Felines in Focus

Challenges in Mealtimes with a Multiple Cat Household

Last time on Felines in Focus, we discussed how implementing a mealtime option gives you the flexibility to monitor and feed all of your cats for their individualized needs.

However, this often poses many challenges, as some cats are more aggressive about eating their food, others are more lazy, and sometimes you can end up with fights and fits about who gets to eat what. 

The most common concern owners have is that they have that one overweight cat, and that one skinny cat, and the fat cat always eats his and everyone else’s portions at mealtime.  Keeping an open mind, and using a little bit of creativity can easily overcome this challenge.  My favorite easy and simple way to combat this issue is to first set up feeding stations.  Cats should have a different area they report to for their meal.  It doesn’t have to be a different room or area of the house, but side by side bowls are easier to “share”.  If you have a more proportioned cat losing his chance at finishing his meal, offer his food in a box that has an opening only he can fit through.  This also works with multiple cats.  If you are trying to prevent a larger cat from eating everyone else’s meals, and he can’t fit into a box where everyone else dines, he is restricted to only what he is offered.  This “box” doesn’t have to be anything fancy, even a cardboard box, or a Rubbermaid container can work, but you can be as creative, or not, as you’d like.

The second most common issue is the lazy eater.  Maybe your companion cats are not overweight, but when the lazy eater hasn’t finished her meal, it’s everybody else’s duty to clean her plate, because good food just can’t go to waste.  The key to adapting this “lazy eater” to meal time is to offer her a portion at each meal, and remove the excess after an allotted time.  For instance, she has 30 minutes to eat her meal, and then the food is removed and she waits for the next meal to eat like everyone else.  This gives you a better idea of what she prefers to eat, and eventually she’ll get on board.  By removing her excess, she won’t be sharing her food with any other cats in the household.