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Cats. *sigh*
So Nefer has a tendency to barf - sometimes hairballs, other times due to gorging and throwing it back up because she's eaten too much.*
We'd been free-feeding them dry cat food (Blue Buffalo, which seems to sit the best on Nefer's tender stomach), but as they're both overweight have been slowly cutting back to see how much they eat per day, eventually so we can feed them juuust slightly less, so they slim down a wee bit. They both eat about half a cup per day, so they've been getting that. They also eat from UFO-shaped feeders, which require them to reach in and paw the kibbles out, so it slows their eating and, previously, Nefer's gorging.
Now, of course, with the reduced food, Nefer's starting to gorge again. The past three mornings, she's thrown up on the mat right next to the feeder she eats from. We think that, although there's still a few kibbles left in the morning, she's going "Food! Lots of food! Must eat as much as possible bfore it all VANISHES!" which makes her, of course, throw it back up.**
Any ideas? I thought about starting to feed them some wet food in the mornings and leaving some dry for them to nosh on during the day although I have no idea if it'll solve the problem. Also, Nefer tends to turn her nose up at wet food, although I suspect she'll start eating it if there's nothing else in the morning.
There is also, I suppose, the option of purchasing a fancy feeder that releases a bit of food periodically throughout the day and night but (a) they're expensive and (b) we'd have to get 2 as Nefer starts stressing out and chewing on her foreleg if she has to share a bowl/feeder with Sora.
* Sora, not so much. He will happily eat the food that Nefer barfs up, but never barfs himself. I have caught him twice almost throwing up, but each time (rot-13'd because it makes me want to puke, honestly I gagged just writing it) fhpxvat vg onpx hc naq fjnyybjvat vg. Thank providence that he doesn't have thick fur and doesn't seem prone to hairballs getting stuck.
** I got her from a shelter when she was a year old. I have no idea about her past history.
We'd been free-feeding them dry cat food (Blue Buffalo, which seems to sit the best on Nefer's tender stomach), but as they're both overweight have been slowly cutting back to see how much they eat per day, eventually so we can feed them juuust slightly less, so they slim down a wee bit. They both eat about half a cup per day, so they've been getting that. They also eat from UFO-shaped feeders, which require them to reach in and paw the kibbles out, so it slows their eating and, previously, Nefer's gorging.
Now, of course, with the reduced food, Nefer's starting to gorge again. The past three mornings, she's thrown up on the mat right next to the feeder she eats from. We think that, although there's still a few kibbles left in the morning, she's going "Food! Lots of food! Must eat as much as possible bfore it all VANISHES!" which makes her, of course, throw it back up.**
Any ideas? I thought about starting to feed them some wet food in the mornings and leaving some dry for them to nosh on during the day although I have no idea if it'll solve the problem. Also, Nefer tends to turn her nose up at wet food, although I suspect she'll start eating it if there's nothing else in the morning.
There is also, I suppose, the option of purchasing a fancy feeder that releases a bit of food periodically throughout the day and night but (a) they're expensive and (b) we'd have to get 2 as Nefer starts stressing out and chewing on her foreleg if she has to share a bowl/feeder with Sora.
* Sora, not so much. He will happily eat the food that Nefer barfs up, but never barfs himself. I have caught him twice almost throwing up, but each time (rot-13'd because it makes me want to puke, honestly I gagged just writing it) fhpxvat vg onpx hc naq fjnyybjvat vg. Thank providence that he doesn't have thick fur and doesn't seem prone to hairballs getting stuck.
** I got her from a shelter when she was a year old. I have no idea about her past history.
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Gorging just isn't feasible that way, and it gives them something interesting to do as well.
Of course they don't always find everything, and if they happen to rediscover weeks old dry food later in some forgotten corner, they might barf from eating that. The world isn't perfect.
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We did, once, attempt to do something similar, which was to get several tiny saucers and put a few bites of food in each and scatter *them* around the house, but the problem was that Toby and I ended up lazy and not refilling them.
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The UFO-thing we're using is much less fancy, but works on the same principle.
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- limit access one bite at a time (sounds like you're already doing that: there are feeders that are in principle a plastic bottle with a hole cut in, so they have to move them about and little bits of kibble fall out. This might be worth trying out. (The 'cat food ball' seems to work on that principle. On the other hand, see 'cockroaches' above. Might not be worth trying out after all.)
- feed a small portion of filling food before the main meal to take the edge of
- switch to a lower-energy feed, so eating more won't harm them (that, alas, won't stop the overeating/barfing problem you have, but if it's always available, it could stop her from feeling she needs to eat before it's gone)
- try feeding a vitamin supplement. Sometimes a need to eat and eat is based on a deficiency; when that need is met, food intake goes down.
Best of luck!
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Is there a way you could separate them at meal time? Maybe close Nefer in a different room for an hour or so, with food dish, so she doesn't feel threatened to scarf it down? Make sure she has a full hour, even if she eats faster, to try and convince she doesn't need to scarf.
