How to Feed Cats Separate Food

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How to Feed Different Diets in a Multiple Cat Household: Eight Quick Tips

Living in a multiple cat household has so many wonderful rewards and benefits but it also comes with a few challenges. One of those challenges many cat guardians face on a daily basis is how to manage feeding time. It can become a struggle to keep one cat out of another cat's food bowl. A cat guardian begins to feel more like a kindergarten playground monitor or even a traffic cop whenever mealtime comes around.

The mealtime routine can get even more complicated when one or more cats must be placed on a special diet. The reasons for individualized diets can vary greatly. You may need to feed growth formula to a kitten while trying to keep the adult cats focused on their own food or maybe one cat has been prescribed a special diet for chronic renal failure or even a reduced calorie diet for weight management. Whatever the reason, it can be difficult to keep cats from wandering away from their own bowls to check out what another is eating.

Feeding individualized meals may seem like an impossible task in a multiple cat household but with a little planning and patience, it can be done. Here are eight tips to get you started.

BUY CAT VS CAT

1.Have the Needed Supplies for Feeding Your Cats

If you've been feeding out of one big food bowl for all of the cats, you need to get the right supplies before you implement a new mealtime plan. Each cat will need their own food bowls. If a number of the cats will be eating specific diets then it may help to buy bowls of different colors or types so you can more easily keep track of who gets what food. The cats certainly won't care about color but when you're trying to remember what food you put in a specific bowl, it'll help. You can also write the cats' names on all the bowls with a permanent marker. Develop whatever plan you need so you or anyone else feeding your cats won't accidentally offer the wrong food to the wrong cat.

2. Take it Slow

Abrupt changes in food can be upsetting to a cat's stomach and may also lead one or more of the cats to reject the new formula. In general, cats don't like change so any diet changeover should be done gradually. Talk to your veterinarian about the best way to do the change based on your specific cats and based on the urgency of any medical condition that requires the nutritional change.

BUY CAT VS CAT

3. No Free-Feeding

When all the cats were eating the same food, especially if it involved dry food, you may have simply left out an endless supply in one bowl for cats to munch on as they pleased throughout the day. Even if you weren't about to embark on specialized diets for one or more of the cats, free-feeding is not the best way to go. When there's a bottomless bowl of food you have no way of monitoring how much each cat is eating. It may seem convenient at first but it can also lead to obesity or it can create some resource-guarding between cats if there's only one food source. One cat may have developed the habit of sneaking into the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning when no one else is around because he's afraid of being intimidated or attacked by another cat.

As you make the transition from free-feeding to scheduled meals, start by doing more frequent meals (divide up the portions so you're not overfeeding) and making a big announcement when it's mealtime so the kitties can get used to the new routine. Make it a gradual and easy transition so you don't end up with one or more cats sitting in the kitchen wondering what happened to their food.

4. Create Individual Feeding Stations for Your Cats

Depending on how many cats you have or how determined some of them may be about gaining access to another kitty's food, the stations could be located all in the same room or you may have to set certain ones up in different rooms. Mealtime shouldn't be a time of stress or fear so if it's too difficult to keep one cat away from another, the easiest thing to do is create feeding stations in totally separate areas.

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Source: https://catbehaviorassociates.com/how-to-feed-different-diets-in-a-multiple-cat-household-eight-quick-tips/

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