My kitten needs to diet, but his brother needs to eat

[TillyTaylor]

I have got 10 month old kittens. One is the perfect weight, but one is quite porky. The
vet has said he needs to go on a diet. It’s so difficult as I feel the slim brother who is more of a snacker needs access to dry food, but how do I restrict his brother from eating? Has anyone successfully managed this type of situation?

We had to feed them in separate rooms, there was no other way to stop Mr Greedy guts from eating everyone else’s food, including the dog’s. The dog bowl was too high for him to reach as a tiny kitten, but he’d have a good go!

You could use a microchip activated feeder to stop them stealing each others' food - but they're quite expensive and you'd need two of them.

Personally I'd just stop free feeding and give them both separate portions in separate rooms. We have three cats and split them up at meals when necessary - it's never been a problem.

Our vets actually advised against any kind of free feeding as it's not what's natural for them and it can cause obesity and other health issues.

I feed them wet food twice a day and keep dry food available (purina for kittens). If I only had my little fatty, I would be able to control it more, but I feel like my little snacker needs dry food available throughout the day as he eats little and often. I might try to take the dry food away at night so if this helps first and then speak to the vet.

microchip feeder, although if he's very greedy he may still stand next to her whilst she's eating and it's open and wolf some down

Honestly, they don't need food down all the time - I always thought mine were snackers but that's only because I gave them the opportunity to be.

They now get four meals a day (two dry, two wet) and are absolutely fine.

Cats learn quickly that if there's no free access to dry food 24/7 they eat when it's put down. Try smaller portions of dry food spaced evenly between your wet food meal times and in separate rooms.

More activity action? Never known an overweight dkitten....
But maybe with a picture we can assess properly op??

If your cats are microchipped they just put the dry food in a microchip feeder as said

Surely the greedy kitten can just push the other one away once the microchip feeder opens?!

Your “little snacker” does not need to be a snacker and I can’t see how you’re going to solve this problem if food is always left out for him.

They can, but it quickly closes once the rightful owner isn't in range - much to the chagrin of the intruder 😹

I refuse to reply until I see a picture of the fat, gorgeous kitten. Please. 😻

I didn’t know they did that! That is a good solution.

I had to get microchip feeders for mine, because I have a wolfer and a grazer. I was sceptical, but they’ve worked like a charm. Absolute game changer.

Apologies lack of photo of fat kitten. I have never posted a photo and I am worried about uploading all my family photos to MN by accident 😅 I did try to take a photo of his belly, but he is very fluffy so carried his weight well. Thanks for all your suggestions which I will try out!

They are indoors at the moment as was advised by the rescue to keep them indoors until spring. Maybe some exercise will also do him good!

Same problem here. No longer kittens but one is a big overeater and one is a light grazer. One very hefty and one slinky.
I'm going to check out the microchip feeder.

We have adult cats in this situation (actually one is borderline underweight) and one of the best / funniest/ cheapest ideas we read was to get a sturdy box, cut a hole just large enough for the underweight cat to slip through and put their food in it!
guess it wouldn’t work for kittens if they are still growing!
what stabilised the issue for us was the good luck of finding a good food (Katkin) which skinny cat really likes and porky cat isn’t so fussed about. Skinny cat stays just the right side of underweight and big cat is slowly dropping weight. They are 16/17 years old so the vet isn’t overly concerned about the porky one.

My in laws got a large box and cut a hole in it that only the thin cat could fit through. Food goes inside box. It worked and the thin cat got back to a healthy weight.

Sadly the thin cat died years before the fat one, I'm not sure why it took them so long to realise it wasn't getting enough to eat.

I had the same issue with the last pair or cats. The fattie lived longer than the slim cat in the end. About 5 years longer. We were surprised as we always thought the fatty would go first.

We have a microchip feeder for our thin cat, and it works really well, means his food doesn't get eaten by his greedy brother.

When my two oldies were young, my boy got quite portly every winter but lost all the weight come springtime. They were put on a diet and he became very food protective (and my girl learned how to open cupboards and steal sachets).

In the meantime, I’d also recommend a microchip cat feeder, and you only really need one.