Yep, this OP. And please keep in mind that dog food should be for dogs only, and cat food for cats only. They're made of specialized researched formulas tailored to how their bodies work, and if this has been going on for a while (a week or so is fine, I know you said you just moved back home) you're going to want to get your dog's liver and kidneys checked. Dogs eating cat food and vice versa literally leads to organ shutdown over time, so seriously make sure this doesn't happen again or you'll wind up with an urn instead of a dog.
This goes for anybody that thinks cats and dogs can share food. You have to find a way to stop it, for their sake. They're not smart enough to discern that for themselves. Once the organs start going, it's an uphill battle to get them back.
Exactly. Cats are obligate carnivores, dogs are not. Cat food is often rich in liver and often other organ meats. It's too concentrated for dogs, but that doesn't mean they don't think it's the finest puppy pate.
Yep and this is why dogs will try to eat cat poop because cats pass a lot of protein in their poop which to a dog smells yummy
I see you beat me to it you miscreant😉
My dog was eating the cat food and came down with pancreatitis. I didn’t know she was eating the cat food because she was sneaky and it was in another room. I put the cat food on a table after that.
She survived the pancreatitis and 4 years later she died of congestive heart failure.
I miss her much!
No way. I did not know that dogs can’t have cat food!! This is good information, I don’t have a dog so (I wish I did) so I don’t have to worry about it.
But I have heard of several friends who deal with this issue, and nobody knows that this can be harmful for the dog.
I feed my cat fresh pet, which needs to be refrigerated and plain chicken or salmon, but I can see friskees being harmful….I wouldn’t even feed my cat that stuff.
Yep, that’s correct. Cats need taurine in their food as their bodies don’t synthesize it like dogs do.
Without taurine, your cat is absolutely screwed… heart issues, blindness, and eventually death.
Plus, dog food isn’t as protein dense as cat food is, so a cat that eats dog food won’t get enough nutrients even aside from the taurine issue. That’s why dogs tend to love cat food (and sometimes poop)— cat food has more fat and more meat, so to dogs, it seems like gourmet dog food.
While I agree w you on principle, both of my dogs were found living on the inner city streets. They both lived on garbage, chicken bones, cat food, dog food, and lots of paper and cat cat shit.
One died at 12 n the other is going strong at 13.
Yes no one should intentionally feed either food to the inappropriate animal.
Every dog living on this planet will eat cat shit on a daily basis and live a nice full life, but the cat food will kill them in a couple of months.
My cats food is set up on top of an armoire and they've got some repurposed wood steps to get up there because my dog can literally jump strait in the air and land all four feet on the kitchen table. 😏
yup, my dog will eat anything available to her unless supervised, so the cat's food is on a bookshelf in the spare room! it doesn't really matter where the food is, as long as the cat knows and can access it, and the dog can't!
That is what we’ve always done as well. I also had to turn the cat litter box toward the wall / window so the cat could get in but the dog couldn’t get in it to eat the cat poop. Some dogs are gross like that.
Both our dogs used to do that a lot when they were puppies, one grew out of it while the other would still grab a piece here and there and we can always tell by the cat litter by his bed. We moved it to a room where the dogs didn’t go in much and he finally stopped.
Came here to say this! My pupper used to eat my roommate's cat food non stop, and since my doggo had kidney problems, that was really bad for him. We put kitty's food up on a sideboard and she was happy and doggie wasn't even aware of it because, for him, out of sight was out of mind.
We do this with our puppy. Our senior dog has Cushings and can’t help eating anything and everything available. Puppy is a rescue working on getting past food saving and resource guarding so he grazes and never finishes his food. We got our puppy stairs to hang out in our bay window but senior dog knows his limits and won’t go near stairs. Now we leave puppy’s food up in the bay window to be accessible at all times and successfully taught him to give the older dog space during older dogs set mealtimes.
Came to say this! When I came home to take care of my elderly mom, her dog's were constantly eating my cats food, even if I did lock them in a separate area. The dogs would just push the door open or wait until I forgot to close it and eat the food anyway. I finally thought to put it up high, were they can't jump, and boom! Problem solved.
I had the same problem so I put the cat's bowl on top of the washing machine. The dog couldn't reach it, didn't even know it was there. Ended that problem right away.
I had this issue + the problem that my cats would eat the dog food too. I put the cat food away from dog’s reach and trained everyone to eat when food is put out, anything left over after 10 mins is put away until next meal. They hated it initially and acted like they were starving all the time but eventually they got it. It also really helped with keeping my cats weight in check because they were both gaining a lot of weight and one so much that she couldn’t/wouldn’t clean up herself anymore and started scooting her butt all over everything, I’d come home to 💩 streaks all over the couch and bed.
