Recently we had a question on our Facebook page from a reader asking about how to feed one cat a particular diet without the other cat eating the special diet.
We have the same situation in our home. Felix, seen above, is on a special urinary diet while Linus, Coco, and Inca are not. It’s not a problem if they eat Felix’s food but, on the other hand, we don’t want Felix to eat their food.
To control which cat eats which meal, we have implemented the 15-minute rule in our home, just as we have with our dogs. It’s very simple.
When food goes down, the cat or dog has 15 minutes to eat his food. What isn’t eaten in 15 minutes is picked up and refrigerated (for canned food) or returned to the canister for a later meal.
Felix is fed separately from our other cats; he eats alone and has 15 minutes to eat his food. Inca, Coco and Linus are fed at the same time but in a different room from Felix. They also have 15 minutes to eat their food. What’s not eaten is picked up at the end of the time.
Our cats are fed twice daily–breakfast and dinner–and the 15-minute rule is implemented both times. There’s no free feeding which would allow the cats to eat as they wanted.
This not only helps us to make sure Felix eats his special diet but it also prevents overeating (a problem with Coco). It takes a few days for cats to learn that there won’t be food available on demand but, with their great sense of time, they quickly learn breakfast and dinner times…and that those times mean eat NOW!
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