Keeping Bunny out of the Cat Food…

[Cottontail]

I know there are a handful of bunny-slaves that also have cats ruling their homes as well; so here’s the situation.

Pete LOVES dry cat food.  He will do anything to get his little lips on it.  Although the vet has reassured me that a little cat food here and there isn’t going to hurt him (lots of fillers), it does leave me with a pouting/hungry cat. I thought I had found a solution to this by putting Zoeys food in the kitchen on the scary laminate flooring, and it worked pretty well for several months.  Not anymore.  Pete has discovered that he will not actually die from lack of traction and now follows me, slip-sliding into the kitchen on a regular basis.  He has also discovered that the cat food is there and has begun raiding it once again.  Now I need a new plan.

  The other issue is that Zoey is going on 10 years old and has arthritic hips, so she doesn’t like to jump to get to food.  She’s also a big girl that has to have plenty of space…  There is nowhere that I can think of that she can and will go that Pete won’t go as well.  He actually tends to get up higher and into tighter spaces than she ever does.  So any suggestions on where I can place her dry food that Pete won’t raid it in the middle of the night?  Or any tricks for keeping bunnies out of cat food?  I’m at a bit of a loss.

[Hazel]

We actually have the same problem. Our cat is all over the dog’s food whenever we’re not looking… You could try to divide the food into small portions so that she will eat it all in one sitting, and then repeat throughout the day whenever she gets hungry again. That way Peter won’t get a chance to eat any. It’s a bit tedious of course, but it works pretty well for us.

[Roberta]

Could you sit the dish on a shallow tray of water that Zoey can reach the dish without difficulty but Peter would get his paws damp. That might slow him down.

[Cottontail]

Hazel – That’s what I’ve been doing today, much to Zoeys dismay. She’s a creature of habit so I get the howling alert when her bowl empties..

Roberta – I hadn’t thought of that, but honestly I’m not sure if it will work with Peter or not. He doesn’t care if his front paws get wet in the pursuit of food. lol His normal salad bowl usually has a bit of standing water in the bottom from the rinse and he stands in it so that he can rummage for the “good stuff” in the salad. He’ll also splash his water bowl in protest if it gets too warm in the apartment… so apparently wet doesn’t phase him too much.

Thank you both for the input! I look forward to any more suggestions anyone may have on how to keep the kitty-nibbles away from Pete!

[Author]

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