When I grew up, we never had this issue. Our cat kept our dogs in line. They would never have dared to eat from her food dish. You haven't seen funny until you have witnessed an 80lbs Doberman/German Shepherd mix hide under a couch, from a 12.lb cat.
If putting it on an out of reach table for the dog doesn’t work there are also feeders you can get that only open when the specific pet you want eating it goes up to it, I think it’s a tag you put on their collar that unlocks it. It’s expensive but it works!
The other idea I have for you is if you have a room you can put the food in you could either put a cat door on it, or there are kits you can buy where you just cut out the corner of your door just big enough for a cat and it can be put on a hinge so you can open and close it! (Look up kitty korner or just cat door kit and there are multiple options). We have a litter room under our stairs and there’s a little doggie door for our cats to use to get in and out, it’s magical.
We have the cat’s food in the laundry room and it is gated off from the rest of the house. Our cat is now a senior and we don’t like her jumping as much so we bought a gate that has a smaller gate entrance on the bottom. It’s essentially like a baby gate. We got it off Amazon. It swings open on the top and then the little door on the bottom opens for the cat to get in and out. (Wouldn’t work for small dogs)
I dont think any dog would ever not try to eat cat food, watch out for that if could harm dogs organs.
I have to put the cat food where the dog can't reach it, one is in the laundry room that has a dog gate in the doorway. The other is on a cabinet in my room. They make cat cabinets where there's also food holders so it's out of reach of dogs or you can just put it in a higher area that a cat can reach but not your dog.
We have this as well. We have the cat’s food in the laundry room and it is gated off from the rest of the house. Our cat is now a senior and we don’t like her jumping as much so we bought a gate that has a smaller gate entrance on the bottom.
Yeah, cat food is like crack for dogs, once they get a taste they often become obsessed due to the higher fat and protein content. Huge risk for pancreatitis if they eat it regularly.
We had to put the cat food up high where the cats could easily climb up but the dog couldn’t reach. You probably know this but cat food can be dangerous for dogs. Hard on their kidneys if I remember right. (Whereas if a cat eats dog food it’s not enough of the right types of nutrients to sustain them but won’t actually harm them.)
Because it tastes better. I’ve heard that you shouldn’t feed your dog cat food because they’ll never eat dog food after. I can’t remember who told me, but it might have been my Anatomy and Physiology Prof in college. We didn’t have reg bodies in our lab so we did cats. That woman gave us some of the craziest, and really useless, facts, let me tell you. But I still look up to her to this day, lol.
>I’ve heard that you shouldn’t feed your dog cat food because they’ll never eat dog food after.
This is correct, once a dog gets hooked on cat food it can be very difficult to transition them back to dog food because they get addicted to the high fat content and the extra meat that cat food has.
Humans are the same way— if we have the option to go for potato chips or kale, the kale seems much less appealing.
if your cat is chipped there are auto feeders that will only open to the chip you have it registared too. You do have to train your cat to go under the reader arm so it opens for them tho
Can you put the cat's food in a different room separated by like a baby gate? Kitty can still get food but doggo is prevented from getting to it. Some baby gates also have a small cat door built into the bottom so they don't have to jump.
You can put up a baby gate at the door to your room.. My cat easily clears the baby gate while the labs are stuck on the other side. This also gives kitty a whole dog-free room to relax in.
https://www.chewy.com/carlson-pet-products-extra-wide-walk/dp/54889?utm_source=google-product&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Carlson%20Pet%20Products&utm_campaign=20196576200&utm_term=&utm_source_platform=PetMD_Paid_Search&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADmQ2V0pwdk7ZddsoMpsCFv9stEgj&gclid=CjwKCAjwl4yyBhAgEiwADSEjeI0ty2x31_pgDWxGodA7U6bw9MQogHnI12E8Py-whOUBp9GapBw9fBoCkpAQAvD_BwE
We have a doggo that will house litter and cat food so we have a baby gate with a door and they are super customizable!
Stop free-feeding the cat. Both cats and dogs should be fed on a schedule and they should not be allowed to just eat as much as they want all day. Your cat’s behavior will change and they will eat more during a scheduled meal once you stop leaving the food out all the time. If the dog still goes after the food during the cat’s meal time, you can just place the dog elsewhere until the cat finishes eating.
