My cat won't stop eating the dog food.

lovexrin

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You'd think this would be an easy enough problem to solve. The dog is fed twice daily, basically on a schedule. Well- it's not. Me, my boyfriend, and our three cats live with his parents, and their two dogs. One dog is not a problem; he is confined to his mom's room, is fed in there, door closed, etc.

The other dog is confined to the kitchen/downstairs bedroom area.

Only one of my cats is really doing this, my Kilo, adopted September 2013. This dog, Cookie, was adopted the following December. Ever since, Kilo has taken to eating the dog food. This dog is my boyfriend's dad's dog. Beyond complaining about spending money on dog food the cat is eating, he doesn't care! He says that if it was that bad for him, there'd have been problems by now, and besides, that the "TV said it was fine for cats to eat dog food." One: It doesn't matter if nothing has happened YET. Two: ...seriously?

Cookie is fed at 4am and 4pm roughly; when her owner wakes up for work and comes home for work. You can see then why we can't exactly supervise and keep the cat away when this happens, and his dad refuses to since, again, he doesn't care. At 3am, we're sleeping. At 3pm, I'm usually in class and my boyfriend is usually at work, etc etc. Or he just comes straight home and feeds the dog before either of us get a chance to come down and grab the cat.

We can't even lock the cat in our room with us at night/etc, because our room doesn't actually have a door. It's more like an upstairs loft area with a curtain for a door. The only two real rooms in the house are each occupied by one of the dogs/parents (one whom is mildly allergic to the cats and has banned them from being in her room).

The vet has warned us that it's possible Kilo (male) may encounter crystals in his urinary tract as a result of eating dog food, but understands there's nothing we can do to stop this.

It drives me nuts, too, because I make a point of feeding the cats good, healthy, grain-free foods, etc. What's the dog get fed? Purina. Formerly, Beneful (yeah, the one with the lawsuits), not Purina... Active? Or something in a black back? Or, Purina Light, the diet version. It's all huge pieces of kibble that I can't fathom how Kilo is even managing to eat!

The cat sits there and cries and cries and cries at the dog's empty food bowl when it's around dog feeding time and the bowl hasn't been filled yet. The thing that seriously annoys me, too, is that rather than pushing the cat away or anything of the sort when he does this, my boyfriend's parents come and fill the bowl up then walk away so that the cat stops crying. I don't even know if Kilo eats the cat kibble upstairs. He eats the wet food, but I seldom ever see him at the kibble bowl. They're free-fed. 

I'm at a loss. My cat just loves the taste of any and all dog foods, and I don't know how to convince him to stop eating that and to eat cat food instead. Every now and again, I've started to catch one of our other cats mimicking him and eating from the dog's bowl too. The dog just lets him, too... sits there and watches or waits for the cat to be done first.

I feel like my hands are tied, and I'm concerned about Kilo's diet. He eats his wet food just fine, but I'm leery of that being "good enough" to counter his eating the crappy dog kibble. I don't know if I should look into trying to supplement his diet or what... switching kibble brands doesn't seem to make a difference, and I can't keep switching on my other two cats since I'm struggling to put weight on one who is very fussy. But I can't force my boyfriend's dad (or his mom, who also gives in to his begging) to lock the cat in the bathroom while they feed the dog, or try to discourage him with spraying. They just won't, because they don't think it's a big deal, and refuse to listen to us (or our mutual vet).

I guess at this point I just need advice on where to go from here - ideas on how to convince the cat to eat CAT food, or if the cat wet food is good enough for his nutrients. :/ Or just... let it go, since as his dad says, it's been 1.5years and "nothing's happened yet."
 
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lovexrin

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It's a nice idea, but with more than half of our income going towards school loans (one of which is in his mom's name and she wants paid off before we ever consider moving out), it's not exactly possible right now.
 

momto3cats

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How much wet food does he eat? If wet cat food is most of his diet, a little dog food probably isn't too bad. The main problems with dry dog food are too little protein, too much carbohydrate, and not enough taurine. Wet food is generally high protein and low carb, and cat food generally has more than enough taurine in it. So if that's the majority of his diet (or if you can make it so) he'll probably be okay.
 
