They have put him on prescrip food. We've always had dry food (the good stuff) out for the 2 cats to snack on whenever they want. So today vet says only this scrip wet food. It's really expensive, and my 2nd cat doesn't need it. So tonight I took all the dry food up and fed my 1st cat (the dominant one) his scrip food. Then I put him in a room and closed the door and put wet food out for my other cat, a total paranoid. She's been used to sorta sneaking to the dry food during the day to feed, and now she doesn't know what to do. When I tried to give her *her* dinner tonight, with the other cat locked up (bcuz he'll push her out of the way to get to it), she just bolted. How do I feed her where and when she's comfortable? We don't really have the option of keeping them separated during the day. Anyone faced this before? How do I solve this?
And no "get rid of one cat" or "I don't know" answers - I need real world solutions here.
Answers:
I have a similar problem. My middle aged cat just had surgery for a stone in her bladder. The vet gave me special "wet" food for her to eat. My other two cats eat dry food. So what I have done is I went to my vet and got the dry food formula of the wet food. It took about a week to get the other two cats to eat it, and if the other cat does eat it, it won't hurt her because it is basically the same formulation.
For a real answer here I would need to know what precription food has been prescribed and what "good" dry food you have been using. It's entirely possible that both your cats could eat the same food.
The female cat will get used to having "meals" and not free-feeding all the time. This will actually be better for her than eating all day and/or night long. It won't be easy and she may be upset till she gets used to the new feeding schedule.
Try feeding them side by side and stand there to make sure they only feed from their own plates. Maybe if beta kitty can keep an eye on alpha kitty and know where he is he will relax and eat. Try it for a few days- he may resist at first, but he is going to get hungry. Make sure he doesn't go for very long without eating though. Just an idea.
I bet that right now beta kitty feels like he is going to get run over by alpha kitty at any moment, not being able to understand that he is locked in a room. Seeing him with his own plate of food will take away that threat.
I had to do this once with my cats and I changed the two cats that didn't have to eat the special food dinner time. The one that needed to eat the special food was traumatized enough about having to change so I made sure to spend extra time with her and worked with her by feeding her by hand for a couple of days in the same spot she was used to eating and the other two received "extra" treats for eating in another place. I fed the other two earlier so they weren't hungry when it was time for the other to eat.
Good Luck!
I would confine the skittish one so he/she knows there is no threat and hopefully will feel safe enough to eat. I had a really special cat that had the same problem. Kept him on Hills Science Diet dry, and never had a problem again. Hope all goes well! :)
Depending on what the problem is depends on if there may be a more workable solution to the food problem.There is more then one company that makes prescription foods. I am a tech and we deal with many cats with urinary issues. Some do well on an all wet diet (all cats even those with no medical issues should eat at least some wet food daily anyway. It is healthier for them), some do better on a dry diet and others do better on a combination. A diet food is worthless if the cats won't eat it. I personally have a cat that is prone to stones..he refuses to eat Science Diet CD or SO wet or dry (don't blame him since i hate SD foods anyway) but he does like Purina UR and will eat that. He isn't much of a wet food eater but will eat some. He only likes the Chicken Soup canned food so he gets that in the am and has his dry in the am %26 pm. I have 5 other cats who don't need a special diet so the get CS dry %26 wet. I almost kept him on the CS because he did real well on it and didn't have issues while on it.If I hadn't found the UR to his liking I would have. CS is a high quality food.
Good luck in finding a food that is a quality food and within your budget that will suit all your cats needs.
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