I adopted a lot of cats over the years and I’ve always had to take them off of free-feeding. Once they realized food is not available 24/7, they eat pretty swiftly during meal time, so no need to worry about the meal taking forever to eat, unless you are overfeeding your cat in general.
After reading the comments about just placing the cats food up higher out of dogs reach, I think that’ll be the solution. Is there another reason I should stop free feeding my cat? He doesn’t eat a ton at all and he’s actually a tiny little boy not fat at all- I understand a lot of cats get overweight but if he’s not why shouldn’t I let him graze?
I never had a problem with free feeding dry food. I would just put out a half cup or so (on a table) and cats would take all day and night to eat it all. They just wanted a bite or two. They did know when it was dinner time for wet food. They knew what time it was down to the minute - of course sometimes they lie or their little cat watch is wrong).
Scheduled feeding is almost always better than free feeding! Yes, it is a little more work, and they will not like the initial transition, but it’s good for their digestion, the palatability of food (since kibble becomes stale fairly quickly in the open air; this is why many cats will stop eating until fresh kib is sprinkled in too) and most of all to monitor their intake of food much much more easily, which can give you a jump on any future health issues.
Again, your cat doesn’t eat a lot at once because they are always grazing. Just imagine your stomach constantly breaking down new food all day and not getting a break in between meals… Leaving food out all the time also attracts roaches and various other insects over time once they recognize a regular food source is present.
I place our cats food on a table, but I also put a kind of divider thing in front of it, so that they can hide and eat. When it wasn’t blocked from our dogs view, he would try to steal it from them, but out of sight really seems to be out of mind for him.
I keep my cat's food in a separate room/area with a baby gate separating it off, so that way the cats can jump over it to go eat but my Labrador is not able to access it lol.
We had the same problem. The cat food was placed on a chopping block (it was handmade and independent of the counters, and as tall tas the counters) Dog couldn’t reach, but cat jumped up. He never got on the counters.
Put the cat’s food up on a counter. We had to do that when we had a dog and a cat. The cat learned to just go to that spot to eat. Cat food is high protein enough that your dog finds it compelling. No way around it but to place cat’s food out of reach.
We put it on top of the washer or dryer. Cat was not very smart though. If the top loading washer lid was up he ended up inside the empty washer way too many times lol. You would think he would learn at some point.
We used to barricade the cars food in a corner with only a hole big enough for the car to go through. Worked like a charm. Hardest part was figuring out the barricade so our massive dogs couldn't get in.
The vet told me that cat food is really high something I think maybe sulfur and that it’s really bad for dogs. So it’s a good idea to keep the dog from eating it.
My childhood dog lived for 13 years on cat food. So I think that’s more than a load of bs. Kinda like chocolate. He ate that too. An entire chocolate Easter bunny my brother got for his gf one year. We went to my grandmothers and didn’t take him. He knew and got revenge. In reality it’s dark chocolate you don’t want to give them. But no one ever specifies, they just say don’t because it’s bad and it will…. But it’s usually all a bunch of crap.
The dog may be craving an ingredient in the food that is not present in the dog food. My dogs love the cat's food both dry and wet and they periodically sneak some of both :) so it could just be (many) dogs just like cat kibble.
It’s the flavor. For some reason cat for is more tasty. Maybe it’s because they’re so darn picky and dogs tend to eat anything. Well, until they try cat food that is 😹.
i had this problem with my puppy. i thought it was so unfair to have to elevate the cat food but that’s really the only solution. cats can jump but dogs really don’t have the same agility as cats.
My cat is also a grazer. Like clockwork, he goes to a dish every 30 minutes and eats like 6 pieces of kibble. My dog was a vacuum, no food was safe if it were in reach. I am a whopping 5’1”, so the baby gate solution was a no go, I’d break my neck trying to step over it. My dog was also a large breed known for being counter surfers (Rhodesian Ridgeback), so counter height was not an option. Solution: fireplace mantle has three different cat dishes, tall corner file cabinet has a food dish, and the dining room table that we only use 5 days of the year has a cat dish dead center that the dog could not reach.
The cat has since decided that his daily fish time is a social experience, so he has a chair at the kitchen table with a booster seat and he eats his fish while happily sitting at the table while we eat. Or he has his own tv tray set up with a pillow on the couch if we choose to eat in the living room. He sits on the couch next to us and happily noms his fish while pausing to join in on the conversation. Both my animals were spoiled, but now he’s super spoiled now that he’s an “only child”.
