Feeding dilemma of sorts (or food dilemma)

[Tina B and crew]

Wasn't sure whether to put this in the health forum or here....as it doesn't really pertain to a health/behavior issue I will put it here.

This has been an ongoing problem since we adopted Lucy. Chunk is large, eats a lot, mostly at one sitting or at least within an hour of me putting food down. He will eat both dry and wet food but seems to prefer dry, unless it is in Lucy's bowl (go figure) - if she leaves wet food after I feed her he will eat it. At last vet visit the vet said that Chunk really needed to not gain any more weight and should preferably lose some. We know he should be a few pounds lighter than what he is. He's a large cat and the vet said 16 lbs isn't too large for him but right now he is at 20lbs. He gets plenty of exercise, drinks plenty of water and is otherwise healthy.

Lucy comes in at barely 9lbs. She eats very little, mostly through grazing. She will not eat dry regularly food as a rule but I have seen her on occasion munching on it if there is some left in Chunk's bowl. She is not too skinny, but within a few hours of feeding if I go into the kitchen she follows me in there and meows for food. This makes me thing she is hungry, and if I open a can and give it to her she will eat it (I've tried this to see if she was truly hungry or just doing it by habit). If I put down dry food she will walk away or look at me like "are you crazy?!". I have tried every kind of dry food possible short of the cheap grocery store food (Friskie's et al) which I refuse to feed. There is also an issue with the wet food. She will only eat it fresh from the can but even then she will eat some and walk away. If it has been refrigerated and heated up she will not eat it. I've tried heating it in the microwave (and yes, I make sure it is not too hot and stir it to make sure it is evenly heated) and by putting a bit of hot water in it and mixing. She will sniff it and come back to the counter where I prep their food and look at me expectingly. This is the same with every kind of wet food that I have tried, and I have tried nearly all of them that do not contain fish. Herein lies that problem, nearly all of them DO contain fish! Get this, she will eat Fancy Feast as if there is no tomorrow, but I cannot in good conscience feed her FF on a regular basis.

Problem #1 - since Lucy will not eat all her food at one sitting, Chunk will finish it off for her. I've seen him do it. How can I make sure they both get what the need without getting too many or too few calories? Lucy doesn't seem to be suffering physically, she seems to be maintaining her weight, she just seems hungry all the time. Chunk could definitely stand to lose a few pounds, so how do I cut back without starving Lucy? I do not free feed, they get a certain amount in the morning and then in the evening.

Problem #2 - Lucy won't eat the canned food if it is not fresh out of the can. If I put it all out, she won't finish it and a) either Chunk will eat it or b) it will sit in the bowl unfinished. If I use the small cans it gets pretty pricey. Even then she won't always finish it at one sitting and Chunk will finish it for her. He's like the kid at the table who says "if you aren't going to eat that...." At Lucy's weight I figure she should be eating at least one of the 5.5oz cans per day but I cannot consistently get her to do so. As I said, I'm not worried about her weight, just that she seems to be hungry within 3 hours of feeding. I am mostly worried about getting the weight off Chunk slowly without starving Lucy. If only I could find a food that she liked that he didn't!!

[Tina B and crew]

Oh...one other thing. Lucy tends to get tired of any food after a few days and will sometimes even refuse it fresh from the can. I hate to constantly switch her from one food to another but it's getting tough to find anything she will eat consistently. When I do switch it doesn't seem to affect her at all, so I'm not that worried, but sheesh, talk about spoiled queen!!!

[Traci]

I'm not sure because you know her better than I, but it sounds like she is just spoiled and has "trained" you to accommodate her feeding desires. The habit you really want to break is having to feed her so many varieties just to get her eating consistently.

With that said, I know you have a thing about fish, and rightfully so. However, there's no harm in feeding it occasionally. Some of the dry foods also contain the fish flavors and it is perfectly ok to feed. For example, I think both Science Diet adult and Iams have "Salmon" flavors, in the dry form, also "Chicken", etc. You have to sometimes search on the bag for the flavor because the huge lettering/label takes all the space on the bag. What you could do with either Science Diet or Iams, is interchange the flavors each time you buy them. OR, you could feed the salmon dry, and supplement with chicken canned, or vice versa, you get the idea.

What are you currently feeding, in both the dry and canned forms?

For my cats, and it seems to work for the most part, I feed a mixture of Science Diet Sensitive Stomach Adult dry, with Science Diet Adult Indoor dry (or Mature formula, doesn't matter to me or the cats, whichever is available at the time). The Sensitive Stomach formula has a pork and chicken flavor. The Indoor formula has a chicken flavor. Science Diet also makes an Optimal Care formula with salmon and rice flavor. The canned formulas are almost any flavor you want, chicken, turkey, ocean fish, etc.

