I notice some people mentioned having trouble keeping the dogs from eating the cat food and wanted to share our accidental solution.
When mopping the kitchen floor, I set the cat food on the tray of an old highchair. The cat saw me do it and immediately jumped into the chair to eat. The other 2 cats saw him do it and when he got down, they tried it, too. All 3 of them have been eating there ever since.
I've been fighting that battle for sometime myself...my problem is my cat is sort of old and fat and I don't want to make him jump up and down from anyplace that is too high. My dogs are only a little larger than my cat, so where ever he can jump...they can jump.
When he was younger I put it on a cabinet counter in a rarely used bathroom.
Posts: 1806 | Location: Texas | Registered: Jun 04, 2008
I guess I got lucky with Callie. When we adopted her, she had come from a full family with other cats and dogs. The lady told me that she had always placed Callie's food on top of the washer/dryer to keep the dogs out of her food. Lola (our other cat) would eat Callie's food if I kept it within her reach...so we ended up going back with putting Cal's food on top of the W&D. She jumps right up there with no problems.
Not sure how we'll handle it when callie gets a little older. I guess we'll cross that bridge later. But for now, Callie is a big jumper and doesn't mind going up to eat her food.
"Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul remains unawakened"
Posts: 2109 | Location: Kentucky, USA | Registered: Oct 19, 2005
We keep ours up and away from the dogs. Now we have a newly rescued large dog who can knock over the cat platform--so the cats have their own room and we feed them in there. With 3 large dogs, this is the best that we can do. Otherwise, the dogs will eat the cat food and get sick.
Posts: 868 | Location: Ohio | Registered: Feb 25, 2006
My cats have their own room with a gate at the door. But I also have a dish for them on the washer in the kitchen.
Another solution is to feed the cats in a closet. Leave the door open just enough for the cat to get through by using a short rod with a hook on each end. Or put a hole in bottom of the closet door, smaller than the dog .
Posts: 55 | Location: South Carolina | Registered: Oct 28, 2008
We put the cat food on top of a 6' dresser. Built a ramp from the dresser to the windowsill. Even as he got older he could jump the short distance from the bed to the windowsill.
Posts: 1891 | Location: North MN & Northern AR | Registered: Oct 01, 2002
How do you keep the dogs from eating the cat box droppings? That is a bigger issue in our house.
Friends with multiple cats & dogs place cat food & litter boxes in area off limits to dogs or purchased an auto sweep litter box. From observations, if we ever get another cat, I'll invest in an auto sweep covered cat box
Posts: 2237 | Location: NE of S.F. | Registered: Apr 13, 2006
I made a small gate for the doorway to one room and keep the majority of the litter boxes in that room. I also have one behind a chair, facing the wall so only a cat can fit between the wall and the door. My dogs are bigger than a bischon, so it works for me.
The gate is just strips of lath (1"x1/2") screwed into an HHH shape and hinged to the door frame. A hook & eye keeps it closed.
Posts: 55 | Location: South Carolina | Registered: Oct 28, 2008
My mother didn't bother trying....so the poodle ate cat food. At least she knew to get cat food instead of dog food because otherwise the cat would've suffered from lack of taurine.
Posts: 205 | Location: central IL | Registered: Jan 20, 2007
I found a training aid, similar to a bark collar. It has a disk you place in front of whatever you want Rover to keep out of. He (she)wears a collar with a beeper/zapper that activates whenever the dog gets from 2 to 12 ft of disk (you set the distance). It works GREAT! I only had to use it overnight several nights(that's his naughty time!) and Opie caught on. You can get extra disks for garbage, cat box/food etc. It's not all that expensive either. The one I got is made by INNOTEK and called ZONES Pet-Proof Barrier.
since the dog hate baths we put the cat food dish in the tub....... course we catch the cat one in particular eating from the dog food dish on occasion....... we have 2 bathrooms so the downstairs tub gets used very rarely....it works for us...... they all have the same water system and that works ok for us Jennifer/fabric_maniac
Posts: 55 | Location: Mexico, MO | Registered: Mar 12, 2006
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