June 09, 2005

• The only answer I can see it so segregate your cats. As a long term solution that is untenable. So why not let them get fat? What do you know about feline obesity and feline life span? For all I know fat cats live longer.
• For all I know fat cats live longer Nope. They die. :( Is the male notably larger in diameter? I'm dealing with a similar situation.
• No, he's not noticably larger per se. In fact, his body shape is smaller than hers--he is short & compact and she is taller & lanky. She is 12 lbs. and he is now almost 11 lbs; he just put on 2 lbs in the last *two weeks!* (He had a check-up recently so we have recent documentation to go by.) This is how we know we're in for some trouble down the road if we don't take care of this soon. And as Moneyjane pointed out, overweight cats have the same health problems as overweight humans, and, like humans, they boredom eat. Therefore, the perpetual bowl of food can be problematic for bored indoor cats.
• You could try constructing a box only one cat at a time can fit into, with her bowl inside. The idea being if there's easy food vs hard food to get at, and you give him his first and two cats cannot fit in the box, he's got to eat his own dinner. Once she's in, it'll be near impossible for him to get her out before she wants to come out.
• Think about this from a different perspective. Your cats probably do not exclusively have a food problem, but also an exercise problem. I'm guessing that your cats are indoor only cats. Mine are, and I have a similar problem. I have two lovely siamese, but cannot allow them to be outside cats due to the amount of predators around (racoons, possum, coyotes and hawks). It doesn't help that they're lovable as hell, but not the sharpest creatures. I live in a small, apartment-sized house. This creates a problem. There isn't enough space for them to exercise properly. That is, without people help. I buy lots of cat toys to keep them active (hey, if everywhere I went was full of couches and beds, I'd spend all day lying down in the sun too, unless I had outside motivation!). I also try to spend at least 20 minutes playing with them every evening. I mean, get-down-on-the-floor-and-tear-ass-around-the-house-chasing-and-being-chased play time. Sure, they're still just a bit more plump than they could be, but making sure they're active every day helps quite a bit. Still, I do feed them Iam's Eukanuba low fat cat food. Of course, I fill a half-gallon size gravity feeder for them and let them eat whenever they want. I only do this because I'm often a bit too hurried in the morning and feel like a very bad person when I used to forget to put food out in the morning for them. But I bet that encouraging your cats to play and exercise every evening would help, at least a bit.
• Since my fat cat eats out of boredom and really needs the exercise, I'm building a series of shelves mounted on the wall that are stepped in length as to make the cats have to jump up on the end of each shelf one after another, like climbing stairs, to reach a food bowl on the very top shelf. That should at least slow her down some, and get her moving her fat stripey butt a little more. Oh yeah...and somewhere to put my books too :)
• Sounds like you already found the solution to cure one of your cats from obesity. I'm not sure about the other.
• The solution I've most often heard is to close them up in separate rooms at feeding time. Half an hour should be enough time for a reasonable meal. You'll have to pick up the bowls after mealtime is over, which means that they'll have to learn to eat their entire meal at once, rather than portioning it out throughout the day. But I doubt it would take more than a few days for them to get the idea.
• I've got only 440 square feet for me and kitties, so I hear you. Also I'm not supposed to have them - otherwise, I'd take them up on the roofdeck.
• Mechagrue, I'm thinking this might be the best viable solution so far. They'll just have to eat quickly and practice kitty Pilates in their spare time! Thanks!
• My cats like that toy that's a flexible stick, and a string, and a spinny feather thing at the end of the string. It's good for exercising in a small space, because you can pop it up onto the couch, and over their heads for big vertical leaps. I have also lived in many small places. Takes ingenuity on the part of people and cats alike!
• Mechagrue's solution is something that worked quite well for us. We had a cat on prescription cat food. And, of course, prescription=expensive. Needless to say, we didn't want the other cats eating his food. So we put him and his food dish in the bathroom at feeding time. (We only feed once a day, due to work schedules.) The other cats ate in another room. This also had the side effect of the cats attaining a good and controlable weight. There's a few days of loud meowing, but eventually they get the idea. Be prepared for them to start reminding you right around mealtime, because they don't seem to forget.
• Oh yes - we have a toy just like mechagrue's, and our cat goes crazy! Actually, it's locked up right now, since she's just been spayed, and we don't want her ripping her stiches doing back flips while chasing it. It has a stick, a wire and a feathery thing (she ripped the mouse that was there), and something about the slightly curly wire just makes it bounce perfectly for her.
• You could build your kitties a combination feeder/play/sleep area. Get some plywood, and cut out various cat size squares to stack and put side by side. Have holes so that they can go thru from side to side, and up to down. Put smaller 2 inch holes that they can see each other thru, and put their paws into. Make a set of cat stairs or a carpeted cat ramp. This will give them a playhouse. Paint it, carpet it, put a nice little cat bed on top or in a hidden corner of it. My husband has rigged a square that has a 40 watt light bulb on to keep the old cat warm. On the bottom, have compartment that is completely closed except for installing one of those magnetic catdoors. Put the magnet collar on the slow eating cat so she can get in and out without the male being able to get in to eat her food and annoy her. That way you can put down food for both and go to work knowing everyone gets their fair share. If you're boring, you can just build a box with a door.
