My kitten is fat...

[ChatterMonkey]

We have two kittens, had them a few weeks now and they have settled in amazingly and now rule the house...!

Issue we have is that the boy kitten, peanut, is a gannet and steals all of the girl kitten, pistachio's food. And he is now getting fat, as confirmed by vet. At around 13 weeks old hes nearly 2.5kg so well above the expected weight.

Pistachio is more of a grazer eater and think would enjoy having dry food available all day to pick at. However as soon as any good goes down, in either of their dishes, peanut eats it all...! Its not causing arguments with them, she doesnt seem overly bothered when he's eating from her dish, but the weight difference between them is getting really noticeable so worried she isn't eating enough.

How do we stop him eating her food? We have limited space for feeding etc, the food dishes are in the same room as the litter tray so i dont want to restrict the access to rhe room.

Other than standing over the dishes and moving him whenever he goes to hers, what can we do to stop this?? They have their own dishes and known which is which, i dont put the food dishes down until they are waiting at the right spots, so they know whos is who's. Hes just greedy and wants hers when his is empty 🤣

It’s worse for the kittens, they’ve got humans, often multiple humans to get trained up.

Thought i would give an update on fat kitten..!

Slow feeder bowl works really well, although he is starting to figure out he can eat faster if he picks the bits out of the dish, drop them on the floor and eat from there....!

But keeps his speed in line with his sister, and because the dish is wider, i think he thinks hes getting more than his sister so is happy to use the dish 🤣

I still have to supervise their mealtimes though, as although he know now he's not allowed to eat his sisters food (and won't try if I'm there), he'll still seize an opportunity if he thinks no one is looking

In terms of quantities, they each get 30g dry food in the morning, half a wet sachet in the afternoon, half a wet sachet at dinnertime, and then 20g dry food at bedtime.

And definitely not grazers, i tried having dry food available at all times, and they would both eat everything as soon as put down. So it appears that although 95% of cats will self regulate, mine are in the minority 🤣

I have never known a self regulating eater, the concept baffles me in comparison to my furry food dustbins. 😂

Completely!! My mum thinks im being cruel and starving my kittens by weighing out food and having mealtimes, she feeds her cats whenever they annoy her for food. But she doesnt understand that mine would eat everything i put down.

The concept of cats turning their nose up at wet food been left out for a while is alien to me, as wet food is never there for longer than 5 mins before its all gone and the bowls licked clean! Tried upping portions and giving them a sachet each, but they wolfed it down in thee same time it took them to eat half a sachet so decided that can't be good for their little tummies.

I've got tubby 12 month old kittens I'm embarrassed to say. I thought it was recommended to do free-feeding, and they were all good up until a month or so ago when I think they must have stopped growing as fast, but kept eating fast-growing-kitten amounts, and suddenly had obvious tummies. We are weighing food now and hopefully they are still growing a little bit and will slowly regulate properly again. But one is rounder than the other one because he's a greedy chonker, and he will forage in dustbins and go hunting to supplement his meals. He brought home fried chicken one night, goodness only knows what else he's eating.

I wish you people would post pictures of your chubby kittens

You would only need one bowl for pistachio - so she can get her food but he can't . We have this situation too. Our little girl is a grazer and will only have two mouthfuls at a time. Her brother stands by her side waiting for her to finish but he can't get in before the lid comes down. It's so funny to watch. But it does work really well. There's no timer involved just the microchip reader. It does take a while to train the cat but there is a very handy guide provided which worker well.

I had the same problem OP and one microchip bowl solved the problem.

Pix? We need to assess every fat paw and fluffy tum. Clinical need, innit.

My new cat Prince has trained me to feed him on demand. Not skinny any more. He feels safe and loved, which counts most.

Heres a recent picture of the little monsters!

And photo of the current situation, Pistachio (left) enjoying her meal at a normal pace, and Peanut (right) already finished and licking his bowl clean 😂

I have a very slender ginger and white boy. And a fat black panther.
Luckily the ginger kitty may be smaller but as he's the older one (7) he's very much the boss in our house so panther (2) doesn't dare steal his food.