Hey guys,
I was wondering if you could help me...
Let's start out with the details. Per vet instructions, my kitties get 1c total of EVO Innova Adult dry cat food a day. This has been their diet for about a year and a half.
Our 5yo boy, Hobbes, has gotten into the habit of when fed, scarfing food like he's starved, overeating when doing so, and then vomiting it back up (due to overeating).
Our first attempt at handling this was to cut in half the amount we fed the two of them daily, and then feeding them twice a day instead of once (thinking that it was just too long between feedings, and that it would help him just have the amount gradually instead of all-at-once). He would still overeat and vomit.
We then tried giving him a little bit of food to start out with, letting him eat it (so that he had some food in his belly and would be calmer about the subject of being fed), and then giving them the rest, which worked at first, but he then went back to his old ways, would then overeat with the next amount given, and vomit.
Now, we're giving him small amounts of food over the entire day, about every 2hrs, totaling the 1c amount. Now it's become such an ordeal to feed them...and we're wondering how to break this cycle and perhaps just solve the original problem. Feeding them this way IS keeping him from engorging himself and vomiting as a result...but it's just so difficult...especially if we're going to be gone during the day for any reason. Then we come home to a starved cat, who then will engorge himself anyway, and vomit. We've considered buying an automatic feeder, but that just isn't in the budget right now at all.
Does anyone have any ideas? I know that it's not that he's got an allergy to the food, as he's been just fine with it for about two years now. Nothing has changed with behaviour, potty habits, weight, or anything else (by weight, I mean that he's not losing weight while eating huge quantities, thereby indicating a worm/pest problem). It's just that he's now asking for food all day long because he's getting it in small quantities throughout the day (he's normally the snacky kind of kitty...doesn't eat one big amount per day but normally has little snacks of the total throughout the day).
We just moved here to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from Southern California (so, from a very warm climate, to a very cool/cold one) in mid-May, so is it that he needs more food everyday due to the change in climate? We were living in a very small house, so we needed to give them very little food daily, to try to keep their weight down (vet's orders). Even with that, they gained...and we now live in plenty of space, so he's getting more exercise. Could the two combined (change in climate and exercise) be making it so he's hungrier? Would giving him more food keep him from losing the weight he needs to lose? (They're both, I would estimate, about 2lbs overweight.) This started once we moved here...so I'm wondering if that's the problem (that he needs more food per day).
This has GOT to get solved...help??
I was wondering if you could help me...
Let's start out with the details. Per vet instructions, my kitties get 1c total of EVO Innova Adult dry cat food a day. This has been their diet for about a year and a half.
Our 5yo boy, Hobbes, has gotten into the habit of when fed, scarfing food like he's starved, overeating when doing so, and then vomiting it back up (due to overeating).
Our first attempt at handling this was to cut in half the amount we fed the two of them daily, and then feeding them twice a day instead of once (thinking that it was just too long between feedings, and that it would help him just have the amount gradually instead of all-at-once). He would still overeat and vomit.
We then tried giving him a little bit of food to start out with, letting him eat it (so that he had some food in his belly and would be calmer about the subject of being fed), and then giving them the rest, which worked at first, but he then went back to his old ways, would then overeat with the next amount given, and vomit.
Now, we're giving him small amounts of food over the entire day, about every 2hrs, totaling the 1c amount. Now it's become such an ordeal to feed them...and we're wondering how to break this cycle and perhaps just solve the original problem. Feeding them this way IS keeping him from engorging himself and vomiting as a result...but it's just so difficult...especially if we're going to be gone during the day for any reason. Then we come home to a starved cat, who then will engorge himself anyway, and vomit. We've considered buying an automatic feeder, but that just isn't in the budget right now at all.
Does anyone have any ideas? I know that it's not that he's got an allergy to the food, as he's been just fine with it for about two years now. Nothing has changed with behaviour, potty habits, weight, or anything else (by weight, I mean that he's not losing weight while eating huge quantities, thereby indicating a worm/pest problem). It's just that he's now asking for food all day long because he's getting it in small quantities throughout the day (he's normally the snacky kind of kitty...doesn't eat one big amount per day but normally has little snacks of the total throughout the day).
We just moved here to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from Southern California (so, from a very warm climate, to a very cool/cold one) in mid-May, so is it that he needs more food everyday due to the change in climate? We were living in a very small house, so we needed to give them very little food daily, to try to keep their weight down (vet's orders). Even with that, they gained...and we now live in plenty of space, so he's getting more exercise. Could the two combined (change in climate and exercise) be making it so he's hungrier? Would giving him more food keep him from losing the weight he needs to lose? (They're both, I would estimate, about 2lbs overweight.) This started once we moved here...so I'm wondering if that's the problem (that he needs more food per day).
This has GOT to get solved...help??