On Thu, 07 Jul 2016 17:01:08 -0400, dgk wrote:

Before yesterday, I just put out wet food in two bowls in the
bathroom, and had two bowls of dry food out all the time. The four
cats came by at different times, ate, left, came back, ate, etc. That
pretty much worked, particularly for feral Baby who slinks by late at
night or whenever no one is watching.

But Marlo is fat, and requires a senior, easy on the kidney diiet.
Hills wet ID stuff. No dry stuff for at least two weeks because of her
just completed ($1600) dental work.

Nipsy wants to eat at 5 am and starts whining so I've always just
staggered into the bathroom, dropped some wet food into the bowls, and
went back to bed. I can't do that now. So he whines until 7 when I
finally get up, put out 1/4 can of Marlo food, and two bowls of
regular wet. Then I sit there until the other cats walk away from
their food, and wrap it up and put it in the fridge. Luckily Marlo
likes her Marlo food so I'm pretty sure that she'll finish it.

The other cats are starting to understand that things have changed. I
wait until I notice that Baby is in her hiding spot under the bed and
put some food there for her. I leave it for 10 minutes and then take
it away. I give Scooter and Nipsy treats or other food when I can.

Not as easy on me, but we do seem to be adapting to the new eating
situation. I just can never go away I guess because no cat sitter
could do this. It takes an hour to get them all fed. Ugh.

Sheesh. I admire your dedication! I'm fortunate that my two girls
require no special diets. I use to have separate bowls for them but I
eventually tired of that and changed to a single bowl. That has worked
out quite well.

One surprise with this change was Lucy, my tabby. She won't go near
the bowl if Annie is feeding, and will even back away from the bowl if
Annie approaches it. Annie is about 14 y/o, small and demure. Doesn't
like confrontations of any sort. Lucy is 6 y/o tabby and a very large
cat, with the exact opposite personality. Lucy *loves* to ambush and
torment Annie. Actually, she'll ambush humans too sometimes So it's
something of a paradox why Lucy will always back away from the food if
Annie shows any interest in it. Strange dynamics there.