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My kitten Brock is fed Wellness Kitten Health. The other two cats who belong to my brother and mom's boyfriend eat Friskies. We each have our own individual pets, and Brock is lucky to be mine.
But I have been having problems with Brock's feeding. Smokey and Goober(the other two cats, plus outside cat Fluffy) are free-fed a feeder bowl full of food that lasts about two weeks till you have to fill it up. Well, they eat Purina's Friskies, which I am against.
Brock has been eating out of the main kitchen bowl, and it is really peeving me off. I am trying to feed him 3 times a day at set meal times, but I usually fail because he keeps eating the Friskies.
Today, however, I have managed to give him 7 small meals throughout the day without him touching the kitchen bowl. He WILL NOT eat a large meal in one sitting, but take a small portion and come back later. But there is no 'later' with my meal times. You eat, you're done. If I pick the food up and he has only eaten a few bits, he will go and eat from the kitchen bowl(I leave his food down for 15 minutes).
I have tried to convince my mother to only put the kitchen bowl out three times a day for 20 minutes, but she will not agree.
So should I keep giving him 7 small meals, plus a snack(I have Greenies which he loves) here or there? I give him 5 dry meals and 2 wet meals.
He doesn't like them mixed for some reason.
It's tough feeding one cat a different diet when others in the same household are free-fed something else!
When I first came to live here, the mom was feeding my foster bro & sis a diet for senior cats (they were about 12 years old), but I was still growing (5 months) so the mom wanted me to eat kitten food. She would take me into the bedroom a couple of times a day and give me my kitten food. Luckily, I loved it and eat a lot of the kitten food she gave me. The rest of the time, I could pick at the senior formula food in the kitchen if I needed a snack.
The trouble is, a lot of the "supermarket brand" foods have a lot of extra fat and flavoring sprayed onto the kibbles which makes them seem extra-yummy, while the premium foods can seem rather bland by comparison. So it's easy to understand why you might develop a preference for Friskies over Wellness.
I'm not sure what to suggest.
Do you like wet food? Maybe if your human gives you Wellness wet food a couple times a day, you won't feel as tempted to indulge in the Friskies kibbles? Just a thought.
Another idea--do you think the brother and mom's bf would agree to mix the dry foods together, so no matter which bowl Brock goes to would have at least some of the Wellness Kitten?
If it's any consolation, when the mom adopted my foster bro and sis, she was a poor college student and Friskies was about the best she could afford. They ate that for a few years until she was able to afford anything better. They did fine then and are still going strong now, in their mid-teens.
He does like wet food. But he does not like seafood varieties or flavors. I know, he is pretty weird for not wanting some sushi! Fish, he really doesn't have a problem with. But it has to be salmon. MOL. He doesn't like crab, lobster, or any other fish.
He tends to like his dogfursis Firefly's wet food better than his own. Especially the duck and venison. Yum. I bought him some Turkey wet food and he loves it. But Smokey tends to muscle in on it and I have to shoo him away.
I could try to mix some in. But I would rather him just not eat Friskies. I know, can't have your cake and eat it too, but I just feel like a hypocrite letting him eat Purina.
I have faired well so far. He tried to eat Firefly's food, but I gave him some wet and dry food mixed and he actually ate it. I am proud.
I'll mix a cup of wellness with the friskies, and give him canned meals about 4 times a day, with one dry meal.
I'll see if I can get him down to just 3 wet/dry mixed meals.
The only thing you can do is move out, lol! Really though try feeding wet food, that way kitty will be full and not want to eat the friskies maybe. Also you can try and educate your mom on cat nutrition. Please get her to read this link.
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Shadow, Brock's mommy is only 13 so moving out won't be possible for a few years! I see her on dogster all the time. And her mom won't budge on the nutrition thing!! I have this same problem with my cats because they are living with someone else right now until I am able to move everyone into one house. They free feed purina or whatever is on sale and their cats show it. At first (I only had Rasha then) he would eat out of their food bowls and there really was nothing I could do. I would come there to feed him and he either wouldn't eat OR he would throw up the purina all over the place. After all that I decided to just keep Rasha in one room and out of everyones way..... that way he could ONLY eat the food I gave him. We adopted Cheetah to give him company and it has worked out really well. I put them both in my bf's room and they love it in there.... then they only get their Instinct and EVO cans and none of that other crap. This might not be an option for you, but I know how frutrating it is to have crappy food in the same house as your pets. They just can't resist the temptation!! The only thing I really worry about is the food being contaminated..... it can happed to any food of course, but the lower end foods are always more risky. That's why I HAD to find a solution and also because Rasha kept throwing it all up.