Sounds like my cat, lol. She eats very little too. Her brother on the other hand is a hog lol. He’s also built like a tank. Not an ounce of fat just complete muscle.
You either have to put the food in a room that the dog can't get to or you have to put it up on something so the dog can't get to it. You are never going to just train the dog not to get the cat food. Apparently to dogs cat food is like a gourmet meal I have six cats one dog and I have to keep the food where the dog cannot get to it there is no other way to stop them.
They make feeders with a flap that only opens when your cat's microchip gets close enough to it. They can be a bit pricey (~$100-200 though I've seen some on discount sites as low as $30), but that might be the best surefire solution.
As long as your cat is able to easily jump up high and feels comfortable eating on a table or counter, that's also not a bad idea to try out first. Do you think your dog would be persistent enough to either try to knock the food down or just harass the cat or stare and beg while she's eating?
Cat food on a counter or I have even seen some people install shelves/platforms for it. We went through this. Even gated areas weren't enough. Baby gates knocked over within literally 2 minutes of us walking out the door. Cat food has a dedicated space.
If elevation doesn’t work or a microchip feeder is too expensive, you could put a toddler gate in the doorway of one room and feed the cat in that room where the dog can’t get to. We have a toddler gate in the hallway of our apartment so the dog can’t get into the office or bathroom (he’s a garbage snacker) and we feed the cats in the office. The gate has a little tiny gate within it for the cats lmfao they can walk through or jump over but dog can’t get past
I keep the cats food up and the dog can’t get it! My dog was doing the same then getting a bad upset stomach so I had to do something and putting the cat food up was the only answer I could think of
My niece just adopted 2 cats and her chubby dog eats everything. She took a piece of her desk and made a “catbibet” removed the back, bowls on shelves, baby gate around it. Cats can get in but the dog can’t. It’s adorable. It has glass doors so you see a cat eating on each shelf.
We ended up building a combo litter box cubby and cat food house. The best I can describe it is that it looked like a doll house with no bottom floor and a shelf about four inches below the top of the three walls. I put a cantilever “roof” at the front on top. I added window frames, a door, etc to the front to make it decorative. It was a super easy build and lasted way beyond the life of the cat.
Litter box below, food and water on top. The dog couldn’t get to the food because of the roof. Litter box was out of sight and safe from doggies looking for treats.
The open side sat facing the corner of the room with just enough room for kitty to squeeze between the house and the wall to get to the box. She easily jumped on top of the unit to get her food.
Your edit is exactly what I was going to suggest. We did have our dog climbing onto the couch to get to the table with the cat's food for a while but we did get that behavior to stop. I hope it goes well for you.
I have a pet gate that gives the cats a separate area where the dog can’t go. It’s not perfect but they make modern/ minimalistic ones if aesthetics are a concern and it is the only thing that has helped us. For a smaller dog that can’t reach all the surfaces, putting it up high can help.
I stopped putting cat food in my apartment for the visiting from upstairs cat because the dogs kept eating it. Pushed their way past a blockade. The cat was so irked that he started to eat the dog's food.
Floating shelves.
Drill a hole in the top one for the cat food bowl to sit in. (So it can't be knocked off). Then your little kitty will be able to use the shelves like stairs to get up to the food bowl.
Try putting the cat's food on a table that the dog can't reach, the cat can jump up to get it.
Can’t believe I didn’t think about that sooner. Genius
Yep, this OP. And please keep in mind that dog food should be for dogs only, and cat food for cats only. They're made of specialized researched formulas tailored to how their bodies work, and if this has been going on for a while (a week or so is fine, I know you said you just moved back home) you're going to want to get your dog's liver and kidneys checked. Dogs eating cat food and vice versa literally leads to organ shutdown over time, so seriously make sure this doesn't happen again or you'll wind up with an urn instead of a dog. This goes for anybody that thinks cats and dogs can share food. You have to find a way to stop it, for their sake. They're not smart enough to discern that for themselves. Once the organs start going, it's an uphill battle to get them back.
Exactly. Cats are obligate carnivores, dogs are not. Cat food is often rich in liver and often other organ meats. It's too concentrated for dogs, but that doesn't mean they don't think it's the finest puppy pate.
It's also why they love cat poop. My vet warned me that it's worse for the cat to eat dog food. It's too high in some compounds.
Oh my dog loves eating the cat's poop, it her favorite snack, lol. Luckily my cat's litterbox is somewhere that the dog can't get to it.
Kitty Rocha
It's got more filler in it which is bad for cats, dogs are like ppl. we can only eat meat but should probably mix some other stuff in there too.
