Feeder for only one cat (aka the fat cat blues)

So Robin and Heather seem to be settling in well. The only problem is
that Robin is rapidly expanding. If she weren't spayed I'd be
expecting kittens any day now. When we first adopted her she weighed
9.9 lbs. Today she's up to 12.5

I refuse to have a fat cat because of the health concerns. But
Heather is a skinny little thing and none of us are home enough to
make sure she gets to eat. So just picking up the food isn't an
option. I seem to remember that there are feeders out there that only
open for one animal...the pet wears a collar that the feeder responds
to. When the cat moves away the feeder closes. That would be perfect
because it would allow Heather free access to food but help us control
Robin's intake. But I can't remember what they're called and
searching has only shown me the more typical automatic feeders. Does
anyone have any experiance with a controlled feeder or at least know
what it might be called?

in article , Sethran at
wrote on 5/20/04 10:47 PM:

So Robin and Heather seem to be settling in well. The only problem is
that Robin is rapidly expanding. If she weren't spayed I'd be
expecting kittens any day now. When we first adopted her she weighed
9.9 lbs. Today she's up to 12.5

I refuse to have a fat cat because of the health concerns. But
Heather is a skinny little thing and none of us are home enough to
make sure she gets to eat. So just picking up the food isn't an
option. I seem to remember that there are feeders out there that only
open for one animal...the pet wears a collar that the feeder responds
to. When the cat moves away the feeder closes. That would be perfect
because it would allow Heather free access to food but help us control
Robin's intake. But I can't remember what they're called and
searching has only shown me the more typical automatic feeders. Does
anyone have any experiance with a controlled feeder or at least know
what it might be called?

Never saw one. Are you sure it exists? If not, make one and patent it!!

in article , Sethran at
wrote on 5/20/04 10:47 PM:

So Robin and Heather seem to be settling in well. The only problem is
that Robin is rapidly expanding. If she weren't spayed I'd be
expecting kittens any day now. When we first adopted her she weighed
9.9 lbs. Today she's up to 12.5

I refuse to have a fat cat because of the health concerns. But
Heather is a skinny little thing and none of us are home enough to
make sure she gets to eat. So just picking up the food isn't an
option. I seem to remember that there are feeders out there that only
open for one animal...the pet wears a collar that the feeder responds
to. When the cat moves away the feeder closes. That would be perfect
because it would allow Heather free access to food but help us control
Robin's intake. But I can't remember what they're called and
searching has only shown me the more typical automatic feeders. Does
anyone have any experiance with a controlled feeder or at least know
what it might be called?

Never saw one. Are you sure it exists? If not, make one and patent it!!

"Sethran" wrote in message
om...
So Robin and Heather seem to be settling in well. The only problem is
that Robin is rapidly expanding. If she weren't spayed I'd be
expecting kittens any day now. When we first adopted her she weighed
9.9 lbs. Today she's up to 12.5

I refuse to have a fat cat because of the health concerns. But
Heather is a skinny little thing and none of us are home enough to
make sure she gets to eat. So just picking up the food isn't an
option. I seem to remember that there are feeders out there that only
open for one animal...the pet wears a collar that the feeder responds
to. When the cat moves away the feeder closes. That would be perfect
because it would allow Heather free access to food but help us control
Robin's intake. But I can't remember what they're called and
searching has only shown me the more typical automatic feeders. Does
anyone have any experiance with a controlled feeder or at least know
what it might be called?

Are you home morning and evening? If so, you *are* home enough to monitor
your cats' eating habits. You would need to switch to canned food (which is
healthier than dry food) and leave it out only long enough for each cat to
eat. Once they are used to the routine, you could probably remove the food
bowls after 20-30 minutes. This means that you could feed your cats at your
own breakfast time and again at bedtime. I use Wellness and Felidae
canned -- 1/3 can (5.5 oz. cans) for each cat twice a day, spaced 12 hours
apart or as close to that as possible. Fresh water should *always* be
available, of course.

MaryL
(take out the litter to reply)

Photos of Duffy and Holly: 'o'
http://tinyurl.com/8y54 (Introducing Duffy to Holly)
http://tinyurl.com/8y56 (Duffy and Holly "settle in")

"Sethran" wrote in message
om...
So Robin and Heather seem to be settling in well. The only problem is
that Robin is rapidly expanding. If she weren't spayed I'd be
expecting kittens any day now. When we first adopted her she weighed
9.9 lbs. Today she's up to 12.5

I refuse to have a fat cat because of the health concerns. But
Heather is a skinny little thing and none of us are home enough to
make sure she gets to eat. So just picking up the food isn't an
option. I seem to remember that there are feeders out there that only
open for one animal...the pet wears a collar that the feeder responds
to. When the cat moves away the feeder closes. That would be perfect
because it would allow Heather free access to food but help us control
Robin's intake. But I can't remember what they're called and
searching has only shown me the more typical automatic feeders. Does
anyone have any experiance with a controlled feeder or at least know
what it might be called?

Are you home morning and evening? If so, you *are* home enough to monitor
your cats' eating habits. You would need to switch to canned food (which is
healthier than dry food) and leave it out only long enough for each cat to
eat. Once they are used to the routine, you could probably remove the food
bowls after 20-30 minutes. This means that you could feed your cats at your
own breakfast time and again at bedtime. I use Wellness and Felidae
canned -- 1/3 can (5.5 oz. cans) for each cat twice a day, spaced 12 hours
apart or as close to that as possible. Fresh water should *always* be
available, of course.

MaryL
(take out the litter to reply)

Photos of Duffy and Holly: 'o'
http://tinyurl.com/8y54 (Introducing Duffy to Holly)
http://tinyurl.com/8y56 (Duffy and Holly "settle in")

Karen Chuplis wrote in message ...

