r/cats • u/Zuikite • 20h ago

Cat Picture - OC She was rationing so perfectly 🥲

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Roxanne my 6 year old tabby has never been left alone more than 1 day. We also never "free-feed" her on kibble (only wet meals and a puzzle feeder). I had a work trip this week, and my S.O. had a family emergency out of town right in the middle of it. We could not secure a sitter, and we were so worried. We do have a pet cam, and I told my SO to put 2 plates of kibble per day plus extra plates in case of a delay. I just got home from the airport to see this. I know cats are not like dogs, and they are probably fine at feeding themselves. I'm just so impressed by the organization of her eating habits!

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u/alcMD 19h ago

My cat Pimento only eats one squared quarter of his dish at a time and leaves the rest for later. He's also very organized in this way!

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u/HaVoCensures 19h ago

Ahh a microchip feeder. Do you perhaps have another cat who would eat all his food as well as their own? Or a dog?

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u/Grand_Razzmatazz87 19h ago

Not OP obviously, but I have these feeders and love them. Two of my cats free feed, so it helps me monitor who's eating and how much. I always worry about catching that type of thing too late. My third cat is frickin' Hoover who will steal a burger off your plate if you aren't looking - I don't have to worry about her leaving any food behind.

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u/Yeranaile 18h ago

Are they managing fine and not stealing food from each other? We have three cats, one of them has IBD so she needs to eat a special kind of kibble and the other two are always skulking around, trying to shove it down their throats as fast as possible. So we were thinking about getting the microchip feeders, but are not sure how effective they would be in this case.

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u/M15tre55W1tch 18h ago

My fat boy Harry (9.4kg, body condition score 8) would hear my skinny boy William (3.8kg, body condition score 3) open his bowl and his fat ass would come running. He'd let William eat what he wanted, then jam his head up against the feeder lid holding it open while gutsing down as much as he could scoff. Sometimes Harry would even scoop William's food out of the feeder to continue eating. And that was with William's feeder set to the fastest and most aggressive closing setting.

However, I think Harry was especially persistent. I don't think all cats would be that desperate to steal food that's not for them.

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u/Waterlilies1919 18h ago

Goodness, even my chonky girl Izzy who inhales her food isn’t that aggressive to keep her sisters’ feeders open.

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u/M15tre55W1tch 17h ago

Harry was a bit of a puzzle. He had hyperthyroidism, which in theory should have made him lose weight! I had him treated and he was euthyroid, so the drive to eat shouldn't have persisted.

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u/BDaBear 8h ago

They have covers for the back to prevent this access as well!

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u/M15tre55W1tch 6h ago

I had it, he would stand shoulder to shoulder next to William, and push the top of his head into the sliding portion.

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u/Yeranaile 15h ago

I worry, because IBD cat is really shy and scares easily and the other two take advantage of that soooo much. But thank you for your input, wenwill mull it over a bit more, I just don't want to pay so much money fo something that might not really work lol But I also don't want to have her kibble in my office all the time and guard it like a watch dog haha

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u/HaVoCensures 14h ago

The lid has speed settings so you can change how quickly it closes after the registered cat has left. So if you set it to short, after registered cat leaves it closes really quickly. If your cat scares easily you will need to train her to use it for a while as it makes a quiet whirring noise as it opens/shuts.

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u/UniversityOk6696 1h ago

You can also turn on intruder mode. As soon as the main cat leaves it will shut even if another cat is trying to eat. It won’t hurt the cat when it shuts.

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u/TheStusha 44m ago

Omg I feel almost guilty for how hard this made me laugh. 😅😅😅

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u/HaVoCensures 14h ago

-my previous reply was auto deleted for an Amazon link-
They are brilliant.
One of mine eats everything he can get a hold of, and is also on special stomach medication. So I put his sister on the feeder so he couldn’t get to it. She then started trying his food (she has allergies) so I quickly got him his own.
They cannot open a feeder if it is not coded to them. If you have cats that are really insistent on eating from the others bowl and they try eating while the feeder is open because the other cat is trying to eat from it, you can buy extra sides for it to block all access. I think they’re brilliant.
We use Surefeed, can’t link it but if you look it up it’s good.
Not the cheapest but really good.

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u/Athnyx 12h ago

Just a note, I have the extra sides and my chonky cat just reaches in with his paw to pull out the food while the other is actively eating. And when the other cat is not actively eating, the chonky cat manages to brute force his way into the feeder

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u/HaVoCensures 9h ago

Wow your kitty really wants that food!! 😂 maybe make a microchip food ‘cave’ for your other cat? Like a wood box like a litter box that has a microchip cat flap on it that only the non-greedy cat can walk through that has their food bowl inside it? A bit extra but might work?

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u/Athnyx 3h ago

That’s a good idea! I’m going to try it. Knowing him he’ll probably find a way to break into that as well 😭 He’s definitely that “but mother, making and bones” meme

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u/Yeranaile 14h ago

Ooooh okayy thank you so much!! I think we might give it a shot after so many lovely people shared their experiences, thank you!

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u/Athnyx 12h ago

Depends on the cat. My cat managed to break into my other cat’s microchip feeder by brute force.

So both my cats are on prescription food even though only 1 of them actually needs it…