How to get cats to eat their food straight away

[Warmautumnbreeze]

I'm by no means a novice cat owner, having had 3 cats over the last 20 years. But all of my cats so far have been grazers, with their food (dry) being out all the time and they nibble through the day. Since my little lady passed away earlier this year at the grand old age of 18, I'm now on the count down to our 2 new kittens coming to join us in about 6 weeks time.

Because we will have 2 cats at the same time, I'm thinking it'll be best if they eat their food as soon as its put down, rather than leaving bowls out that could potentially lead to them eating each other's food or one getting less than the other.

I've seen it happen before where the owner puts down the food and the cats come running, eat and then leave, but with none of my cats ever doing this in the past I'm wondering how do you get your cats to do this? Is it just their preference, or is it something I can encourage some how?

In case relevant, they are indoor British short hairs.

Get a Labrador

Cats don't usually eat their food in one go. They prefer to eat some, and go back to it a few times, later.

Had many cats over the past 45 years

We have two young cats that graze and use the microchip feeders so they can't get to eachother's food. It also keeps it fresher.

No chance of grazing if you have more than one cat! Ours eat theirs immediately in case the other steals it.

Mine are both grazers. OK Tobias was a bit of a greedy guts at first when he came home, but 2 years living stray can do that to a cat.

Now they have kibble down most of the time (slightly restricted due to weight issues!) and are fed twice a day. Takes until mid afternoon before all the breakfast has gone, and when I go to bed at night a couple of hours after supper there's usually half of that left.

DSis had this problem with her current cats, but luckily her & DS4's lifestyles now means they can get their food over 3-4 meals which means the non-greedy one gets her full amount. And a friend has taken to feeding his slightly elderly girl in a different room to the younger mahoosive boys.

Ours have four meals a day - no food left out as the oldest would just eat until he was sick if given the chance. We have three neutered males.

We do little and often which works best - they get wet food at 6am, dry at 8am - then lunch around 2pm (wet) and dry at 9pm. Maybe a few dreamies at 5pm too. Nobody ever leaves anything behind.

Our previous girl cat would eat every single scrap of wet food, then wolf all the dry (that was often in a puzzle feeder to slow her down) then head straight out. Per pp she got four small meals a day because she was such a gannet. About 30 minutes before each meal she would be campaigning for her food, sat at her cupboard.

We sadly had to have her pts last year, and now have a little boy who is much more of a grazer. Initially I was worried and we tried him on different foods, but it’s just his way. He doesn’t love wet food but will generally finish what’s left from his last meal overnight.

Mine gobble it up in one go, half a tin each first thing and at night. Not too much so it over faces them and they’ll eat straight away