As you may know, Abby is a feral (wild) cat that I found. She was extremely underweight when I found her. Therefore, her mission in life is to stuff her face with as much food as possible. The more body fat she has, the longer she can survive if another time of famine comes. She's too stupid to realize that as long as she hangs around me she'll get fed twice a day. Therefore, I don't allow free feeding. While Xena can control herself, Abby cannot. She's long since put on the weight she needed to and doesn't need to gain anymore.
I've been feeding them separately, measuring Abby's portions so she'll lose her pudge and now more or less trying to get her to maintain. Xena gets stuck in a room alone, but with a big bowl of food and allowed to eat as much as she wants.
Problem is, she's not eating enough.
I took her to vet Friday to get her claws clipped (she's scratching me again) and while there asked them to weigh her. They brought her back and said she was 9 pounds, a respectable weight for a girl cat. Problem is, she's a big girl. She weighed 10.5 pounds at her last visit and looked better. At 9 pounds she's looking a bit scrawny. Not severally underweight or anything, but she could stand to gain a bit.
They advised me to "spoil" her, and even consider feeding her kitten food for a while. Certainly feed her regular adult food. Both her and Abby have been on Eukanuba lite and this problem didn't start until I began feeding them separately. So here's the plan. Feed Xena on the bed with me watching her to keep Abby away. Feed her kitten food for now (higher fat content) and then regular adult food later, and see if we can get some weight back on her. Continue the way I have been with Abby to keep her from gaining weight.
They gave me a sample of Science Diet kitten food which she didn't seem too smitten with, but did eat (she'll eat darn near anything - she is not picky). I have a four pound bag of Iams kitten food. She ate that almost exclusively as a baby, and so far that has gone over better. On the weekends when I am home more I'll try to feed her three times in a day instead of twice like usual.
It sucks having one cat who has difficulty gaining, and one who is constantly hungry and desperately wants to get fat! I've always tried to feed them the same food so neither one feels slighted. I guess that's over now. Abby feels left out and is convinced that Xena has the better food. It might taste better, but it's not better nutritionally for her. Abby needs less fat, not more.
The only other option is to keep them separated when I am not home and that would be worse. They are good friends and I think they would hate to be separated. They play together and clean each other.
Xena:
Abby:
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