Never saw one. Are you sure it exists? If not, make one and patent it!!


Um...how is pretty sure for an answer? I could swear they exist...but
I might have just dreamed it. I imagine it works the same way as the
cat doors that only work for cats wearing a special collar.

Sethran

Karen Chuplis wrote in message ...

Never saw one. Are you sure it exists? If not, make one and patent it!!


Um...how is pretty sure for an answer? I could swear they exist...but
I might have just dreamed it. I imagine it works the same way as the
cat doors that only work for cats wearing a special collar.

Sethran

"MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER wrote in message ...
Are you home morning and evening? If so, you *are* home enough to
monitor
your cats' eating habits. You would need to switch to canned food (which is
healthier than dry food) and leave it out only long enough for each cat to
eat. Once they are used to the routine, you could probably remove the food
bowls after 20-30 minutes. This means that you could feed your cats at your
own breakfast time and again at bedtime. I use Wellness and Felidae
canned -- 1/3 can (5.5 oz. cans) for each cat twice a day, spaced 12 hours
apart or as close to that as possible. Fresh water should *always* be
available, of course.

That's very good advice...I really wish I could take it. Between the
three of us someone is usually home every hour of the day. I mean
really our pets are hardly left entirely alone. But after Nic died
the boys started to kind of chaff about having so many animals and
having to care for them. Neither of them are really willing to deal
with Heather and Robin right now and making sure they both get the
food they need. I'm home in the morning and early afternoon and at
work until midnight.

I know that wet food is the best choice all around health wise. When
Nic started to get really sick we started to worry more about just
getting him to eat and stop caring about what he was eating.
Honestly, we neglected Heather during the last few months of Nic's
life. We still did everything she needed but we were too worried
about him to worry about her. So the side effect was that she got
used to eating some really crappy foods and having the foods changed
all the time. She's currently on a diet of mixed crap dry foods
(Friskies, etc...) and wet food twice a day. We're phasing out the
crap food slowly and replacing it with the better brands (Wellness,
etc). I'd love to get her eating only wet food. But Heather is VERY
much a little priss. She'll eat a food one day and never touch it
again. She'll eat one food for a week and once we decide she's doing
well on and buy a bunch more cans...suddenly she acts like we just put
slop in her bowl. She loves wet food...but she doesn't eat more than
one or two bites before walking away. Wet food only would be fine for
Robin...but I don't feel that Heather eats enough of it to keep her
weight at a good level. We're tried taking away the dry food and only
offering wet to see if she'll eat more and it doesn't work. She
actually dropped a pound during that week.

I'm sorry, I'm just ranting at this point. But it feels like this is
just another thing to deal with when there's already too much going
on. Heather was a stray that had severe IBS the first few months of
her life with us. I think that has alot to do with her food problems.
It also doesn't help that we did switch her food so often in our
attempts to coax Nic to eat something. But what's done is done...I'm
just not sure how to fix the situation I've created with her.

Sethran

"MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER wrote in message ...
Are you home morning and evening? If so, you *are* home enough to
monitor
your cats' eating habits. You would need to switch to canned food (which is
healthier than dry food) and leave it out only long enough for each cat to
eat. Once they are used to the routine, you could probably remove the food
bowls after 20-30 minutes. This means that you could feed your cats at your
own breakfast time and again at bedtime. I use Wellness and Felidae
canned -- 1/3 can (5.5 oz. cans) for each cat twice a day, spaced 12 hours
apart or as close to that as possible. Fresh water should *always* be
available, of course.

That's very good advice...I really wish I could take it. Between the
three of us someone is usually home every hour of the day. I mean
really our pets are hardly left entirely alone. But after Nic died
the boys started to kind of chaff about having so many animals and
having to care for them. Neither of them are really willing to deal
with Heather and Robin right now and making sure they both get the
food they need. I'm home in the morning and early afternoon and at
work until midnight.

I know that wet food is the best choice all around health wise. When
Nic started to get really sick we started to worry more about just
getting him to eat and stop caring about what he was eating.
Honestly, we neglected Heather during the last few months of Nic's
life. We still did everything she needed but we were too worried
about him to worry about her. So the side effect was that she got
used to eating some really crappy foods and having the foods changed
all the time. She's currently on a diet of mixed crap dry foods
(Friskies, etc...) and wet food twice a day. We're phasing out the
crap food slowly and replacing it with the better brands (Wellness,
etc). I'd love to get her eating only wet food. But Heather is VERY
much a little priss. She'll eat a food one day and never touch it
again. She'll eat one food for a week and once we decide she's doing
well on and buy a bunch more cans...suddenly she acts like we just put
slop in her bowl. She loves wet food...but she doesn't eat more than
one or two bites before walking away. Wet food only would be fine for
Robin...but I don't feel that Heather eats enough of it to keep her
weight at a good level. We're tried taking away the dry food and only
offering wet to see if she'll eat more and it doesn't work. She
actually dropped a pound during that week.

I'm sorry, I'm just ranting at this point. But it feels like this is
just another thing to deal with when there's already too much going
on. Heather was a stray that had severe IBS the first few months of
her life with us. I think that has alot to do with her food problems.
It also doesn't help that we did switch her food so often in our
attempts to coax Nic to eat something. But what's done is done...I'm
just not sure how to fix the situation I've created with her.

Sethran

snip

I had a similar problem, and was given a solution by a vet. I never tried it,
because of lack of space, but you might want to.

I assume, your larger cat is eating some of the food of the smaller one. Get a
cardboard box and turn it upside down. Put something on the top to weigh it
down.
At the bottom of the box cut a hole (like a mousehole), only wide enough for
your small cat to get inside. When you feed them, put the food for the small
cat in the box. The larger cat will eat his food, and the smaller cat has his
food all to himself. VOILA!