We recently acquired a new kitten and she is being fed kitten food. High calorie kitten food that is being devoured by the adult pre-existing cat and packing the pounds on her. Neither cat sits and eats for an extended period so sequestering Cat A while Cat B eats isn’t much of an option since it’d take hours for the kitten to empty her bowl. I’ve joked that we need one of those birdfeeder squirrel guards that dumps anything 5lbs or more and/or making the kitten crawl through some 6" drain pipe to reach her food.
Ironically, the kitten prefers the adult cat’s food and I’d say to just feed them that instead except my wife is convinced that kitten needs kitten food. Which might be true but isn’t solving the issue. It also opens a second issue where, even if I kept the kitten’s food out of adult reach, the kitten just wants to eat the adult food anyway.
Are you all still in the stage where the kitten and adult cat are largely sequestered from each other in different rooms/areas for most of the day? Or do both currently have free range of the house? Sounds like the latter, but I didn’t want to assume.
In any case, if it were me, I’d be feeding both of your cats roughly a 50/50 mix of kitten and adult cat food. I’ve used kitten food for new-to-the-home kittens in the past, but only up until the point where the new kitten was fully integrated into the household of adult cats (about 3-4 weeks).
There are bags of “premium” cat food explicitly labelled as being for both kittens and adults; I guess you could switch to that, and it would solve your original problem? If the older cat needs special dietetic food, that’s a different problem.
I don’t think so. She just started gaining weight with the arrival of the kitten. Since she’s usually eating the kitten’s food, I assume it’s because the kitten food has more calories for growing young cats. Hopefully she’ll shed the weight over time once she’s not eating “candy” for dinner (she has someone to chase her around the house now, after all).
I don’t have any experience with them, only an awareness that they exist.
ETA: A low budget low tech solution would be to get a plastic tub with lid to put kitten’s food bowl in and cut a hole in the side that is too small for adult cat access.
Or don’t free feed them. I know they like to graze, but if you put the food down at 5pm and pick it up at 5:15, they’ll start eating their food on time in a few days. Then you just need to enforce separation during their feeding time. I don’t know how young the kitten is, but she may still need kitten food.
Second best thing about having a kitten is getting to enjoy the luxurious coat it makes my rescue pantherdevelop.
Do the 50/50 thing and relax. Sharing meals will help bond your kitties. Mama cat will get a little puffy, but as soon as kitten is on big kitty fud she’ll lose the weight.
My cats eat on an elevated portion of my kitchen cupboards. Not where human food is. It was meant to be a kitchen desk. I never used it as one. I feed them there to keep the dogs out of their food. I still don’t like the ideal of leaving food out. They’re skinny and need to finish their meals when served. I use all kinda tricks to accomplish this (with varied success). Can food they like, putting a treat down with the food. The new cat soups are working at the moment. If you can get kitten to finish his whole meal you’ve beat half the problem.
Or, as stated upthread just go 50/50. That would be easier.
This has never been my experience. I have done this for nearly a month before it became clear that the cats were going to starve to death if I kept on taking the food away after a few minutes. If you say you have cats who eat “meals” I will take your word for it, but I never have.
I’m going through the same thing, as I just added a kitten to the household. Both felines believe The Other Cat’s Food Is Better. I have to do some ad lib feeding since I am not infrequently gone for 12 to 24 hours at a time. But here is my strategy:
Both cats get canned food of the appropriate type first thing in the morning, in separate locations. I also feed them the dried stuff at the same time - the kibble is left out.
If I notice them eating each other’s food, I’ll try to distract them/lead them back to their own ish.
I don’t obsess on it. The adult cat is only 17 months old, so she’s not much past kittenhood herself. The kitten is a tough little demon who seems to be energetic and growing; I figure generations of his ancestors survived just fine on whatever was available, even if it wasn’t special kitty chow.
So that’s my imperfect but hopefully good enough method.
Kitten food goes into a closed box. Cut smallish opening, maybe add a couple-inch section of dryer tube or something, juuust barely big enough for kitten to squeeze through.
Leave the adult food out as you normally do and supplement the kitten 2 or 3 times a day with higher cal food, maybe canned kitten or even just good quality canned.
In truth, most cat foods are just fine for kittens (unless the adult is eating a diet-type food). Too-rapid growth in mammals can sometimes bring on other issues down the line, so quality intake is more important than quantity intake.
I thought about that except the kitten prefers the adult food so she’ll just ignore the tunnel and eat from the other bowl. I need one opening only for tiny cats and another with a pressure plate that only opens when 10lbs or more of cat is standing on it
