Last Updated on August 14, 2020 by Ellen Christian
This post on how to feed your cat was inspired by a product provided for review. All opinions are mine and mine alone.
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Learning how to feed your cat can help keep them healthy. As a woman who owns three cats, this is important to me. Just like I want to be healthy & watch what I feed my family, I want our cats to be healthy as well. Since all three of our cats are inside cats and all three have been fixed, weight gain is something that we struggle with. We do watch the amount we feed them and they get an indoor/weight control formula of cat food. One of the challenges that I see with indoor cats is that some of their normal behaviors don’t happen as often. While we have a cat “tree”, it’s nothing like the huge trees outside they could be climbing. We have play mice and balls for them to stalk but I’m sure it’s not anywhere near as exciting as a real mouse.
How to Feed Your Cat
In the wild, your cat would have to find their food. Once they located their prey, they would have to stalk it and chase it before eating. In our house, the food bowl is always in the same spot in the living room. It doesn’t move or go anywhere. They don’t need to do anything but walk up to the bowl and eat. Cats were never meant to have an endless buffet of food available to them which is probably why many cats are overweight. We keep our cats inside for their safety so I don’t want them to be outside running and hunting.
The Stimulo Interactive Cat Feeder is designed to replicate the way cats would eat in nature. Made of polypropylene (human food grade plastic), this interactive cat feeder encourages your cat to hunt for and retrieve their food. The Stimulo features a broad base with nine holes to hold food. It also has nine tubes that can be inserted into the base. When you first introduce your cat to the feeder, you can use the base alone. The cat can see the food and scoop it out with their paw. Or, if you fill it higher, they can simply eat from the hole. As your cat becomes more familiar with the interactive feeder, you add the shorter tubes. They can see the food but will need to scoop it out with a paw to eat it. Once they are even more familiar with it, you can add in the higher tubes which requires more effort to remove the food.
We have three cats. Colors is 10 years old and began her life as an outdoor cat & then we adopted her from the Humane Society. She is our Grand Dame of the house. Heather is 7 years old. She spent the first 4 years of her life as an outdoor/barn cat. When friends of ours moved, they could not take her and we adopted her. We joke around that she is not very bright because she tries to do outside things in in the house – like digging under the door (into the carpet) to get underneath the door. Scout is the baby of the family. He is about 2 1/2 and we got him from the Humane Society when he was very young. I don’t believe he has spent any of his time outside.
Surprisingly, Heather got the Stimulo interactive feeder right off. I started with a few tubes and a few empty holes & she went right over and scooped out the food. Colors was a bit hesitant but after a few hours she was scooping food out just like Heather was. Scout on the other hand is our problem child. He will eat out of the Stimulo if we fill the holes up with food to the top & do not put any tubes in it. I have seen him scoop the food out of the holes a few times but for the most part, he will sit and meow at the feeder if the holes are not full. I am hoping that with more exposure he will get used to it more.
If you want to learn how to feed your cat in a more natural way, I would definitely recommend the Stimulo interactive feeder. I love that you can customize how you use it based on how easily your cat adjusts to using it. It’s a great choice for pets who are overweight because it will control the ingestion speed and will help reduce chances of weight problems. Order online and Aikiou will donate 10% of the proceeds to a shelter of your choice.
Aikiou also offers slow feeders and interactive feeders for dogs – based on their size – as well as dog toys. They are working on a line of products for small pets like hamsters.
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Ellen is a busy mom of a 24-year-old son and 29-year-old daughter. She owns six blogs and is addicted to social media. She believes that it doesn’t have to be difficult to lead a healthy life. She shares simple healthy living tips to show busy women how to lead fulfilling lives. If you’d like to work together, email info@confessionsofanover-workedmom.com to chat.
That is so neat! I have never seen anything like it before.
I have a question if you don’t mind, I have 4 cats and I would love to try this for them, I know they would love it. My question is when you have more then one cat how do you keep the others out of the feeders that are not their own so that each cat is getting the proper amount of food and getting a good amount of hunt time-Thanks!
Hi Jennifer – Scout eats one type of food & Heather and Colors eat another. Scout has his own feeder and Heather and Colors share one. We just pick up Scout’s feeder when he is done eating. He does not like the food that Heather & Colors eat so no problem there.
Okay, this is funny! I see little thought bubbles over your cat’s heads and they are swearing at you 🙂 Very cute way to keep your cat busy!
We just adopted two kittens–fixed and staying inside–who would love the challenge. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
I have never seen anything like this before. Very neat. We love our family cat, so this would be awesome for him to use.
Oh how cool. I’ve got four. I tried keeping them in. My screens didn’t survive – now they are in/out. Harry like mousie brains which is good for the barn. And gophers which is good for the garden. The other three just lounge in the sun.
I think they would love this. I’ll have to check it out.