In meowmy's experience, kittens will eat after play has made them hungry. So what you want to do is play with him before you feed him, and then put him in his own room with the food for more than 20 minutes.
When meowmy only had me, she tried the 20 minute thing. It never worked because I don't really eat much in one sitting, like my younger sister does. I graze and graze, and so I'd always beg for food when it was not out. Eventually she decided to measure the food out and make it available in an automatic feeder. I know it's not an option for you, but leaving out his bowl for 20 minutes is not a bad thing if he's still a kitten. Kittens have such a short attention span that they move on to something else before they're full. By leaving him in a room his own to eat after vigourous play, you can try and get him to focus on eating. If he still grazes, leave some active toys in the room with him, and his bowl, and check on him after a while.
Thanks so much for the advice.
I have been playing with him alot. And I am almost out of canned food.
But I have enough to keep him satiated so he won't eat the Friskies. Right now we are out of the Friskies, so my mom is going to go to the store soon. Thank goodness, I can use this no-food period to accustom Brock to his new eating plan:
BROCK'S FEEDING REGIME:
Morning: 2 tbs. of Wellness Turkey with 1 tsp. of kibble mixed in.
After morning playtime: 2 tbs. of Wellness Turkey
Evening: Same as morning^
After evening play: Same as after morning.
Night: Same as morning/evening
Night snack: Two greenies and 1 tbs. of Wellness Turkey
Most cats are nibblers, which is why the "free feed" method works so well with us. We're not like dogs, who will usually eat everything in the bowl. Not to say that some kitties don't eat huge helpings at one time, but it's not the norm. We like to visit our food bowls several times a day, eat just a bit, and then go back to what we were doing. Most of us will not clean the plate, but will leave something to come back to later.
By taking his wet food up when the feeding time is done, unfortunately, I think you are encouraging him to eat the other food when he feels like nibbling. With nothing else to nibble, he eats what is there, which is unfortunately, the food that is not so good for him. That's why when you fed him seven smaller portions throughout the day, he didn't eat the other food. But you can't sit in the house all day feeding your kitty the smaller portions. It's Summer and you need to go out and play. My Mommy knows you have a life to live, even if I don't think Mommy should be doing anything else that doesn't involve me!!!!!!
My advice would be to leave his wet food out where he can get it (especially if there is a place he goes but the other kitties do not). I would also investigate a dry food you can leave for him in the same place so that if he feels like nibbling, he's got a healthier kibble to choose from.
All that said, I don't know how your house is set up or if he has his own space. So, I would feed him his normal three meals, watch him eat so that no other kitty gets his food, and then put his leftovers where he can get them. And then maybe a dry form of the same food somewhere for him to choose instead of the Friskies. I don't know how to keep the other kitties from eating the good food, but it will definitely encourage your kitty to stick with his own food while following his normal feline "nibbling" behavior.
Buddy says hello!! He's tired from a long day of running and playing .... and he's laying right next to us dreaming and twitching away in doggie dreams!!
I think your plan sounds great and that you put a lot of thought into it. But what happens when school starts again? Believe me, I know how frustrating it is!
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And her mom won't budge on the nutrition thing!! I have this same problem with my cats because they are living with someone else right now until I am able to move everyone into one house. They free feed purina or whatever is on sale and their cats show it. At first (I only had Rasha then) he would eat out of their food bowls and there really was nothing I could do. I would come there to feed him and he either wouldn't eat OR he would throw up the purina all over the place. After all that I decided to just keep Rasha in one room and out of everyones way..... that way he could ONLY eat the food I gave him. We adopted Cheetah to give him company and it has worked out really well. I put them both in my bf's room and they love it in there.... then they only get their Instinct and EVO cans and none of that other crap. This might not be an option for you, but I know how frutrating it is to have crappy food in the same house as your pets. They just can't resist the temptation!! The only thing I really worry about is the food being contaminated..... it can happed to any food of course, but the lower end foods are always more risky. That's why I HAD to find a solution and also because Rasha kept throwing it all up.
He's tired from a long day of running and playing .... and he's laying right next to us dreaming and twitching away in doggie dreams!! 