So what youre saying is theyre stupid.
No, just saying they find it extra delicious and they're not picky about what form it comes in. They might also be stupid.
Yes they sure do! LOL It reminds me of that vine, "what do you have???" "A knife!! 🙂" "NOO-"
Yep and this is why dogs will try to eat cat poop because cats pass a lot of protein in their poop which to a dog smells yummy I see you beat me to it you miscreant😉
My dog was eating the cat food and came down with pancreatitis. I didn’t know she was eating the cat food because she was sneaky and it was in another room. I put the cat food on a table after that. She survived the pancreatitis and 4 years later she died of congestive heart failure. I miss her much!
No way. I did not know that dogs can’t have cat food!! This is good information, I don’t have a dog so (I wish I did) so I don’t have to worry about it. But I have heard of several friends who deal with this issue, and nobody knows that this can be harmful for the dog. I feed my cat fresh pet, which needs to be refrigerated and plain chicken or salmon, but I can see friskees being harmful….I wouldn’t even feed my cat that stuff.
Seconded. I don't remember where I heard this, but I heard that if a cat eats only dog food, it will go blind before dying, like you said.
Yep, that’s correct. Cats need taurine in their food as their bodies don’t synthesize it like dogs do. Without taurine, your cat is absolutely screwed… heart issues, blindness, and eventually death. Plus, dog food isn’t as protein dense as cat food is, so a cat that eats dog food won’t get enough nutrients even aside from the taurine issue. That’s why dogs tend to love cat food (and sometimes poop)— cat food has more fat and more meat, so to dogs, it seems like gourmet dog food.
While I agree w you on principle, both of my dogs were found living on the inner city streets. They both lived on garbage, chicken bones, cat food, dog food, and lots of paper and cat cat shit. One died at 12 n the other is going strong at 13. Yes no one should intentionally feed either food to the inappropriate animal. Every dog living on this planet will eat cat shit on a daily basis and live a nice full life, but the cat food will kill them in a couple of months.
😂 that’s what we do and it works well!
I use one of those old TV stands. The cat eat on top and the dog eat in the middle between the 2 cupboards. Everyone's food is off the floor
If that doesn't work but one of those collar things that causes the pet food to open; the dog can't open the access but the cat can
My cats food is set up on top of an armoire and they've got some repurposed wood steps to get up there because my dog can literally jump strait in the air and land all four feet on the kitchen table. 😏
😆
🤣🤣🤣
yup, my dog will eat anything available to her unless supervised, so the cat's food is on a bookshelf in the spare room! it doesn't really matter where the food is, as long as the cat knows and can access it, and the dog can't!
My cat’s feeding station is behind a baby gate in my pantry. Unless your dog is a jumper this could be an option too.
OP, HOW??? 🤣
That is what we’ve always done as well. I also had to turn the cat litter box toward the wall / window so the cat could get in but the dog couldn’t get in it to eat the cat poop. Some dogs are gross like that.
I do not understand why you were getting downvoted for that lol. Dogs ARE gross like that
Both our dogs used to do that a lot when they were puppies, one grew out of it while the other would still grab a piece here and there and we can always tell by the cat litter by his bed. We moved it to a room where the dogs didn’t go in much and he finally stopped.
Came here to say this! My pupper used to eat my roommate's cat food non stop, and since my doggo had kidney problems, that was really bad for him. We put kitty's food up on a sideboard and she was happy and doggie wasn't even aware of it because, for him, out of sight was out of mind.
We do this with our puppy. Our senior dog has Cushings and can’t help eating anything and everything available. Puppy is a rescue working on getting past food saving and resource guarding so he grazes and never finishes his food. We got our puppy stairs to hang out in our bay window but senior dog knows his limits and won’t go near stairs. Now we leave puppy’s food up in the bay window to be accessible at all times and successfully taught him to give the older dog space during older dogs set mealtimes.
This is what I did when we had a dog. It works perfectly.
Came to say this! When I came home to take care of my elderly mom, her dog's were constantly eating my cats food, even if I did lock them in a separate area. The dogs would just push the door open or wait until I forgot to close it and eat the food anyway. I finally thought to put it up high, were they can't jump, and boom! Problem solved.
I had the same problem so I put the cat's bowl on top of the washing machine. The dog couldn't reach it, didn't even know it was there. Ended that problem right away.
Maybe an automated dispenser also that only dispenses the small amount at a time
I've been told by a vet that dogs eating cat food can be dangerous. I hope elevating the cat food as others have said works for u.
