[la di dah]

What do you do if you have two cats that are both pretty stupid and one has short stumpy legs and no muscle tone and wants to make eating the national sport, and the other is long and lean and light and cannot focus long enough to eat a single meal but rather browses (and never gets fat over kibble in the bowl all the time)?

If I shut Gruesome in the bathroom to eat an extra helping, Nimbus goes INSANE under the door trying to get at the food and Grue cries to get out because she'd rather be out playing than eating! Then neither eats and they rattle the door instead.

Grue is stronger than he is, but he is male (desexed) and if he wants food she just tiptoes away and lets him have it. Ever since he was a baby he would toddle up to the foodbowl and just nudge her out of it. She has the brains of an air-plant.

I don't mind Nimbus being a bit stockier than Grue, (he looks more British shorthair and she looks more Siamese-esque - both are moggie-mongrels) but I don't want him to get a lot fatter than he is now because he'd clearly love a chance to be a sphere.

I have cut their number of kibble refills a day (instead of constant kibble on tap) but BOTH got a little bit leaner and only one needed to. Both are okay now and I could leave it be but it might be good to know in the future.

Has anyone managed to "diet" a clever but chubby cat without starving their other stupider cat to death?

[~*Twilight~Zone*...]

I have the exact same problem. For a while I gave fatty-boomba diet cat food and the other normal. Fatty-boomba would have some of the other cats food as well but she wasn't getting as much of the good stuff as before so it did help.

[Soprano-Cat]

I have this problem too, only 3fold.

Mr Cream is a browser.

Miss Brie is a dominant gobbler.

Cookie is a slightly-less-dominant gobbler.

Mr Cream was getting alarmingly thin, Brie was getting Rather Rubinesque and we wanted Cookie to get enough food to grow without turning into a muffin.

the only solution we've found is to feed them all small amounts 4 times a day, and just make sure Mr Cream gets a little more in his bowl.

Brie isn't losing weight, but she's not gaining. Mr Cream isn't shrinking and Cookie seems to be growing, so it's working fine so far.

[~kitteh.hoardere...]

Our problem is that we have 2 cats that were on the streets before the pound, so when you put food out they scoff until they vomit. The only way around this problem is for us to constantly have food available.

Touch wood, as yet none of them are porky, and in fact I found that Syd (who was starting to get a little rotund) and Lexi (who was starting to look pregnant) lost weight when we gave them food available all the time. They just eat when they want it rather than eat ALL of it.

When I give them other treats (like tonight, I was having prawns, so they each were meant to get 1 prawn each) Basil will often steal from the others if they aren't interested. Poor Bert often misses out unless I am there to take it back from Basil. Lexi is the boss though LOL But even since he was 12 weeks Basil wasn't scared of the bigger cats and had no qualms about stealing food from under their nose, literally.

It concerns me about what I would do with them if one of them ended up porky. Lucky Lexi is our "chubbiest" cat and the vet said she was in fantastic shape, so I don't have to worry yet.

LDD what about feeding them both at the same time? So Nimbus gets his 1/4 cup and Grue gets her 1/2 cup, or alternating dry/tinned etc at the same time? IF Nimbus eats too quick for Grue maybe get Nimbus one of the cat Kongs? That way he has to work for his food. I also like the look of the cat-it feeders, it's like a maze and they have to get the food out.

[la di dah]

LDD what about feeding them both at the same time? So Nimbus gets his 1/4 cup and Grue gets her 1/2 cup, or alternating dry/tinned etc at the same time? IF Nimbus eats too quick for Grue maybe get Nimbus one of the cat Kongs? That way he has to work for his food. I also like the look of the cat-it feeders, it's like a maze and they have to get the food out.

I might try that. The problem with feeding them at the same time is Nimbus sits his butt down and eats with actual dedication and Grue takes three bites and runs off to play a game or investigate something and expects an even share of food when she comes back.

So far I've found it has to be something really great (like boiled chicken) for Grue to actually determinedly eat it. So I might start cooking for them again, and giving him a bit of chicken and her a bigger piece. It's just she's such an idiot that she goes from not caring at ALL about kibble to sitting there growling and carrying on about chicken and even Nimbus just looks puzzled about what she's so mad about.

[~Karla~]

We had a similar problem before our Fat Cat died. We had Jinx on diet food, Shadow on regular food and little miss Millie on her special hypoallergenic food. Our rule was Jinx was only allowed to eat if another cat was also wanting to eat but the other two could eat whenever they wanted. It wasn't ideal and Jinx was still a bit overweight, but it worked well enough.

[LK1]

We have this too. A rescue that is lean and long and a rescue that has short stubby legs and a massive body, who will gorge and then vomit.