding them dry, but, they're used to wet and kinda stand by their bowl when their wet alarm goes off, and stare at me...Like yo Dude, Wasup w dis empty bowl, chow me now !~!~!

I agree bout your Newbie, when she learns that she's not going to starve like she probably was before she'll mellow out. Unfortunately they usually get real heavy during this period. I'm also told to try to make some other type of attention/behavior modification. Just before you feed her, brush her out, so she relates to the two and with each other. My anti brush furby knows when he allows me to brush his knots out, he gets kittie treats. So he puts up with it, and salivates (pavlo's dogs). Olivia will probably stay heavy, heck they don't care, but, I do want her to be healthy. She won't deal with me feeding her seperately from the other boys to keep her on a diet..You can't keep her from they're food, and they just eat till they're satisfied, then leave the rest, which is how Olivia get's more than her share. Actually, I think she's a republican...Mike, Medford, Oregon

 

[beandip]

Here's another thought. Given Sophie's young age and athletic nature, is there a place that you could feed her that Angel wouldn't be able to access, like a high shelf or something?? Sophie sounds like a very motivated girl

Or is Angel still agile enough to reach such a spot? I think you'll still have to put down a lot of food for Sophie for a little while, but that way it could at least be different food.

 

[firebirdmagic]

Just one more thing, Usually heavier cats ask to be played with more than the norm feline. (my experience with Olivia) My feather on a stick works well, makes her jump and usually stops her from wining so much. I was fooled, I thought she wanted food, but playing with her more resolved most of that. Ya just got to decide which she wants. If she wants food she just looks at me like I'm a fool and waits for the food spoon to come out. But, I keep them on a tight schedule about the wet. They know they'll get something when I get up (usually causing me to get wet nosed while trying to wake up in bed) and when I eat my meal at night, they also get they're other spoon. Mike

 

[celerystalksme]

Originally Posted by beandip

Here's another thought. Given Sophie's young age and athletic nature, is there a place that you could feed her that Angel wouldn't be able to access, like a high shelf or something?? Sophie sounds like a very motivated girl

Or is Angel still agile enough to reach such a spot? I think you'll still have to put down a lot of food for Sophie for a little while, but that way it could at least be different food.

actually, the opposite would be idea! i wish there was a spot i could put angel's food where sophie couldn't reach. but that doesn't seem possible. 16 year old angel is still astonishingly agile and can reach any spot 2 year old sophie can reach.

the other problem is...i don't want sophie eating angels food because it's low protein, expensive...and i don't want sophie overeating...and i don't want angel to starve.

the other issue is...i don't want angel eating sophie's food because it's high protein, bad for crf angel. sadly, angel LOVES non-CRF food...she's definately a meat lover, loves the high protein...

see...that's why it seems the electric collar seems so ideal. it'll keep sophie away from angels food but angel won't be able to eat sophie's food because sophie will eat all her food in 30 seconds...

 

[beandip]

I'm sorry, I don't agree with the electric collar idea.

I still see this as a short term hurdle that you'll have to work through.

 

[sneakymom]

Interesting thread.

I have the same problem. Mistoflees is 14 years old, has free-fed all of his life, and never had a weight problem. Sneaky Pie on the other hand is "round". She will eat all of her food, then wait for him to be done, then clean out his food as well. It really is kind of funny watching her. If she's not hungry (and I've figured out the hungry cries and the "I'm bored" cries) she'll sit and wait for him to be done, then sneak over and eat his food (she's not called Sneaky for nothing)

What I've done is this. Mistoflees is allowed to eat whenever he wants. Sneaky gets a set time for food (about 3 times a day). When he's done eating, I put the food out of her reach. At first I was putting it up on the counter, then we realized that even though Sneaky is "round", she can get up on the counter just fine.

So now the food dish goes behind a closed door (and she will sit and cry for food). I've tried the low-cal food, we had another kitty who had the same problem, but I never noticed any weight loss in that cat.

I've noticed too, that Sneaky likes to play a lot more than Mistoflees does.

 

[garith77]

My wife and I have three cats, two of them are hoarders and the 3rd quickly learned to be one as well. When we adopted Cassius we already had two full grown females who both inhaled their food. If Cassius begin to graze he would quickly find his food eaten by Cleo. Cassius has his dish in our walk in closet and the two girls are in the Kitchen and usually they all finish at the same time. unless you want your house disrupted with fences and such the Grazer will quickly learn to eat all her food at once. Putting the dishes in different rooms will help. She will learn when its "food time" and come to her dish and eat. This might take 2 weeks to a month to change the habit as you are retraining a creature's conditioned response. Cleo is on a special gastro sensitive diet food and Ameratto and Cassius both eat the same vet food so feeding them together ensures all cats get what they need.

Jason

 

[kady05]

Why not just get a cat door that will allow only Angel into whatever room you decide to put her food in? Angel would wear the collar that activates the door, Sophie wouldn't, so she wouldn't be able to get to the perscription food. You just wouldn't be able to feed Angel in the kitchen anymore since it doesn't have a door. We use our laundry room as our older cats room.

We have one for our older cat, still working on training him to use it though. He's got the going out part down, but going in he's still really hesistant. But it works to keep our 2 younger cats out of 'his' room.

You can go to petsmart.com or something and just search for 'cat doors' and they have a few that require a collar to open the door.