Pets are interesting, they are loveable, they complete your life. There is no doubt about it that there is something therapeutic in pets and based on the stories of many people, they have helped most of us throughout some tough times.
Having a pet means having responsibility. It is another living being that needs attention, care, love and discipline. We all understand what it is like to love someone and/or something, we know how to give them the attention that they need, we do care about them because that goes closely with two other premises but when it comes to discipline, this is where some of us fail, and depending on the pet you own, fail miserably.
Just like us, each pet has a personality. Some are cuddly, some are stubborn and some just don’t care about anything. Discipline is something they need in life because, evolutionary, they have certain orders of things in their lives, and they need that from us as well. If we fail to create that order we create anarchy and all hell breaks loose.
Today we are discussing having two types of pets under the same roof, and we are discussing feeding time, which can be very painful and frustrating for some people. If you have these types of problems, read this through and visit MaineCoonHawaii to deal with your pets feeding issues.
Ok, so we have established that having a dog and a cat or multiple of them, can create rather large issues when it comes to food time. This article today will try to explain the things you can and need to do for everything to go as civil as possible.
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Training
Ok, this might seem a bit silly since you probably tried something of this sort and it failed, and this is why you are reading this, right?! Well, for all of those that haven’t tried to train their pets not to eat each other’s food, read up. So far, every pet owner has figured out that to train your pet you need to have an incentive and a “punishment” for every action.
When we say punishment, we do not mean you beat your pet, relax, we love them as well. We suggest a very strong and harsh no or a raised voice, especially if they aren’t accustomed to that. It always works fine. Whenever your cat comes to eat your dog’s food or vice versa, you have to react and harshly say “NO!”. This will discourage them from coming near other pets’ food and if they obey you can give them a treat. Also, try and leave treats in their respective bowls whenever they do something good. This will make them remember where it is and where should they go.
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Separation
Sometimes these things need a little work and effort from your side for everything to go as smooth and as civil as possible. Being a pet owner means you will have to work twice as much with your pets, but it all plays out in the end. When it comes to mealtime, try and separate your pets. One room in the house for the cat and the other for the dog. If the cat eats in the kitchen then the dog can have its food in the dining room.
This way you set boundaries and you allow them to have their personal space during this time. Whenever they try to invade each other’s space during feeding, resort to step number one and react harshly. Animals are instinctive beings and they are all about boundaries and limits which is why this is very important to do if you are having this kind of issue.
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Separate feeding time
If step 2 fails the next best thing you can do is separate their mealtimes. Have your dog eat at a certain point in time and your cat later on or different point. What you have to do here as well as monitor the feeding times of both pets and see which one of them is more interested in the other one’s food.
This way you can react toward that pet in particular and if everything works OK, then you can slowly, down the line, try and put their meal times closer together for your convenience. It is all a bit of trial and error, but when you succeed, this pain will pay off and you will have a lot fewer issues and a lot less time spent as a prison warden among rival gangs.
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Dog/cat proof feeders
Now there is the last resort that is widely available to most of us who have these problems with our pets. Smart people that know how to best utilize technology have made our cat/dog proof feeders. These are your electronic devices that hold your cat or dog food and that are programmed just for a certain pet. Now when we say programmed some of these devices come pre-programmed and all you have to do is put the chip that comes with it to a pet that is assigned that feeder, while others come with a bit of finagling to make it work. You will still receive the feeder and a chip that is assigned to that bowl but you will have to “learn” the feeder how to respond and where.
The way these operate is that the chip you are going to attach to the pet’s collar is an IR reader and as soon as the feeder reads that chip it will open a little hatch and your pet will be able to eat. As soon as the pet is far enough away that little hatch closes and the food is safe from invaders. The only thing you have to watch out for is the adjustment period that your pet needs for this type of feeder. Since it is operated by batteries and since it has moving parts, it might freak them out a bit in the beginning. There are also opening and closing sounds that the hatch makes, so they also have to get used to that. It is a quick and easy adjustment, at least for most pets so we don’t see the reason why you should have too many problems. If you do, then try the second brand of these cat/dog proof feeders that are more smooth and less noisy.
