Under eating/ over eating

[ramgren89]

Hello!

im the momma to a 4 year old cali-tabby named Tinkerbelle whose a very diligent eater. i wouldnt say she under eats but just takes her sweet time, she loves her cat nip temptations treats, tink is about 5 lbs and very tiny looking for her age (compared to other cats ive seen anyways)

then there is Jaxson aka Jax...

he is about 4-5 months old, and about 5-6lbs, chubby little bugger!! he HAS TO EAT EVERYTHING! he always acts like he is starving! inhales the first half of his food when i put it down, makes a complete mess scooping it out of his bowl, plays with the water, knocks everything over and is always up in peoples faces eating their food, or if you turn around for a second he is eating your food.. my question is what to do about jax's eating habits... i feel like tink is ok. the vet didnt say anything negative about her weight last month, and last month when jax went in he was only about 3.4-4 lbs and i swear he is at least 5 maybe 6 lbs now.. 

i live in a small town and the closest pet supply store is like two hours away, the pet shop that i go to thats about a half hour away only sells the ''chicken soup for the cats soul'' brand food and im not sure if thats even a decent brand.. my vets office sells Science Diet but we havent tried it.. Ive always just fed my cats Purina Indoor Formula although we have also tried the Purina Naturals and The Good Life Recipe.

any idea's about his eating habits would be great,.. cuz im afraid if he keeps going like this he is gonna end up being a 30 plus pound cat. 

p.s we are looking into getting him one of those ''slow down'' bowls

 

[ritz]

The slow bowl is a good idea.  So is scheduled feeding, for both cats.  The skinnyish one will be hungry when dinner time comes, and the somewhat overweight one won't eat indiscriminately.

So is feeding wet food; it contains the ingredients cats need.  Dry food contains carbohydrates, which cats have NO (zilch zero nada) need for.

So cats tend to eat a lot of dry food to get what they do need--protein and fat.

Science Diet is generally not favorably looked upon; it contains lots of carbohydrates at a premium price.

Fancy Feast Classic (only) is a decent food for an okay price; it is available at all major grocery stores.

You can also of course order premium wet food on line.

Ritz is a rescued cat, who lived the first four to six months of her life on the streets and literally didn't know where her next meal was coming from.  In part because of that (IMO), she is somewhat food motivated.  It doesn't help that I still think a MEOW means "FEED ME NOW".  It often doesn't; it means, pay attention to me, or I meow because I can.  What is Jax' background?

 

[ramgren89]

the switching to soft food might work for the younger one but my older cat from the time she was a kitten has never liked it, and we have tried all types of canned/bagged cat food, she is just not a fan. once in awhile she will eat some for a treat but it isnt much. however of course our little one will eat anything that literally doesnt eat him first!! 

Both of my cats came from similar backrounds,  Tinkerbelle was found on the side of the road when she was est - 4-5 weeks old. a friend of mine took her in but found out she was very allergic so we took her, bottle fed her and raised her up! she turned out to be an amazing cat who is very tolerant of my little one (who was just 1 at the time we got her so they have grown up together) she absolutely will not bite or claw my little one and we (my husband and myself) have to really really really rough-play with her to get her to even think about using her claws on us. a few months ago our vet suggested getting Tinkerbelle a friend because our little one was going to preschool and Tink seemed depressed with her gone  (and my daughter spends every other week with her bio dad as well) so we searched and searched for an adult fixed male (per our vets recommendation) but couldnt find one that was going to be a good match with us having a kid in the house and wanting more, thats when my husband found someone giving away a litter of kittens online because the mom had passed away, so we drove over an hour to bring our little boy home! and named him Jaxson aka JAX. same as tink we bottle fed him and weaned him onto kitten chow and then eventually moved to the same food as our adult because our vet said it would be okay.. both cats are UTD on their shots, Jax was tested FIV+ when he was 6 weeks and went to the vet - he will be getting retested at 6 months of age, if he tests positive again then we will also be getting our older cat tested as well..

back to the cat food thing, i dont buy anything online, so its not so much as ''what i can afford'' to feed them, its more of being able to find it without having to drive 2 hrs or more to a petsmart or petco ect. out of all the cat food at walmart which is where we shopped for a long time, i felt the purina indoor brand was the best. however we have started shoppinng at Cub and Target more often now so i will be looking into what brands they also carry, as i said i could easily switch Jax over to a soft food diet but Tink wont do it.