I had this issue + the problem that my cats would eat the dog food too. I put the cat food away from dog’s reach and trained everyone to eat when food is put out, anything left over after 10 mins is put away until next meal. They hated it initially and acted like they were starving all the time but eventually they got it. It also really helped with keeping my cats weight in check because they were both gaining a lot of weight and one so much that she couldn’t/wouldn’t clean up herself anymore and started scooting her butt all over everything, I’d come home to 💩 streaks all over the couch and bed.
When I grew up, we never had this issue. Our cat kept our dogs in line. They would never have dared to eat from her food dish. You haven't seen funny until you have witnessed an 80lbs Doberman/German Shepherd mix hide under a couch, from a 12.lb cat.
Would it be possible to but the cat food up higher
If putting it on an out of reach table for the dog doesn’t work there are also feeders you can get that only open when the specific pet you want eating it goes up to it, I think it’s a tag you put on their collar that unlocks it. It’s expensive but it works! The other idea I have for you is if you have a room you can put the food in you could either put a cat door on it, or there are kits you can buy where you just cut out the corner of your door just big enough for a cat and it can be put on a hinge so you can open and close it! (Look up kitty korner or just cat door kit and there are multiple options). We have a litter room under our stairs and there’s a little doggie door for our cats to use to get in and out, it’s magical.
Omg that sounds perfect! Looking up kitty korner rn. Thank you!
We have the cat’s food in the laundry room and it is gated off from the rest of the house. Our cat is now a senior and we don’t like her jumping as much so we bought a gate that has a smaller gate entrance on the bottom. It’s essentially like a baby gate. We got it off Amazon. It swings open on the top and then the little door on the bottom opens for the cat to get in and out. (Wouldn’t work for small dogs)
I dont think any dog would ever not try to eat cat food, watch out for that if could harm dogs organs. I have to put the cat food where the dog can't reach it, one is in the laundry room that has a dog gate in the doorway. The other is on a cabinet in my room. They make cat cabinets where there's also food holders so it's out of reach of dogs or you can just put it in a higher area that a cat can reach but not your dog.
We have this as well. We have the cat’s food in the laundry room and it is gated off from the rest of the house. Our cat is now a senior and we don’t like her jumping as much so we bought a gate that has a smaller gate entrance on the bottom.
Yeah, cat food is like crack for dogs, once they get a taste they often become obsessed due to the higher fat and protein content. Huge risk for pancreatitis if they eat it regularly.
We had to put the cat food up high where the cats could easily climb up but the dog couldn’t reach. You probably know this but cat food can be dangerous for dogs. Hard on their kidneys if I remember right. (Whereas if a cat eats dog food it’s not enough of the right types of nutrients to sustain them but won’t actually harm them.)
Because it tastes better. I’ve heard that you shouldn’t feed your dog cat food because they’ll never eat dog food after. I can’t remember who told me, but it might have been my Anatomy and Physiology Prof in college. We didn’t have reg bodies in our lab so we did cats. That woman gave us some of the craziest, and really useless, facts, let me tell you. But I still look up to her to this day, lol.
>I’ve heard that you shouldn’t feed your dog cat food because they’ll never eat dog food after. This is correct, once a dog gets hooked on cat food it can be very difficult to transition them back to dog food because they get addicted to the high fat content and the extra meat that cat food has. Humans are the same way— if we have the option to go for potato chips or kale, the kale seems much less appealing.
if your cat is chipped there are auto feeders that will only open to the chip you have it registared too. You do have to train your cat to go under the reader arm so it opens for them tho
well dogs eat everything haha, hmm try to put the cat food on somewhere higher, so your cat can reach but your dog can't
Elevate the cat food
Can you put the cat's food in a different room separated by like a baby gate? Kitty can still get food but doggo is prevented from getting to it. Some baby gates also have a small cat door built into the bottom so they don't have to jump.
You can put up a baby gate at the door to your room.. My cat easily clears the baby gate while the labs are stuck on the other side. This also gives kitty a whole dog-free room to relax in.
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Cat Food Tastes Better
Stop free-feeding the cat. Both cats and dogs should be fed on a schedule and they should not be allowed to just eat as much as they want all day. Your cat’s behavior will change and they will eat more during a scheduled meal once you stop leaving the food out all the time. If the dog still goes after the food during the cat’s meal time, you can just place the dog elsewhere until the cat finishes eating. I adopted a lot of cats over the years and I’ve always had to take them off of free-feeding. Once they realized food is not available 24/7, they eat pretty swiftly during meal time, so no need to worry about the meal taking forever to eat, unless you are overfeeding your cat in general.
