I put out the food twice/day - and the timed feeder puts out a couple of extra snacks at key moments in Sam's insulin cycle. Sam is super food motivated and can get a little greedy. Atticus is attention motivated and doesn't even come running for treats. Sam knows how to tell time and is always waiting in the food places at meal and snack times. Atticus wanders out to find food a couple of hours later. So while I feed them the same foods, it isn't ever a competition. They have very different natural patterns. It's one of the benefits to having two grazers. There is always food available, and I break up the meals into several bowls in a few different places so they don't need to compete with each other in any way. Oh, except for the freeze-dried salmon treats. Those are a rare and treasured thing and they will kill each other to get to them first. So I do have to be careful about managing those. I usually only use them for big things though - like when I have to pill Sam, or when one of them is refusing to come back inside (they wander the hallways occasionally - I'm always with them, but sometimes they don't want to come back home).
Oh, and here are some treat options:
Bonito flakes – these are sold in some grocery stores as a human food. They are tissue-paper thin bits of fish and are easy to sprinkle on food to get a kitty to eat. They last forever and are the cheapest option.
https://www.amazon.com/Kaneso-Tokuyou-Hanakatsuo-Bonito-Flakes/dp/B0052BGLMS/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1516455184&sr=8-3&keywords=bonito flakes
This is marketed as a probiotic, but from everything I’ve read it doesn’t work well for that. What it does work well for is getting a cat to eat. You open a little packet, sprinkle a little on top of the food – kind of like how we salt our food. Each packet lasts several days, and there are 30packets in a box. I often say that Sam would eat a shoe if I sprinkled this one top, and lots of cats feel the same way. It should be noted though that Atticus doesn’t go for it. It doesn’t deter him, but it also doesn’t entice him.
https://www.amazon.com/Purina-Forti...TF8&qid=1516455209&sr=8-2&keywords=fortiflora
The next two are expensive, but they are good quality and they are more what you would consider a typical treat – something your kitty can actually bite into:
https://www.amazon.com/CATMANDOO-Freeze-Dried-Wild-Salmon/dp/B005FFHLUM/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1516455237&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=freeze dried salmon cat treat
https://www.amazon.com/CATMANDOO-Dried-Chicken-Pet-Treat/dp/B00II6TGV2/ref=sr_1_6?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1516455268&sr=1-6&keywords=freeze dried chicken cat treat
These are probably my personal favorites as they look like what they are. Sometime a little too much so though in the case of the chicken hearts. It is an actual dried heart. I usually have to cut them into a couple of pieces since they are a little bit big and hard for the cats to bite into on their own. They also have little minnows that are the whole fish. And a variety of other options. Often the dog treats are a bit cheaper, and since it’s a whole, dried protein, it doesn’t make any difference if you buy the cat or the dog versions.
https://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Freeze-Dried-Natural-Chicken/dp/B06XN61PYR/ref=sr_1_4?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1516457805&sr=1-4&keywords=vital essential cat treats
I saw the minnows, lol. Bet the kitties love them thougb!