Old cat, new kitten both eating each other's food!!!Help!?

Question

I have a five year old female (spayed) cat. 2 weeks ago got a 6-8 wk old male kitten. I went thru the slow 'intro' etc and they are not really friends right now but 'civil to some extent. Big will go to small... and small wiill run, small will go to big and big will run. Some times they will paw each other and other times big will smack little one a bit too hard with her paw. My biggest concern is food. I've kept their food apart but they still go to each other's bowls to eat!! No matter how many times i take them back to their own food bowls, they still eat each other's food. Since kitten food is too rich for big one and cat food is not nutritious enough for small one,, i am worried that big will get fatter and small will get thinner! Has anyone else had this problem? Appreciate your help, thanks.

Answer 1

The best - and easiest - thing you can do is change both of their foods to a good quality canned diet.

A good canned food will provide your kitten with everything it needs, and it will do the same for the adult.

Kittens don't need anything special, they just need more of it. And by feeding the recommended amount to a kitten, you'll meet those needs.

Plus good canned foods are superior to dry foods in many ways, and one of those ways is that because it's species appropriate it is not going to cause unnecessary weight gain. In fact, that's what you would feed if you need a cat to lose weight.

Answer 2

When they paw each other and chase each other, they are being playful, it is a very good thing. You probably don't realize it, but they have become better friends than you are saying.

As for food, at that point, they can both eat the same food. If you want to somewhat solve that, mix both of their food in a containter and feed it to them that way. I got 3 male kittens last night (all from the same litter) and the adoption agency recommended a certain kind of food. I put that food out (which they gave me some of) along with what I already feed my two female cats. They won't touch the adoption agency food but want the other stuff. They are three months old and I will only buy the stuff I have been feeding my cats.

Hope that helps some

Answer 3

We had this problem- our 12 y/o and 3 y/o cats were eating all the kitten food and our kitten wasn't getting any at all.

Try feeding them in separate rooms- feed the kitten in a room you can close off if need be. Once the kitten has eaten his fill take away the kitten food and feed the adult cat.

If you have a bowl the adult always eats out of, and the food is always around, don't worry about feeding her at a different time. She'll eat her food, the kitten will get a bit of both, probably, but as long as it's still getting the kitten food and putting on weight I don't really see a problem with it eating the adult food.

Almost every cat/kitten period in my house has beeen like this, and a little adult food never hurt the kittens.

Running after each other and pawing is playful. If it's aggressive they would be rolling and hissing at one aother and there would most likely be blood drawn.

Answer 4

You will probably get a lot of replies telling you to feed them in different rooms. In my experience, that does NOT always work! When I got my Maine Coon as a kitten, I started feeding her in the bedroom, as I knew the big cats would want her food. Well, in the beginning it worked fine, but then the older cats realised that they could sneak in and eat the baby's food. I eventually used to close the bedroom door, but that started its own set of problems, so I gave up, and just watched to see that the adults did not eat her food. However, things finally got out of control, because once the baby started eating adult food, she refused to eat anywhere but in my bedroom! The other adults discovered the food there, and now they all insist on eating the dry food in my bedroom! The only solution to your problem, as I see it, is just to feed them in different areas ( In the same room, since you obviously don't want the same problems I had!) and stay with them until they have finished eating. As far as the behavior is concerned, don't be too worried about it, they sound quite normal. It really does sound as if they are eventually going to get used to each other and be great friends. Two weeks is not a long time, so just give them time, and Big will soon learn not to smack too hard, and until then, Small will get the message, and take off before she gets whacked to hard.

Answer 5

Hi

'Since kitten food is too rich for big one and cat food is not nutritious enough for small one,, i am worried that big will get fatter '

This is just nothing to worry about. There is no such thing as kitten food, adult food ect. Kitten foods usually has more protein which is fine for an adult.
I hope though, that you are feeding both canned foods
Hi
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard, dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. The problems with it are that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Most of the moisture a cat needs is gotten
out of the food and 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Also, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods.Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Please read about cat nutrition.
http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics.html

Answer 6

I've got this problem too, i've just introduced a kitten to two older ones, I bought lots of kitten food and I was feeding them in different rooms and he'd just creep out and eat the big cat food! I've given up now, and put the bowls together he seems to eat more out of his bowl now. I figure as long as they're both eating and not killing each other it's an improvement! The kitten chases the big cat all the time, the big cat tries to hide or meowes twice which sounds like meep meep, which I think means "go away annoying little cat"!

Answer 7

Kitten Food Bowls

Answer 8

Don't worry - the difference in foods is very little. Kitten food is formulated to give the cat nutrition that it would get from it's mothers milk, but you have to realize, cats in the wild do not nurse for long. They start hunting almost as soon as they can see. If they are eating each other's food and it bothers you, feed them in seperate rooms (close the door so they can't get out and over to the other cat's bowl) then take up the food when they are finished. A common mistake people make is keeping the cat food bowl full so the cat can "snack" - this causes more feline obesity than anything.

As for the playing - cats play rough. I have a Tuxedo kitty and a registered full blooded Highland Lynx that I got at seperate times. At first my tuxedo kitty was jealous, and they growled and hissed for a day, but now they sleep on each other, play together, and sometimes play rough - I find tufts of hair on the floor occassionally, but they work it out. So will yours!

Answer 9

In addition to the first answer, you may want to have designated feeding times for a little while, until they get used to sticking to their own food.

Put food dishes out for them to eat in separate rooms, leave them out for an hour or however long it takes for both of them to eat, then put the dishes away when the cats are done eating. If they get hungry again before the next feeding time, they'll let you know and you can put the food back out again.

Answer 10

Yes, I have had this problem - you are just going to have to let them share - yes the older cat will gain some weight - but the little will get all she needs - and then a later, when they are on the same food, the older cat will lose a few pounds. Maybe chasing the little one around will burn more calories.

Good luck!