On holiday and worried about my cats!

[cadburyegg]

We just got to Cornwall tonight, we have 2 cats at home. One of them is a 7 month old kitten who isn't allowed out yet. I've got a mixture of neighbours and friends feeding the cats this week and sorting litter trays.

I usually feed them together, which ensures that they both get fed, as kitten often eats big cat's leftovers. They do both have separate food and water bowls. I just realised that there's no guarantee big cat will even be in the house when people come round to feed her so chances are that kitten may get there first.

I'm suddenly stressing that big cat isn't going to get anything to eat! But I feel like it's a bit unreasonable to request that my neighbours wait in the house for big cat to come in before they feed her, she can be gone for hours. I usually lock the cat flap so she stays in at night and have asked neighbours to do this but again, no guarantee that she will be there when they come in the evening.

Please be kind 😭 not sure what to do

Big cat will be fine. They soon learn, and if she wants to eat she will learn to turn up on time. There's nothing you can do, just enjoy your break away. Cats are very resilient.

If big cat is hungry, big cat will be coming in through that cat door as soon as it hears that a human is in the house. The cats will be fine.

It's all going to be fine OP, cats aren't daft, they'll quickly figure out what's going on.

If cats locked in overnight big cat will be fed and eat in the morning. Can a neighbour leave out some cat kibble so big cat can eat that?

Could you get someone to leave kibble outside somewhere ideally sheltered so big cat can eat that undisturbed

Big cat will catch mice and birds if hungry. How do you think feral cats survive?

Is there anywhere the 'feeders' can leave some food that 'kitten' can't get to?

can any of the feeders stay for a few days?

In the short term, get someone to put food outside somewhere for your adult cat.

But in future I would really recommend either paying for professional care, or at the very least, just having one person come in to feed them instead of a bunch of different people.

Multiple strangers coming in and out and feeding them everyday could be quite stressful, and having one person makes it easier to spot any issues with food or the cats themselves.

Hope you're ok OP and able to relax and enjoy your holiday. I feel others are right, big cat will be fine and will make sure to get some food. Honestly I think it will work out ok.

Some posters have given advice for future holidays but for the time being you're going to have to trust in the cat's natural instinct to eat a bit of food when the opportunity is there! I expect there is every chance that the neighbours will keep an eye out to make sure big cat eats at least something.

This....

Enjoy your holiday

Sort of similar happened to us once, but using a pet sitter and one cat of our 2 cats was anxious of her so the other was eating her food. The cat sitter didn’t mention she had hardly seen her until after we got home by which time it was too late to do anything. After that I got a microchip feeder so the greedy cat can’t access her food. (She will sometimes push her out the way and jam it open if she gets a chance but it’s still better overall than not having it.)