That's my thoughts.
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Sora is an extreme mama's boy and didn't deal well with not being the only man in my life -- SOMEONE peed on Toby's pillow at one point shortly after we moved in together and I have my suspicions who -- so we've been working on that and now Sora will actually occasionally sit on Toby or solicit attention from him. But only if I'm not there. If I'm there, he mostly ignores Toby. Which is better than peeing on his pillow, at least.
ETA: Oh, wait, he doesn't always ignore Toby. Toby gives them catnip, so he'll solicit catnip from Toby if I'm there. :) He gets Toby's attention, then jumps on top of the bureau where we keep it. XD
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Like this:
http://www.sitstay.com/dog/supplies/servlet/product_10001_10001_97909_-1_Atomic+Treat+Ball_13251_13360_
Or, if you have hardwood floors and want less sound, this:
http://www.sitstay.com/dog/supplies/servlet/product_10001_10001_54060_-1_Kong+Stuff-a-Ball_13251_13360_
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I suppose if she had no other source of food she'd figure it out!
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I'd recommend Zuke's (http://www.zukes.com/meow/index.html) for treats for fussy eaters; we have the Mini Naturals and Jerky Naturals for Ember (which we cut into teeny tiny pieces for training so she doesn't fill up) and they make very similar cat versions that we haven't tried yet, but Rufus loooooves the dog ones and they don't upset his stomach like the other dog treats that Rufus *thinks* he should get too. They smell quite appetizing to me, and Tav said he ate one once and it was surprisingly tasty. They're soft enough to cut accurately but non-squishy and non-sticky, so good for treat dispensers.
Then again, Rufus will eat almost anything. He loves tiny bits of peeled broccoli stem, too.
(I'd been meaning to recommend the Zuke's to
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It recommended picking up the cats' bowls 10 minutes after putting them down, whether they've finished or not, then adjust amount that goes into bowl for each meal based on how much they eat during that 10-minute time and whether they need weight loss/gain. It also recommended that people who are away during the day, feed them last thing before leaving, first thing after returning, and then last thing at night.
This has helped control Rufus' weight much better than leaving food down (which the in-laws do when they cat-sit no matter how much we ask them not to, and we tend to return to a basketball-shaped cat 2 weeks later). Now that I'm home during the day, his meal times are about 8am, 3pm, and 10pm, but when I was working it was often more like 8, 6, and 10 -- so we'd give him a larger first meal and smaller second meal.
Lately we've also started tossing him one kibble at a time when we start filling the food bowls, trying to reward him for not yelling/whining at us (with minimal success in actually training him to be quiet while waiting, but whatever), to get about 4-6 kibbles into him to take the hunger edge off before the bowl gets set on the floor, which seems to make him less inclined to swallow as much whole as quickly as possible. No fancy bowl here, though we've thought about looking for them.
For the barfing issues, we use Whiskas Temptations Hairball Control treats, which has that sticky hairball gel-paste inside the crunchy shell of the regular treats -- much less messy and he likes it a lot better than trying to get the gel into him. We give that to him according to the instructions: ten treats "all at once" (we do one at a time in quick succession, waiting till he's chewed the previous one, like with his "appetizer" kibble) every second day. We usually give this to him before his afternoon meal. Huge improvement in the frequency of barfing! Unfortunately, they seem to be the one type of Whiskas Temptations that *don't* come in the larger bag, so we have to stock up on the little bags.
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At any rate, I'll sit down with Toby in the next day or two and we'll work out what to try and in what order from all the suggestions people are giving.
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I should add that we got Rufus from the shelter when he was about 8-9 months and we don't know his previous history. He's 13 years old now, and weighs about 11 lbs as of February, which is better than he has been (he's been up to 14lbs or more in the aftermath of the inlaw's free-feeding), but the vet said he would be better at 10lbs or less for his age, frame, and inactivity level (though Ember's been helping with that last one).
Since you're already working on conditioning Sora to associate good things and offer friendly behavior with Toby, you could also try some basic clicker training with Nefer (doesn't require a clicker, you can use a verbal marker like saying "click!" to let her know when she's doing something that has earned a few kibble at a time, and you can use a different verbal marker with Sora) which might help with the psychological aspect by giving her some sense of control over food by letting her earn it? (This is what I've begun half-assedly doing with Rufus to try to get him to stop yelling his head off while I'm getting his food ready. Like I said, minimal success so far, but I haven't been very consistent with it yet, so that's to be expected. Previous method of using the spray bottle wasn't getting ANYWHERE, though.)
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In general, if you want a cat to slim down, going for several small feeds during the day is better than one or two big ones, if you can manage that with your schedule. We generally feed breakfast, supper, and a few small snacks of treats. Feed reliably on a fixed schedule and the cats will be reassured that the food is coming once the pattern is established.
The diet cat foods can be problematic as the fiber used to fill them out can irritate a cat's stomach.
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Also- you'd appreciate this. Tycho was scared of my shoe. Bonus difficulty: while it was on my foot...
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