How to spot changes in your cat’s eating habits

3rd July 2019

If your cat starts to eat in a different way, they could have developed an illness which is affecting their appetite. Many of us lead busy lives and are out of the house for much of the day, so it can be difficult to identify changes in eating habits if your cat eats from a standard bowl. At Sure Petcare, we have the answer.

SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder Connect

The SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder Connect takes the stress out of meal times, by keeping track of your pet’s eating habits over time. It connects to the Sure Petcare app via a Hub, and can tell you when your cat eats, how much they eat and how often they eat. This data is displayed in graphs in the app so that you can start to learn your pet’s normal feeding patterns, helping you to spot changes.

What to do if you spot changes

As soon as you notice any changes in your cat’s eating habits, take them to the vet for a check-up in case the cause of the change is a medical one. Getting treatment at this early stage could make all the difference to your cat’s health and wellbeing. Your vet might find it useful to view your cat’s feeding patterns in the Sure Petcare app so it’s a good idea to show them during the check-up.

Other reasons for changes

In addition to illnesses, there are other factors that could affect your cat’s eating habits:

A new addition to the pet family

Your cat might be unsettled by the presence of a new cat on the scene. This could cause them to eat quickly if they’re worried about their food being stolen or eat less if the other cat is more dominant and they feel intimidated. The Microchip Pet Feeder Connect will only open for a registered cat to prevent food stealing, so this should help with the situation. Cats don’t like to share food and prefer privacy when they’re eating so it’s a good idea to place your cats’ food bowls in different areas of the house.

Intruder animals

If the neighbour’s cat is getting into your house, it can have the same effect on your cat as adding a new pet to the family. Keep intruder cats out with a Microchip Cat Flap. If you use a Microchip Cat Flap Connect, you can also keep track of your pet’s comings and goings and it uses the same app as the Microchip Pet Feeder Connect so you can view data from both products in one place.

Changes in diet

If you have decided to move your cat onto a new brand of food or they have started on a prescription diet, it may take them some time to get used to the new food and might affect their eating routine. When changing foods, it’s best to do this gradually by mixing the new food with their old food and changing the ratio gradually.