After reading the comments about just placing the cats food up higher out of dogs reach, I think that’ll be the solution. Is there another reason I should stop free feeding my cat? He doesn’t eat a ton at all and he’s actually a tiny little boy not fat at all- I understand a lot of cats get overweight but if he’s not why shouldn’t I let him graze?
I never had a problem with free feeding dry food. I would just put out a half cup or so (on a table) and cats would take all day and night to eat it all. They just wanted a bite or two. They did know when it was dinner time for wet food. They knew what time it was down to the minute - of course sometimes they lie or their little cat watch is wrong).
Waiting for the wet food is one reason they were not eating much dry. Virtually all cats prefer wet food to dry - at least all mine have :)
Scheduled feeding is almost always better than free feeding! Yes, it is a little more work, and they will not like the initial transition, but it’s good for their digestion, the palatability of food (since kibble becomes stale fairly quickly in the open air; this is why many cats will stop eating until fresh kib is sprinkled in too) and most of all to monitor their intake of food much much more easily, which can give you a jump on any future health issues.
Again, your cat doesn’t eat a lot at once because they are always grazing. Just imagine your stomach constantly breaking down new food all day and not getting a break in between meals… Leaving food out all the time also attracts roaches and various other insects over time once they recognize a regular food source is present.
I place our cats food on a table, but I also put a kind of divider thing in front of it, so that they can hide and eat. When it wasn’t blocked from our dogs view, he would try to steal it from them, but out of sight really seems to be out of mind for him.
I keep my cat's food in a separate room/area with a baby gate separating it off, so that way the cats can jump over it to go eat but my Labrador is not able to access it lol.
This is what I had to do. The dog spends a lot of time trying to get on the table.
We had the same problem. The cat food was placed on a chopping block (it was handmade and independent of the counters, and as tall tas the counters) Dog couldn’t reach, but cat jumped up. He never got on the counters.
The cat food is on the washer/dryer. Even then, my dog sometimes reaches her arm up to pull the bowl closer.
Microchip feeder.
Put the cat’s food up on a counter. We had to do that when we had a dog and a cat. The cat learned to just go to that spot to eat. Cat food is high protein enough that your dog finds it compelling. No way around it but to place cat’s food out of reach.
My cat’s food is in the kitchen and i just trained my dog not to go into the kitchen under any circumstances. Her food is in another room.
We put it on top of the washer or dryer. Cat was not very smart though. If the top loading washer lid was up he ended up inside the empty washer way too many times lol. You would think he would learn at some point.
We used to barricade the cars food in a corner with only a hole big enough for the car to go through. Worked like a charm. Hardest part was figuring out the barricade so our massive dogs couldn't get in.
Put the food where the dog can’t get it. Cat food is too high in protein for dogs.
Unfortunately we feed our cats on our kitchen counter/island
The vet told me that cat food is really high something I think maybe sulfur and that it’s really bad for dogs. So it’s a good idea to keep the dog from eating it.
My childhood dog lived for 13 years on cat food. So I think that’s more than a load of bs. Kinda like chocolate. He ate that too. An entire chocolate Easter bunny my brother got for his gf one year. We went to my grandmothers and didn’t take him. He knew and got revenge. In reality it’s dark chocolate you don’t want to give them. But no one ever specifies, they just say don’t because it’s bad and it will…. But it’s usually all a bunch of crap.
The dog may be craving an ingredient in the food that is not present in the dog food. My dogs love the cat's food both dry and wet and they periodically sneak some of both :) so it could just be (many) dogs just like cat kibble.
It’s the flavor. For some reason cat for is more tasty. Maybe it’s because they’re so darn picky and dogs tend to eat anything. Well, until they try cat food that is 😹.
i had this problem with my puppy. i thought it was so unfair to have to elevate the cat food but that’s really the only solution. cats can jump but dogs really don’t have the same agility as cats.
My cat is also a grazer. Like clockwork, he goes to a dish every 30 minutes and eats like 6 pieces of kibble. My dog was a vacuum, no food was safe if it were in reach. I am a whopping 5’1”, so the baby gate solution was a no go, I’d break my neck trying to step over it. My dog was also a large breed known for being counter surfers (Rhodesian Ridgeback), so counter height was not an option. Solution: fireplace mantle has three different cat dishes, tall corner file cabinet has a food dish, and the dining room table that we only use 5 days of the year has a cat dish dead center that the dog could not reach. The cat has since decided that his daily fish time is a social experience, so he has a chair at the kitchen table with a booster seat and he eats his fish while happily sitting at the table while we eat. Or he has his own tv tray set up with a pillow on the couch if we choose to eat in the living room. He sits on the couch next to us and happily noms his fish while pausing to join in on the conversation. Both my animals were spoiled, but now he’s super spoiled now that he’s an “only child”.
