Stitch is eating cat food...
 

My 5-year old Yorkie, who up until now has always enjoyed his own food, has gotten into the habit of eating the cat's food. When I feed the cats, I now have to keep an eye on him to stay out of their bowl!

I tried switching him to what I consider a better food (Natural Balance Ultra - he was on Nutro before), and it worked fine for the first week. Now he's back to raiding the cat bowls and not finishing his food.

Any thoughts or ideas? I'm getting worried because he'll be going to a petsitter for a couple weeks who has cats, and she free-feeds them as opposed to mine who just get small meals twice a day.

The short answer is - it won't do him any harm. I specifically asked my vet this at Spike's last check up, because he eats Felix's (my 16 year old cat) food from time to time. Never the whole bowl, but he will sneak a mouthful here and there! Felix does the same thing with Spike's food. They also do the same thing with the wet food they get twice a week, so I simply gave up!

Anyway, my vet said there is no real cause for concern, the only thing you have to watch is that cat food tends to have a higher fat content than dog food, so if Spike were to eat nothing but cat food, I would need to keep a strict eye on his weight. Fortunately, because Felix is a senior cat, he is on a lower calorie formula, so it's no big deal as far as that is concerned.

So don't worry too much - it might even be that he doesn't like the cat food that your pet sitter gives her pets, so there might not even be an issue. Perhaps ask your pet sitter to make sure he eats his own food by putting him in his pen until he finishes it. My guess is that if he's full from his own dinner, he'll be less enthusiastic about raiding the cat bowl, and either way, he'll have gotten the proper nutrition from his own food. You could also ask your pet sitter to put less food in the cat bowls and keep filling them so that if he does take a fancy to it, he won't eat an entire bowl. The other option is to see if she can put the cat bowls out of your dog's reach.

Good luck!

its not a real big deal that he is eating the cat food, just make sure its not his main diet! its high in calories, and stich is probably LOVINg that!