|
Post by mittensandkittens on Mar 1, 2015 21:51:43 GMT -5
Mittens is about a year and half, almost 2ish right now and PineCone turned about year recently. Mittens has never been a big eater. it took months to go through the first bag of kitten food we bought her. when it was just her we could easily free feed. then when we got PineCone everything changed. he eats non stop. we have stopped free feeding and now do meals but he is still getting to be a bit of a chunker. now they are both still on kitten formula, long story short mittens started loosing weight because she didn't want to eat the adult formula ( and yes we did introduce it slowly. I'd say it took us about 6 months for it to even be 70% adult). I'm wondering if we should switch just his food or would it do much good considering he eats her food anyway. that is also another issue.
Another long story but for the first few months mittens would vomit after she ate quite often. we and fortunately she, figured out she just cant eat very quickly. So, what she tends to do is eat, takes a break and comes back after she has had a chance to digest a little. the trouble is Cone likes to come and snatch her food while she is away. its becoming difficult to monitor when they are eating so we can deter Pinecone from eating all her food. were becoming concerned because mittens is very petite and Cone is getting chunky.
Any suggestions?
I do recognize that every cat is different. The fact that PineCone is a male and Mittens is a female means Cone will likely be larger and also they are both rescues so im not sure of breeding of course, but just looking at them they look like different breeds. Mittens seems to favor a more oriental mix with a possible Russian blue, and cone seems like a larger breed, possibly Main Coone in his background.
any advice is appreciated!
|
|
|
Post by mittensandkittens on Mar 1, 2015 22:06:03 GMT -5
|
|
talem
Kewl Cat
My Angel Talem
Posts: 596
|
Post by talem on Mar 2, 2015 4:32:47 GMT -5
Have you tried feeding separate. We used to have to do that with Talem and Smokey. Smokey would eat all the food and Talem wouldn't get any.
|
|
|
Post by mittensandkittens on Mar 2, 2015 14:55:48 GMT -5
yes. Mittens gets fed on one side of the room and PineCone the other. However when Cone is done he makes his way down by Mittens bowl and sticks his head in weather she is still eating or not. aside from locking PineCone in a room i'm not sure what else will help. Even still Mittens eating process is rather long. Eats, leaves, returns and repeat can go on for some time.
|
|
|
Post by Angel Macy on Mar 2, 2015 19:48:35 GMT -5
I actually feed my guys their wet in separate areas and they dry food are in two separate rooms far apart from each other. I do free feed dry food all the time though. They get their wet food at the same time so I can monitor and make sure one doesn't get into the others.
|
|
Laura and Dixon
Kewl Cat
Laura is a tortie born appx 6/2001. Dixon is an orange tabby mix, born 6/2002. I love my kitties.
Posts: 202
|
Post by Laura and Dixon on Mar 21, 2015 19:48:04 GMT -5
You may have to put Cone in a separate room, while mittens eats. After a bit, let him out and feed him. At least mittens will have had a chance to eat some of her food. If time isn't an issue for you (getting ready for work) you can try to be really diligent by removing Cone from Mitten's food, every time you catch him. He may be trained into leaving her food alone. Frequent monitoring required, obviously. I had the same problem with my two. Laura was found as a stray and always seemed to be afraid of running out of food. She would gobble hers, and steal Dixon's. He would just move aside and let her. He, too likes to save a little for later. So I fed him first, then let her out to be fed. She got less of his food this way. I work 12's so it's hard to monitor, except on my days off. Dixon is now on a special diet, and this is less of a problem, now. Occasionally, I bust them "trading food," but not all the time.
|
|
|
Post by Andy on Sept 29, 2015 18:43:32 GMT -5
Glad to see the suggestions about feeding in different rooms. Sometimes it is easier to do that than to keep trying to separate them.
|
|