I have 2 male bengals - one is 1 year old which I raised from a kitten and one is 2.5 years old which I adopted about 3 months ago. The issue I'm having is the older male cat constantly trying to eat my younger cat's food.

I feed them 1/2 of their daily serving in the morning and 1/2 at night. My younger cat likes to eat his food slowly throughout the day in small nibbles, while the older cat eats it in full and always wants more- so then he eats my younger cats food.

Things I have tried with no success:
Putting my younger cat's food on the fridge and leaving my older cats food on the floor (the older cat eventually jumps up and eats).
Putting older cat in my office with the door closed and putting his food bowl down (he won't eat until i open the door)

This has also now made my younger cat not eat when older cat is around and he has been starting to try to eat my older cats food now.

I think it has something to do with dominance AND different eating habits.

Does anybody have any advice? I'm really frustrated that I have to monitor their eating habits so closely for hours a day. It's driving me a little crazy!

I’ve seen some posts where people have gone to great lengths to solve this problem. I recall one lady had her cats wearing magnetic collars which allowed entrance to a specially designed “cubbies” that she made that held each individual cat’s food. If you want to go down that sort of route, there are solutions.

There’s also something called a “slow eating cat bowl” which slows down quick eaters.

In cases where one of my cats needed a soecialized diet, I would feed them in separate rooms. It’s doable, and they get used to it.

I have a case right now where one of my cats is always too skinny, is very picky, and likes to graze, and another cat that will eat almost anything, with a tendency to over eat. Right now I’m mostly catering to the skinny cat and letting the other one over eat... a bit. But watching that closely. I may need to do something different in the near future. It’s never an easy situation.

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The little monsters 3

I can't tell by your post, but are you feeding different types of food to each? I'm going on the "Younger cat is now trying to eat the older cats food". If the older cat prefers the younger cats type of food, you may have to feed both of them that. If this is dry food, mine has a hopper dish that always makes food available ( she also grazes ). IME, most cats tend to self regulate their intake of food if it's always there and there is no direct competition, of course not all cats are like that, but I found scheduled feedings they will tend to eat everything that's put down, even if it's too much. If the dishes are side by side, you may want to separate them with a wall or a door.

Kittens should eat multiple meals per day. And if you are trying to feed a kitten food and your older bengal is wanting to enjoy that food, it's really okay! Kitten food is higher in protein, but it isn't going to hurt your older bengal. It's just probably more expensive. My bengal eats as much as he wants. Most cats know when they are full. Mine is a grazer and eats throughout the day, so I try to keep food out at all times for him. Canned, not dry. He will let me know when the bowl is empty and needs refilling.

It seems the harder you try to keep your older cat away from the younger cat's food, the harder things get. Your older cat scarves down the food and the bowl is empty and the younger cat nibbles a bit and saves the rest for later. Your older kitty probably needs more food. Very few bengals get overweight because they are so active. The other thing is -- do you only eat twice a day? Most kittens should eat 5 to 6 times a day. Adult cats should eat at least three time a day, preferably four. I could not live on two meals a day and you probably couldn't either. Your adult cat is hungry, so give more meals.

Thanks for all the feedback guys! I am feeding them the same dry food for breakfast (and wet food for lunch and dinner) sorry I forgot to mention yes I give them lunch too. I have been going on the recommendate caloric intake by the food which says basically 3/4 cup dry food a day per cat (or 2 cans wet food per cat) per day, but now that you mention it since they are very active they probably need more.

I am going to experiment with leaving dry food out during the day and see if my older one gets full enough not to eat my one year old's food (which is the grazer)

Also if this doesn't work out I will look into the automatic feeders that open up with the cat's collar, so very cool thanks for sharing!

What manufacturers put on their packaging is simply a guideline. Every cat is different in its nutritional requirements. It's not as if the package says to feed 3/4 cup per day and you can't give the cat more or less. If your cat is hungry, feed it! Obviously, we humans eat when we are hungry -- why are we treating our cats any differently? You will rarely see an overweight bengal. They are too active and have a higher metabolic rate than your regular DSH that will sleep 20 out of 24 hours. And if you see that your bengals are gaining too much weight, then you can cut back on the amount of food they eat.

The vet has put my bengal on a Rx diet, however, she told me to feed it to my DSH as well. So much easier than trying to keep them out of each other's food.