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lovexrin

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It's difficult to give an exact amount as he shares with my third cat, and we scoop it out from a large can. If I had to guess, we're currently feeding about 2-3oz daily that the two cats split. Some days we give extra. I wouldn't mind upping the amount if need be, it's just difficult to make sure he'd be the one eating and not the third cat, who needs to lose a little weight. (1 cat is too skinny, 1 cat needs to lose a little weight, and 1 won't stop eating dog food. goodness.)
 
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lovexrin

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Honestly, it doesn't explain why Kilo would sit and wait for dog food rather than eat the freefed kibble, right next to their wet food feeding spot. lol. Kilo is the perfect weight however. The mildly overweight cat is the one that has never eaten any dog food - she's just extremely skittish and spends most of her time hiding... so she's not very active by nature.
Feeding too much wet food was giving one of our cats problems so the vet told us to cut back.
 

momto3cats

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Maybe he doesn't like the dry cat food? Have you tried offering different brands to see if there's one he likes better than dog food? Many companies will send out free samples if you ask.
 
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lovexrin

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Yeah, we've tried lots of various brands, especially since our local feed store often has sample bags available. We do have to be careful though because our skinny cat is very picky with what she eats.
I feel like I should say though, that Kilo LOVES wet food, but if he's given the choice between a bowl of dog food and wet food, he pretty much always picks the dog food... we've tried bribing him with the wet food when we're home at the same time the dog is being fed, but he still bolts as soon as he hears the kibble hit the bowl.
 

wermy

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I agree with asking the dog owners to transition to a food for both cats and dogs. EVO is another brand that's fine for both. At least, a high-protein dog food such as Orijen would still be okay. You and your boyfriend could offer to contribute a bit to the extra cost if that's an issue.

Alternatively, offer to take over the dog's feeding schedule. Then you can feed the dog at times when you are awake and able to keep Kilo away from the bowl until the dogs have eaten their fill.
 

Columbine

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I might have an answer as to why Kilo is obsessed with the dog food - animal digest. The majority of both cat and dog kibbles are coated in the stuff to make higher carb/grain foods palatable to carnivore taste buds. Animal digest is the reason some cats become kibble addicts - its that yummy!

Admittedly, this doesn't help you solve the problem, but it does go some way to explaining it.

The primary ingredient in FortiFlora is animal digest. It would be an interesting experiment to add a little FortiFlora to some cat kibble to see if you can transfer Kilo onto that. You don't need to use anything like the amount the pack says, as you aren't after the probiotic qualities - just the taste. By the same token, you don't need to worry about expiry dates on it.

Apart from that, all I can think of is keeping Kilo away from the dog food bowl at all times...but that definitely isn't an easy task!
 
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lovexrin

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Unfortunately the owner is not willing to switch brands. The dog was fed top brand foods when first adopted, by his wife and since the dog would barely touch it, he took over and decided to feed his dog only Purina brands since she liked it, it was cheap, and he always has coupons.
I've offered before but he thinks there's nothing wrong with Kilo eating the food and, well, it's his dog.

Columbine, that's interesting! I'm curious enough that I'd be interested to see if that's the case with my little dude.
yeah, it isnt! A lot of the times the dog doesn't finish the food, and they deliberately leave the bowl out for the cat to finish too. Drives me nuts!
 

DeannaF

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I have a 10 month old male and he absolutely LOVES the dogs food. He even sometimes will wait in the kitchen for it. He only eats about 5 kibbles and then he's good to go. It's weird.

I have him on a mix of cat wet (I also add water to his wet food) and dry food.

I'm starting to do timed feedings now whereas before the cat came along, my dogs have always been grazers throughout the day (not overweight in the slightest). I have to lock the cat up in my daughters room while they eat and boy does the cat hate it! After they're done I don't even leave their bowls on the ground, I wash them and keep them put up. Hoping I can train the cat that it's absolutely off limits. The dogs are slowly getting used to the schedule. My one wouldn't eat and so I took it up and she waited until this AM to eat. She gobbled it on command so I don't think I'm going to have an issue. :)
 
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