My cat eats too much

[Orange]

I'm hoping someone else has this situation and can help me out. I have 2 cats - one fat and one skinny. The fat one is a fast eater and the skinny one is a slow eater who likes to graze for a while over his meal. The fat one eats some of his own food, goes to the skinny cat's bowl, eats his food, then goes back to his own bowl and finishes up. They eat in separate rooms but are not locked in. We used to lock the fat one in a separate room to eat until the skinny one was finished but then he started peeing everywhere until we let him out. The only thing I can do is basically hang out and watch them eat, but sometimes the skinny one gets scared away by me shooing the fat one away and then he won't come back to finish his meal. The fat one is getting fatter and I'm concerned about his health but I'm not sure what to do to keep him from eating so much while allowing the skinny one to get what he needs. They're both eating prescription tartar control diet food (Science Diet) and get two measured meals a day. I should also point out that the skinny one is kind of skittish and the fat one is unphased by pretty much anything, so that's an additional complication.

[greenbunny]

Okay, hello, are you me? This is my situation to a tee: one skinny skittish cat who picks, one calm heavy one who devours everything and pees all over the house. The skinny one is on Science Diet t/d for tartar mixed with hairball control, and as of this week the fat one is on Science Diet w/d for colitis.

The fat one is currently quarantined due to the bathroom issues, so feeding them separately has not been an issue. Unfortunately once she's let out, we can no longer free feed the skinny one. It just isn't an option. They will need to be separated for specific meal times and given their separate types of food. The only difference is that the skinny one will get an extra feeding time and less food at each session. It's a pain but we haven't found any other way. The vet was no help.

We will be putting the fat one on behavioral medication to control the peeing. There's no guarantee it will work, but if you want to try it, talk to your vet. The name of the medication is clomipromine.

[Orange]

greenbunny, that's too funny! Our guy pees for pretty specific reasons (although they're not always clear to us) so I'm not sure that the medication would help. It's certainly worth asking though. We've seriously thought about putting a diaper on him :p while he's in his eating room, but I'm sure he'd rip it off. Maybe we can try the quarantining for feeding again by stacking 2 baby gates on top of each other - that way he can see out and won't feel like he has privacy to pee. Hmm....

[fuzzy]

I don't know if this will help or not but...here's my standard advice...

1) Put skittish kitty somewhere elevated to eat. Mine eats on the washing machine, while the other three eat on the floor.

2) Put large, smooth landscaping rocks in the piggy's food. Mix well. Piggy will have to eat "around" the rocks and it slows them up.

3) Monitor dinner time. As soon as Piggy starts to move toward Skittish's dish, redirect him back to his dish. My Piggies know not to make a move for my Skittish's dish while I am there.

[tlew12778]

OMG that is hilarious Fuzzy! FH wants to know where you got the idea for the rocks.

We free feed the skinny cat and put his food up on a really high shelf (ok, it's above the bathroom cabinet... gross I know... but that's the only elevated place fatty can't get to).

We then measure out fatty's food (he gets 80 grams a day of Royal Canine Obesity). Sometimes skinny will steal some of fatty's food but fatty has basically figured out he needs to eat when we give it to him (3 times a day... about 25 grams each time) or else risk skinny eating all his food.

Sometimes fatty gets tired of his food. In this instance I switch to Purina O/M which is Obesity Mgmt.

My fatty weighs about 16 lbs. The skinny one weighs about 12.

[fuzzy]

Hee-hee, well, Skittish Kitty was vomitting after every meal, so my vet suggested the rocks as a way to slow him up. It worked, but I also realized it worked a bit for the Piggies too! :D

[keska]

Fuzzy gave great recommendations. That's exactly what we do for our cats. We keep the skinny kitty's bowl on my desk where I can make sure the bigger cat doesn't get into it while I'm home. When we leave, the bowl gets put in a cupboard they can't reach. We also switched to diet food, cut down on the amount and use a measuring cup to make sure we don't overfeed. Our cat has lost 2 lbs so far. The hardest thing for me to deal with is the crying. It took a month or so before our bigger cat stopped crying all the time because he wanted to be fed. Now, he only cries when he sees me headed for his food bowl.

[jnettie]

We have fat kitty/skinny kitty, too!

One thing I do is give skinny kitty foods she really loves at least once a week and at the same time give fat kitty her diet food.

Also, I give fat kitty her food first, then she doesn't see me give skinny kitty food, too.

I'm sure there's something special that your skinny kitty loves. I discovered Sissy (our skinny kitty) loves roast beef. So, she always gets some when we have it because I want to encourage her to eat. They also both love the Nutro wet foods in the pouch with gravy. Nutro makes really good kitty food (the first few ingredients are things like chicken or fish, not soy or corn).

There are definate dominace issues going on in my house with the food. I used to have to always bring food to Sissy (skinny kitty) to make sure she was eating. It has evened out pretty much now. Sounds like that's what's happening with you, too.

[tlew12778]

You can also feed your skinny kitty high caloric food. Has your vet told you he is underweight? If your fat kitty has a tendency to put on the lbs you might want to feed him light or obesity formula food. If he's really fat you could also get him checked for diabetes or insulin resistance and feed him diabetic food.

[keska]

We tried switching our skinny kitty to soft food, thinking she'd eat it in one sitting, but it turned out she won't touch it. It's an idea that might work, though, if it's impossible for you to keep an eye on separate food bowls all day.

[Orange]

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. Fuzzy, putting rocks in the bowl is a great idea! The only thing I worry about is that he'll just decide it is too much work and go eat Skinny's food. I usually monitor them during their evening meal but in the morning I just don't have time since it takes up to 30-45 minutes for Skinny to finish.

tlew12778, No, he's not underweight - he's actually a good weight for hius bone structure so I'm not too worried about him, I'm mostly worried about the other one getting too fat and developing diabetes, especially since he's getting older (almost 11). They both eat Science Diet T/D prescription food which the vet told us is low-calorie like the diet food as well as having tartar control properties.

jnettie, that's a great idea about feedng the piggy one first. For some reason, we always feed the skinny one first.