Does your cat eat too fast and then throw up her food? This is actually more common than you might think, but scarf and barf kitties are an easy fix… with a little help from a cool cat parent.
Why Does Your Cat Eat Too Fast?
If you live in a home with multiple pets, cats will often scarf their food down – for fear that if they don’t eat it fast, someone else will. This is simply their instinctive nature and has nothing to do with your other pets being ‘bullies’. Food is a cat’s trophy in many cases, so they don’t want another animal to take it from them.
In some cases, cats can feel vulnerable while eating around other pets in the home – because when they’re focused on consuming food, they aren’t able to protect themselves as easily.
If your kitty struggles with scarf and barf – and you live in a home with multiple pets – try feeding your kitty in a separate room, unavailable to the other animals. This alone can help slow the eating – by letting them relax a bit to enjoy their food.
How To Help A Cat That Eats Too Fast
If your kitty is eating too fast and vomiting regardless of where she consumes her food, try slowing down the eating itself. You can do this by purchasing food puzzles, Indoor Hunting Feeders or use some simple DIY tricks. Here’s a few that we’ve seen help.
- Use a muffin pan. Spread small amounts of food around the muffin pan in different slots. This forces our kitties to move around to get to the food. This helps slow eating and improves digestion.
- Make your own hunting feeders out of toilet paper rolls. You can close one end of the roll and put small amounts of food in the other side. Then hide the food around the house. This is a great enrichment exercise and helps stop scarf and barf in its tracks!
- Feed several extra small meals 10+ times per day. This obviously only works for those who can stay at home all day, but feeding small portions several times per day will help digestion greatly.
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