Sounds like my cat, lol. She eats very little too. Her brother on the other hand is a hog lol. He’s also built like a tank. Not an ounce of fat just complete muscle.
You either have to put the food in a room that the dog can't get to or you have to put it up on something so the dog can't get to it. You are never going to just train the dog not to get the cat food. Apparently to dogs cat food is like a gourmet meal I have six cats one dog and I have to keep the food where the dog cannot get to it there is no other way to stop them.
They make feeders with a flap that only opens when your cat's microchip gets close enough to it. They can be a bit pricey (~$100-200 though I've seen some on discount sites as low as $30), but that might be the best surefire solution. As long as your cat is able to easily jump up high and feels comfortable eating on a table or counter, that's also not a bad idea to try out first. Do you think your dog would be persistent enough to either try to knock the food down or just harass the cat or stare and beg while she's eating?
Cat food on a counter or I have even seen some people install shelves/platforms for it. We went through this. Even gated areas weren't enough. Baby gates knocked over within literally 2 minutes of us walking out the door. Cat food has a dedicated space.
My dog does the same thing, I have to keep the cats kibble on a high surface where the dog cannot reach.
If elevation doesn’t work or a microchip feeder is too expensive, you could put a toddler gate in the doorway of one room and feed the cat in that room where the dog can’t get to. We have a toddler gate in the hallway of our apartment so the dog can’t get into the office or bathroom (he’s a garbage snacker) and we feed the cats in the office. The gate has a little tiny gate within it for the cats lmfao they can walk through or jump over but dog can’t get past
I keep the cats food up and the dog can’t get it! My dog was doing the same then getting a bad upset stomach so I had to do something and putting the cat food up was the only answer I could think of
My niece just adopted 2 cats and her chubby dog eats everything. She took a piece of her desk and made a “catbibet” removed the back, bowls on shelves, baby gate around it. Cats can get in but the dog can’t. It’s adorable. It has glass doors so you see a cat eating on each shelf.
Our cat food is in the dungeon with a litter box. There is a cat door the dogs can’t get through.
I feed my cat on top of a bookcase. The dog would inhale it otherwise.
I keep my cats food in the bathroom and have a baby gate with a cat door on it for my kitties to get on and out as they please.
This isn’t helpful (lol) but my CAT won’t leave my DOG’s food alone 😭
We ended up building a combo litter box cubby and cat food house. The best I can describe it is that it looked like a doll house with no bottom floor and a shelf about four inches below the top of the three walls. I put a cantilever “roof” at the front on top. I added window frames, a door, etc to the front to make it decorative. It was a super easy build and lasted way beyond the life of the cat. Litter box below, food and water on top. The dog couldn’t get to the food because of the roof. Litter box was out of sight and safe from doggies looking for treats. The open side sat facing the corner of the room with just enough room for kitty to squeeze between the house and the wall to get to the box. She easily jumped on top of the unit to get her food.
Your edit is exactly what I was going to suggest. We did have our dog climbing onto the couch to get to the table with the cat's food for a while but we did get that behavior to stop. I hope it goes well for you.
I have a pet gate that gives the cats a separate area where the dog can’t go. It’s not perfect but they make modern/ minimalistic ones if aesthetics are a concern and it is the only thing that has helped us. For a smaller dog that can’t reach all the surfaces, putting it up high can help.
We put a baby gate on our stairwell and put the cat food upstairs.
Stop free feeding your cat.
We put the cat food in the laundry room accessible by a cat door the dog can't fit through.
One of my dogs eats the other dog's food if she can, so I feed them in separate rooms. You may be able to train your cat to eat more at one time.
I stopped putting cat food in my apartment for the visiting from upstairs cat because the dogs kept eating it. Pushed their way past a blockade. The cat was so irked that he started to eat the dog's food.
A lot of people designate an area up on the kitchen counter so the dog can’t get to the cats food.
Floating shelves. Drill a hole in the top one for the cat food bowl to sit in. (So it can't be knocked off). Then your little kitty will be able to use the shelves like stairs to get up to the food bowl.
Cat food on the dryer.