Cat with behavior problems costing us $100/month to feed.

[NetSkyBlue]

I have three cats - two with problems. The female cat is fine. Healthy weight, no issues with food.

The older male, 9 1/2 now, has vomiting issues. I believe he's actually allergic to dairy, and he has real trouble when we switch his food. He's on Purina One Salmon & Tuna flavor now, as he tolerates it "best," but we do get at least one round of vomiting a week. Usually it's pretty well digested when thrown up, liquidy, but occasionally it's right after eating and still pretty solid. (Sorry if TMI!) He's never allowed people-food.

The younger male, 6 1/2, is obese. He wouldn't touch people-food if offered.

We tried feeding all of them seperately, twice daily, rationed amounts, of a very expensive dry food recommended by our vet. Life was hell, they were all grumpybutts, the one never lost weight, and we had tons more vomiting with the other. (Even though we eased the food in, mixed with his old, over the course of a month.) This trial was over a 6 month period. Then we went back to the old way of food out all the time.

Maybe we could try a twice daily feeding, where we feed girl cat and old boy cat their regular food, as much as they care to eat in XXX time frame, and take younger boy cat into a separate room where he's fed a portioned amount of diet food during that time?

Frankly, I never see the younger one eat any more frequently than the others, or gobbling or anything. I also don't see him being any more sedentary than the others either, so I assume his body is just processing the food differently. I'd love to try grain-free.

I'm interested in what brands you are using.

[sagremus]

That's a hard situation because you have three. We have two. The boy cat gets his food three times a day, and we give our female (eldery @ 13) a "snack" when he's fed so she doesn't feel left out. Really, she doesn't do much but lick the juices off of the canned food and leave it for the male to polish off.

At night time we lock the female cat into our bedroom and allow her to free-feed on her dry food. She is a "grazer" so she gets about 8-9 hours to eat her fill. Occasionally I'll lock her up for an hour in the daytime so she has more time to eat. Our bedroom is "her" territory so she doesn't mind being confined. The other male cat sleeps in his bed and night and doesn't howl or scratch at the door.


I'd do it this way:
1. Feed the obese cat and the vomiting cat three servings a day of the food they tolerate. Our cat went from 22 to 15 pounds with a wet-food, grain free diet. He gets one 3 oz packet of Natural Balance (grain free varieties), and a 5.5 oz can of Wellness that we split into two servings. I would definitely see if raw food would fit your lifestyle. I've heard raw is best for weight loss and can work miracles with tummy problems.
2. With the female, I'd lock her into your room or another room at night and allow her to graze on her favorite dish. Otherwise, she may only take nibbles of food and the other fatties go and gobble it up behind her.

Would this work for your situation?

[NetSkyBlue]

I'm really glad you posted on this subject, I spent all yesterday and last night reading up, and deciding we *need* to do something about the one cat's weight problem.

I read this article by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM, about preparing a raw food diet: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood and here on why that's what they should be eating: http://www.catinfo.org/

I think preparing the raw food is something I'd eventually like to try. For now, I bought some of the Nature's Variety raw chicken food, and decided to start this morning giving each cat 4 portioned meals a day.

I figured the # of calories they need to get each day based on their weights (going for an "ideal" of 2 pounds lighter for the fattie - will keep decreasing as he loses) and am going to mix the raw in with their dry food for the next 2 weeks to transition them.

I'm keeping the girl on dry till it's used up, but she's portioned as well.

And going to weigh twice a week to make sure they aren't losing too fast.

The patties are EXPENSIVE, but I figured it's a better alternative for the first month, so I'm not investing in a bunch of stuff if they won't eat it.


First feeding was this morning. Girl ate all her dry food really quickly, but didn't cry or beg for more, and fiance texted me to say none of them had been begging yet (around noon) which is when they get their second "meal."

Fattie ate his food, but it took him about 40 minutes to finish, and he didn't seem like he was THRILLED about it. But he did eat it. I'm a little concerned as to whether he will still want to eat it as the amount of kibble in the mix decreases.

Sickie ate some, but not all, of his first meal. He's not picky, so maybe he just wasn't that hungry?


I DID have trouble with them being distracted by being confined to one room. I had to move the two boys from one room to another to get them to keep eating, as they were more interested in pawing at the door than their food bowls. Hopefully that will change as we establish a routine.


I did the math on using the raw food recipe above, and got ~$23.50 per cat, per month. A good reason for people to NOT have three cats, LOL!

I think it will work OK, though, because I'll be the one preparing and packaging the food, but the daily time investment will only require putting the food in the fridge to thaw, and weighing out X number of ounces (or grams) per cat at each meal.

Just pick up their bowl, put it on the scale, tare, and spoon in the food till it weighs the right amount. That's all the fiance will have to do, and he's only in charge of the lunchtime feeding. (He works 2-10pm). I'll be doing morning, evening after work, and before bed feedings.

[hamchan]

Come to think of it the cat never lost an ounce when we were rationing his food either. We have both cats on a weight control formula now. They don't go through any more than they used to either. The older one was never fat until he had emergency surgery where they had to remove a lot of his intestines. I wonder if he has absorbtion issues.

[Redraidernurse]

Geez, reading all these posts about taking care of your cats make them sound like more work than taking care of my two small children.

[hamchan]

It's like taking care of toddlers and geriatrics all at once.