Hi

I have 2 cats (brothers - aged 1 1/2 years)

When they had their vet check up, she said that one of them is overweight and could do with eating less.

I have a problem in how to deal with this.

I feed them dry food in the morning, which they nibble at all day and then they get wet food and a different dry in the evening.

When I put the wet food down the 'lightest' cat goes straight in and gobbles all his down. The 'heaviest' cat likes to eat slowly and does not finish his - he scrapes his feet all around the bowl and walks off. Along comes the 'lightest' cat and finishes off his wet food.

The 'heaviest' cat is a little lazier and does not run around quite as energetically as his brother. He likes to sleep more and is less nosey.

I would ideally like to change the 'heaviest' ones diet, but I feel that whatever food I give him his cheeky brother is going to eat it anyway or the 'heaviest' cat wont eat his diet food and will eat out of the other bowl.

Any suggestions on what I could do due to this bowl swapping/sharing issue?

Someone please - anyone advice

Its getting worse - the greedy one is now standing over both bowls on an evening and intimidating the other one.

I have tried moving him off and taking a bowl away and only putting it down when the 'i like to save my food for later cat' comes back - but I only have to turn my back for a second and the greedy one is in there munching away.

The greedy one knows he is doing wrong because he sneeks about and stares at me when he gets near the bowl

Am I better off not putting the wet down at all as it is this what causes the problems - during the day its fine when its just dry on offer.

Any advice ? Anyone had this before?

I just want to be sure I've got this right. The overweight cat seems to be eating less than his brother, and it's his brother who is the greedy one and who is exhibiting the standing over both bowls and intimidating behaviour?

I'm not really fond of giving cats "diet" food. I'd rather feed an overweight cat a quality food, just less of it, although not much less because cats that are overweight should lose weight very, very slowly. Rapid weight loss can lead to health issues in later life.

Anyway, to be honest, it doesn't sound like a huge problem. Since the overweight cat isn't the one doing the intimidating and stealing his brother's food, you don't have the problem of the overweight cat getting fatter and fatter because he steals food.

My guess would be that the overweight cat is enjoying grazing on the dry food all day (and night if you leave it down) which is what has led to him being overweight. The lighter cat probably doesn't like the dry as much, which is why he's trying to make sure he gets all the wet food.

In this situation, I'd stop the dry food altogether, and just give them wet. It's healthier for them, the lighter cat obviously prefers it, and it will stop the overweight cat grazing on fattening food all day. You'll have to stand over them while they're eating to make sure they both get their fair share, but that isn't too big a deal, I wouldn't have thought.

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Proud Mummy to:

Sam (born June 1999, found August 1999)
Milly (born May 1999, adopted September 1999)
Eva (born 2010, adopted us August 2011)

The heavy one may eat less wet, but is obviously filling up on dry... Treacle is prone to this, too and may become heavy as he gets older if I don't watch out!!

Which dry food is it? It may be high in fat. I would suggest changing it to one marked as Light, and encouraging them with other types of wet.

There's not much you can do if the one who prefers wet finishes up the wet, as that's what Jumpy does too, but by changing the food and introducing some interesting new ones, it might help.

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RIP Charcoal my shy girl 1987-2000, Patch the wanderer 1987-?, Tabby my darling fluffball 1988-2002 & Panda the rascal 1988-2008

Thank you

Lulubel - yes you got it right

I think you and Treaclesmum both hit the nail on the head with the fat cat grazing all day and night on dry which has fattened him up - I had not thought of this

I shall put your ideas into practice and see how it goes

Thanks for your help

Just to clarify, dry food really isn't any fattier than wet food but it tends to contain considerably more carbs than wet food, which is what tends to pile on the pounds with cats. This is even truer for "diet" food.

I would go with Lulubel's advice: ditch the dry for both and put them both on some good quality wet food with set feeding times (no more free-feeding). That gives you the chance the supervise their feeding and make sure that each eat their fair share.

Good luck!