• Little Big Cat has nothing to say about two cats.
• Great link, moneyjane! )) Anyone with an obese cat, or considering getting an indoor cat, should read it.
• Feed the cats separately. May also help to feed only once a day of you have a slow eater. When food's left out all day, it is a turn-pff to some cats. The vets tell me it is because their olfactory nerves, like ours, stop registering a familiar scent after a while. So let the thin cat have food for only a brief period of time (twenty minutes or so,) then remove it from her, and see if this helps her eat any faster. If you persist she will learn to eat more quickly. In my experience some cats do better on one feeding a day, and some don't -- you just have to observe what's going on with your cat and try new strategies if things don't work. Owned one cat, a female, who'd bolt her food and then vomit it up shortly afterwards when fed dry food. Adding fluid, such as chicken broth or water, slowed her down, as did spreading well moistened cat kibble over a dinner plate.
• My sister has the same problem. Sadly to say, I don't know how and if they solved it... I think they had the two cats eat in turn in a closed off room.
• I have seven cats. Four of them eat normal food, 1 eats "senior" food, and 2 eat Science Diet (prescription) R/D for extremely fat cats. Clive, the male fat cat, weighed 22 lbs at last weighing and he will try to eat the female fat cat's food (who is also a slow eater). So Clive eats in the kitchen, where I can keep an eye on him, and Kensington goes into the bathroom with the door closed for about half an hour. Usually, around feeding time, she waits in the bathroom. She doesn't mind eating in there and I know that she's actually eating her food. They each get a half cup of food twice a day, as per the vet's instructions. What has your vet suggested about feeding for the beasties?
• wow. GramMa wins as cat owner extraordinaire. i have two kitties, one is chubby one is skinny. so we're constantly trying to fatten up the skinny one, and vice-versa. it's tough. but i totally agree on the exercise! and offer just two words: LASER POINTER.
• The spray bottle is the solution to your problems, as it is to all cat problems. Spray the male cat when he tries to eat the female cat's food. Chase both cats around the house while spraying them to give them exercise. Spray the cats when they're sleeping in the sun, to discourage napping. Spray the female cat when she takes too long to eat. You should probably give them a few additional sprays at random times throughout the day just to keep them on their toes. When your cats twitch when they see you approach and start sleeping in shifts where one always stands guard, you'll know you're on the right track.
• Smallish Bear, hand me a towel. Coffee met monitor.
• We had a problem where the dog kept eating the cats' food -- she got really chubby on it! Eventually, we had to feed the dog outside while the cats ate in the kitchen. The cats learned to eat quickly (the had been in the habit of picking at their food throughout the day) before the dog came back inside! After a couple of weeks, the animals were trained to eat separately, and all was well.
• smallish bear funny! Koko laugh!
• My boys eat on separate sides of a wall. Kitchen closes off using a pocket door, so I stick one bowl of food on either side of the divider that holds the door. They have learned pretty quickly that one bowl will go in each spot, and I left it up to them to choose which bowl belonged to which cat (my kitty likes to eat outside the kitchen, my wife's cat - my cat's brother - eats inside the door). We restrict their food now, since my cousin (an aspiring vet) shamed me into doing so by making fun of how fat my cats were. They really weren't bad, but I was bothered that they were getting pudgy and lazy. They're only four, after all. So, we went from free feeding to 1/2 cup in the morning, 3/4 cup at night, split between the two feeding dishes. I'm strongly considering cutting it to 1/2 cup at night. They're both on dry weight control, both have lost weight because of this and the restricted feeding, and both are much more active. As an added bonus, I don't oversleep my alarm any more, because I have two furry alarms that make sure I get up to feed them at 7 AM.
• heh. furry alarm.
• I have two cats, one weighs 15 lbs, the other just under 6. One wolfs her food, the other picks, or wolfs then barfs - just guess which one is which? Strangely enough, the smaller cat is the agressive one, and has no problems whacking the tar out of her sister at any time other than mealtimes. I use a divided food bowl, and it's quite amusing to watch the bigger kitty slowly nudge the other one off to the side, finally ending up crouched, covering both sides of the bowl, while her sister wanders off. Feline passive-agressive behavior in action. I've had them since they were a couple of weeks old, and they've always had the same ratio in size disparity, and the larger cat isn't visibly fat, she's just BIG, so I'm not worried about them. It figures the only time the smaller cat showed great interest in the communal food bowl was when the larger cat was eating antibiotic-laced wet food for an intestinal infection. Then I did seperate them, and it worked well.
• boot the fat one outdoors. leave it out there.
• I believe Offspring was having a similar problem with their cats on the Come Out and Play tour, and did indeed decide to keep 'em separated with great results. *ducks*
• Exercise time for fet kets.
• Dang!