I use separate bowls/dishes for dry and wet food. When feeding dry food, I would put it in their bowl but they only eat the food in the centre and always leave food around the edge of the bowl even when they’re still hungry. Maybe they think they finished all of it but the food they don’t finish tends to get stale and later they meow for a fresh bowl. They just won’t touch the leftovers (unless I starve them). I’m not sure why they do this but I figured it’s the shape of the bowl that causes this behavior. I’ve even seen memes regarding this so our kitties are definitely not the only ones!
So the bowls they had been using for years is this one. Pretty right?
Often then not, I find food left around the edge and it gets stale so I toss it away because they refuse to eat it.
The bowls are wide enough for their faces to go in, I know that’s not a problem but I think they just don’t like to eat from the edge? I don’t leave food out for them and I only give them 1/8 cup each time I feed them so they probably are still hungry after leaving this much in the bowl. I also don’t like tossing out the food, it’s not cheap! So I went to several pet stores to see what bowls might be good for them (I check both cat and dog sections). I figured that a wide flat surface will encourage this behavior as the food will just be pushed to the edge. Luckily I was able to find a bowl wide enough for their heads to go in but with slanted edges that force the food to the centre; Whisker City Double Cat Bowl.
So I fed them in this new bowl and most of the time, there’s nothing left! It makes me happy that they finish their food 🙂 Sometimes though they would leave maybe 2-3 kibbles at most.
For wet food, they use these small dishes I found at Dollarama. They are pretty shallow and the edges are slanted as well. Before, we used to feed the wet food on a round flat plate but because the surface area was too big that the food kept moving around as they tried to eat it. It was hard for Sky to pick it up and he left pieces here and there. So these small dishes work well as the food stays in one spot and if needed he licks the food against the edge to eat it.
If you have this problem with your cat where they don’t finish all their food, maybe try changing their bowl/dish. It worked for me and they lick it all clean so I don’t have to deal with hardened/stale food! 🙂
The Professional Nappers 