I realize you're not too hot on Science Diet, so check whichever food manufacturer you want online, to see what flavors they have and whichever flavor Lucy seems to like the most, use that for dry, use another flavor for canned. That is, if you want Lucy to eat more dry than canned, which seems to be the case because she won't eat much canned at a sitting. I'm assuming Chunk will eat nearly anything.

To address the issue with Lucy and Chunk's differences in weight maintenance, try feeding an indoor formula for both, and use a regular adult formula of whatever flavor, as a treat. Or, try a mixture of an indoor formula and an adult formula. When feeding canned, try to stick to one thing, feed it to both cats at the same time, in small amounts, preferably only once a day or every other day. You can also get Lucy in the habit of eating more dry and only offering the canned every other day to start, as an example. This is again assuming you want her eating more dry than canned. This is where the little 3 oz cans are handy because you can split one between the cats.

To "supplement" Lucy's desire to need something more during the day, try the Whiska's Temptations treats, they are crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and come in several different flavors. They are only 2 calories or less per treat and they can be fed several treats (check the label for feeding directions). I don't normally feed treats to my cats because they tend to get into the habit of wanting "more" or more often, but I don't think there is harm in feeding them occasionally.

Whatever choice you make, and whatever foods you try, especially if mixing, I would definitely run it by your vet first because both cats need to maintain their weight. If you choose an indoor formula, they are designed for less-active cats, but they are also formulated for complete nutrition for the particular life stage of the cat(s). Ask your vet for recommendations on which types to mix that will benefit both cats. The way I feed the indoor formula with the regular sensitive stomach formula mixed, seems to work for my cats. (I use the sensitive stomach formula because I have a couple who tend to vomit if fed regular Science Diet, it seems to keep their GI tracts on track). They all love the taste of the indoor formula for some reason.

[Tina B and crew]

No, Lucy isn't spoiled at all


FWIW Lucy is not a fan of SD either. Seriously, she won't eat it.

In all seriousness though, I have tried transitioning her to just dry food, she won't eat it quick enough and Chunk scarfs it down. I usually give her a week on a particular food before I give up on it. I figure if she doesn't eat it well after a week not much is going to change, but I can try for a longer period of time if you think it will help her adjust.

At one time they were doing great, when I was feeding them Merrick's Before Grain. Just as you know I am not a fan of SD, I know you are not a fan of "alternative" brands, but they were doing really well on it - both of them. Chunk would eat the dry, Lucy would eat the canned. It was a very happy medium! One of the reasons we tried it was because of Chunk's digestion problems, it cleared up when we put him on BG. Then I had a problem with getting the BG (Petco sells it but they are not located convenient to us) because the closest store that sells it kept having expired food on the shelf. So we tried Iams, which she seemed to eat OK for a while. Then she quite eating the Iams and we switched to the Authority Brand (which I believe is only sold at Petsmart?) - I think it was a chicken flavor and a lamb flavor, and that went well for a long time but they quit carrying the flavors we used and now all but one contain fish. And they don't always have it in stock either. Chunk has really put on the weight on since switching to this one. I wasn't completely happy feeding this to them but it was affordable without going ultra cheap and hubby works next to Petsmart so it was easy for him to pick it up after work if we needed it.


I'm going to try the Before Grain again and see if she will eat it. It's pricey so I hate to waste it. Chunk seems to do better on a food with little or no corn in the ingredient list, although he as done OK on the Authority other than the weight gain. It would be easier if I could get Lucy to eat dry...just can't figure out how to keep Chunk from eating her portion. She's always been a grazer since the day we brought her home. She would do well as a free feeder, Chunk needs portion control.

As far as treats go, I've tried that...Lucy won't touch them. She will sniff them and look at me like "what do I do with this?!" and then Chunk comes and eats it. Go figure.

So if it is OK to feed a food with fish in it on occasion I may try that since she seems to like variety and see how she does. I just don't want to feed it on a regular basis.

[Tina B and crew]

Oh...another thing...the weather is hotter and I notice that the cats aren't eating as much, so maybe that is part of the issue since I've been noticing more food left in Lucy's bowl. Even Chunk isn't eating it as much the last few days.

[Traci]

Well, I understand the free-feeding and grazing part, but perhaps it's time to schedule feed, and make sure both cats eat at the same time, so you can take away what isn't eaten, and so you can more easily monitor what Chunk is eating.

People automatically assume their cats are going to starve if you initiate scheduled feeding. The reason behind scheduled feeding in this case is to get Lucy used to the fact that if she's hungry and wants fed, she's going to have to learn how to eat a normal amount at each sitting. It shouldn't harm her to go to scheduled feeding. Just watch her closely, keep a log of day one through day whatever and write down exact amounts she's eating, and at what times. If after several days and she still isn't eating enough, talk to your vet about this. Maybe you could take her into another room and feed her additional canned food once or twice a day, where Chunk doesn't know about, nor have access to it.

