Hi, i brought home 2 rescue cats last week which have since resided under the sideboard. they are 8 month(ish) old brothers Frankie and Paddy. Frankie is slightly less timid than Paddy and has started sitting on a chair at the dining table. The trouble i am having is that when i try and feed them Frankie will eat both bowls of food. I dont know when the last time Paddy ate.

i now only put out one bowl which Frankie will eat. i dont know how to feed Paddy. Frankie will occasionally wander out of the dining room and i have shut him out and placed food in front of Paddy's hiding place (and then left the room) but after 20 mins he had not eaten anything. i had to go to work so i had to let frankie back in, who then went and hid. i keep reading advice forums which say leave the cats to hide until they are ready etc, but when there is two what do you do?

i tried to seperate them again but it means poking them out of their hidy hole, and 'chasing' them until one leaves the room. it makes me distressed and obviously the cats are too.

Help!

Helen

Can't you just leave dry food out for them all the time until the timid cat emerges? I can't see that chasing the cats at this stage is going to be anything other than counter-productive.

Liz

Chasing probably wasnt the right word, more like herding them. They scatter when you get close.

The problem is that the one cat eats the others food. And i'm worried about one not getting anything once his brother eats it all.

If it were me, I would put down a large quantity of dry food and just leave it. There is no way the other cat will eat all of it!

Liz

Thats what i would do too but in two big bowls

Along with 2 bowls of some tasty wet food too, especially when you know the greedy one has had a big fill on biccys

Put the wet down at night, and place all the bowls away from each other then shut the door and go to bed, i'm sure he will be eating soon xxx