My kittens (about 11 weeks old) have been sharing a food bowl (and a water fountain) with no apparent problems. They get along great. Is there any reason to get another bowl so they each have their own, or is sharing fine as long as they get along?
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Should each cat have his own bowl?
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Remind me...how many kittens are we talking about?
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I think that one fountain, and one decent sized bowl sounds just fine for two kittens to share
As long as you are sure they are each getting enough, it sounds OK. I have three bowls for wet food, two for dry, but half the time they opt to share, finish one bowl then move on to the next!
My cats each have their own dish for wet food (because they get wet food at a scheduled time), but with dry food, they free feed, so it's not like everyone would stick to their own dish anyway, so they just share one large dish - there haven't been any problem with that, and I've been doing it that way for over a year.
I have 4 cats and 1 water bowl, 1 dry food bowl and one canned food bowl. The water bowl gets changed twice a day and the dry food is free feed, but it is a big cermaic dog food bowl.
and the cat food bowl is a big ceramic dog food bowl too. The 2 boys are gentlemen and wait for the girls to finish their wet food, and then the guys come in and clean up.
my guys each have their own bowl for dry and canned. for dry, even though they free feed & don't always use the same bowl, if all 3 go to eat (which does happen sometimes) they won't share a bowl. i think that you probably don't even really need to worry about it until they are older. when my pair of littermates were younger, they would share but as they got older they don't like to share a bowl as much. they would share more even when they were 3 yrs. but now they are 8 yrs, and a little bit more persnickety about their personal space.
I see I'm the "odd woman out" here. Because the cats have to be kept separated, each has 1 bowl for dry food, one for wet food, a cat milk bowl, and at least one water bowl on any given day (ZsaZsa, our indoor-outdoor, part-time cat, has access to the laundry room only, so she only has one water bowl; Jamie has free run of the house, and has three water bowls and a fountain). That's a lot of bowls, seeing as the dishwasher is only run every other day!
As long as there aren't any spats, and both kittens are getting enough to eat, I don't see any problem. I do find that spreading water bowls throughout the home encourages the kitties to drink more.
As long as there aren't any spats, and both kittens are getting enough to eat, I don't see any problem. I do find that spreading water bowls throughout the home encourages the kitties to drink more.
our two cats have their own food bowls and one bowl for food. When they eat wet food they eat in seperate places so there is no problem, but for dry I just leave the bowls out and they will each eat from any bowl. I would say when the kittens get bigger they will need their own bowls.
All of my kitties (my own and two fosters) have their own bowls. I like to treat then all equally. Mind you, they may have different rules than we humans but so far, they seem to not mind the house "rules", lol I guess it depends on the cat - if they don't mind sharing the dry food bowl, that should be OK from a health standpoint. But they probably should each have their own bowl for wet food. Just mho.
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Words of Wisdom
Originally Posted by coaster
I think if you can swing separate bowls, it's a good idea because it makes it easier to see if one cat or the other is eating too little or too much.
I have 2 cats and they eat from separate bowls. This is mostly because they tend to eat at the same time (monkey see, monkey do) and I don't want them bumping heads when trying to eat. They do share one water bowl.
I once tried putting two different bowls out, since the boys where waiting for the girls to finish.... all that provided was more bowls for the girls - they kept taking a bite out of one, and racing to the other ... and repeat.
I have two big bowls and 4 water dishes for my 8 and as you can tell by the size of them they get plenty of food .By the looks of chucky and Ive I think to much
My kitties are grazers so they eat when they want to and they seem to get plenty. I was worried about Jeanie and Titden because they are so tiny but during each check up the Vet says they are very healthy just tiny girls thats all.
