Howie is making a mess!

[cg33]

Our little boy, Howie, turned one last month, so we switched him from Science Diet kitten to Science Diet adult. He had always done fine with the kitten food, but now that he is on adult food (that has a bigger kibble), he is dragging his food out of the bowl and chewing it up over the floor. He is making a huge mess! I'm cleaning cat food off the floor constantly.

I want to keep him on a high quality food, but if I can find one with a smaller kibble, I think it might solve our problem. Does anyone have a food with a small kibble to suggest?

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• cg33
• Jun 21, 2014

 

[bonepicker]

Do not feed dry food it is not good for them! Science diet especially is not good!

 

[pinkdagger]

Those look like very small bowls. Regardless of what kind of food you feed, cats tend to prefer more open, wider bowls so their whiskers aren't being jammed up against the sides of the bowl. If these kibbles are bigger and require more chewing, he'll want more space to do that, and it makes sense he wouldn't want to leave his face pressed in a small space. I have a friend whose dog will take one kibble out of her bowl at a time, and walk around the house eating it, then going back for more individual pieces to carry around.

I also can't tell - are they plastic or ceramic? If they're plastic, you may want to be on the lookout for any signs of feline acne since plastic bowls are porous and can hold bacteria more easily. Especially with the depth and circumference of these dishes, it means his face has to end up touching the bowl each time reaches in to eat. Ceramic and stainless steel are better types of bowls to avoid bacteria, but all bowls should be thoroughly washed everyday.

Science Diet isn't a great quality food. Unless your cat has a special dietary need and health issue where SD provides or limits a specific supplement, vet-prescribed foods like that are heavily marketing.

TCS has a bunch of articles on choosing a good food for your cat:

What Do I Need To Know About Feeding My Cat?

Choosing The Right Food for Your Cat and you

How to Compare Cat Foods & Calculate Carbs: Dry Matter Basis

Grain-Free Cat Food – What Does It Mean?
Choosing the Right Dry Cat Food

Transitioning Your Cat from Kibble to a New Type of Food (Canned, Raw, or Homemade)

If you want more tips or suggestions, you can check the Reviews section or ask for more in a thread and other members can come and leave their input.
 

 

[luv2cats]

Hi, I have flat plates that I feed my cats from, bowl aren't the best because of the whisker scrunching thing or you might try a sushi plate long and flat, you still may get some food on the floor but what the heck, who cares.  My one cat at times will take a piece of wet food run over to the area rug and eat it there ... cats keep us on our toes and scratching our heads.  You gotta love 'em.  You could always use a lid from a storage box to put the food bowl on, this way you would just tip the food back into the bowl.  I'd also suggest feeding wet food instead of dry kibble.  Good luck

 

[lisahe]

Our two cats and I like Petco's "melamine pottery style" dishes: they're fairly deep with plenty of room for the cats to fit their whiskers and push their pates and shreds around without getting food on the floor.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

how about buying some pet food mats? i have two that i bought for my cats. they're rubbery and have rims about an inch high along the four sides of them, they're rectangular shaped. i started using them because sometimes my cats would spill some water from their water dish. i like them too because i can just wipe them clean once or twice each day.

 

[bonepicker]

Natural balance ultra is small kibble comes in cans also for compliment

 

[rachelinaz]

Good luck. I giggled... I could see my Wally making a mess. I love Howie's name!

 

[andrya]

l concur with the above posters about Science Diet. lt's high priced but not high quality.

l don't feed my cats any kibble, but they even take their wet food out of their dish sometimes and set it on the floor. One of them used to carry it to a carpeted stair to eat 

So to stop him doing that, l put a puppy pad under the bowls so if he wants to eat on a soft surface, he doesn't have to go anywhere. They get raw sometimes, so it keeps my floor clean and it's easy to pick up and throw out.

As an aside, my dog used to get kibble, and he always carried it to a carpeted area to eat. He was a tiny Pomeranian but he could carry 7 full sized kibbles at once