Part of the problem may be because you have offered her canned instead of waiting for her to eat her dry, so she may be expecting the canned more often. Scheduled feeding helps both cats focus their attentions on their own meals from their own dishes etc. Then you can put away what isn't eaten until the next scheduled feeding, to prevent Chunk from overeating.

Some online pet stores now ship to home, so you could try to search around. I normally don't recommend this option because you don't know what their shipping practices are, temperature control, risk of sitting around the UPS or FedEx hub over weekends/holidays etc.

Another option is if you have a smaller pet store (specialty) that you can ask to special order for you. And I believe Walmart carries Iams but don't know if you have a Walmart near you. Check your local options first, if you can special order, that might be a better option than having it shipped to your door.

As for Petsmart, they may have an option at their online store, to "ship to store", which means you choose your product and have them ship to your local store, the local store informs you when they have it in so you can pick it up. I don't use Petsmart online for anything, except an occasional toy or bed, but I do see where they often do change their inventory. Going to our local Petsmart is often a waste of time, especially during sales, since the food we need is always gone, not restocked. But, that's because I use Science Diet, your favorite brands might be different.

As for Merrick, I wouldn't trust them as far as I could shake a stick at, too many recalled food/treats for my comfort zone. But, as with anything, no manufacturer is without risk for a recall, particularly when they are "re-sourcing" ingredients and have no control of the other company's quality control issues.

[Tina B and crew]

Thanks Traci...I did put less food in the bowl this morning and last night. Lucy still didn't eat it all but she ate. Today I'm going to go get some smaller cans of food and try that for a while in conjunction with some dry. Hopefully I can get her to do better about eating more at one sitting. I also may try feeding her in a separate spot and see how that works. For the record, I'm not worried about them starving at all, but more so about Chunk eating more than his portion and gaining weight, which he has. I was already doing portion control - they got a prescribed amount at set feeding times (give or take depending on my schedule), and sometimes it was all eaten within an hour, sometimes it took several hours - but mroe often than not it was Chunk that I saw at the bowls eating, not Lucy. I'm hoping to get it to where it is gone relatively quickly. Lucy already knows if she doesn't eat what I put down she doesn't get more and has to wait until her next feeding time.

I appreciate your opinion on Merrick, but I wasn't really soliciting an opinion on my food choices.
I did my research and they have no recalls on cat food that I could find - mostly dog treats. In fact, Hills/SD had more cat food recalls than Merrick. Does this mean they are totally upstanding and trustworthy in the choice of their food sources? Absolutely not. I do not think there is a pet food company out there that has no recalls. Every time I see another one I get discouraged. I don't fully trust ANY company that makes pet food. In fact, I don't trust many of the companies that make human food. They are putting all sorts of crap in our food so why should pet food companies be any different? I just do my best to keep up with alerts on recalls. I'm pretty fed up with our entire food system right now, but that is an entirely separate thread!

[k9Karen]

I can't offer the expertise or experience that Traci can and my only experience is with dogs, not cats (and a very finicky kid). I do know that they are likely to eat if they are hungry. If they don't eat it, pull it, and don't put it back until the scheduled time. They will adapt to the change. I know Leah (my first sheltie) would "go on strike" and refuse to eat dog food. I had been trying to encourage her to eat by adding canned chicken or cooked ground beef. I figured out her game and decided she'd eat it when she was hungry. I was right, and she ate what was in her bowl, no more than 2 days after "striking". I will admit that when she was very old, I no longer played this game with her. I gave her whatever she'd eat. She made it to 15, but her last year wasn't very good. I fed her out of my hand on several occasions, but with young animals, you need to establish a schedule and, I promise, they will adapt.

[Tina B and crew]

Day number two...she's still not eating a whole lot within an hour or two of putting food down. I took it up yesterday morning, last night, and am getting ready to take it up this morning. She ate maybe a 1/4 of what was in there this morning...so 1/8 of a 5.5oz can - that isn't very much. I did see her finishing off the food in Chunk's bowl though, the dry food - but there couldn't have been more than 10 pieces left after he was finished. While I am not worried about her starving, I do not want her to go a week eating only a few bites at each feeding.

Karen, maybe day 3 will be my lucky day with Lucy!

[Tina B and crew]

OK...so I took up her food this morning after she didn't finish eating it...now she's bugging me like crazy right now. I have told her gently, when it is time I will feed you, until then you can just be patient. Now, I hope when I feed her she will eat. She's so funny following me around, especially when I go into the kitchen. She's giving me this very persistent and pathetic meows.

Although right now she's liking my computer