Get an automatic feeder.

We have an overeater, and a self-limiter. When the overeater developed markers of being pre-diabetic, we finally hardened our hearts and put him on a strict diet. For us, this was extremely hard, as he begged 24/7. He would yowl at all hours of the day, and it woke us up at night. After a month of this with no sign of him changing his behavior, I bought an automatic feeder from Amazon for ~$30.

The main change was that our’s quickly stopped seeing us as the main source of food, and this eliminated most of - and all of - the nighttime begging. It took a week or so, but it was pretty fast.

Second, most have multiple feeding times. This helps in two ways: first, it allows more, smaller portions, which eliminates the binge/purge issue. Second, it allowed us to have feeding times throughout the night, which helped with stopping the nighttime begging.

Third, it’s really easy to calculate caloric input from just the information on the food bag; the portion sizes can be set in the feeder, and it’s an easy, reliable control.

As a minor benefit, it makes feeding easier.

This obviously only works if you feed kibble.

One issue we did have was that we initially gave the self-limiter free-choice kibble on the counter, and it was enough to keep him away from the feeder. This worked because our diet boy was too fat to jump up onto the counters. However, the feeder was so successful that one day he discovered that he had slimmed down enough to get onto the counter, and we had to change tactics. After much tribulation, we simply ended up getting a second auto-feeder and set them to the same schedule. It isn’t perfect, but the dieter is still slowly losing weight, and the self-limiter is maintaining, so it seems to be working for now.

Feeding the gulpers last will only increase their food anxiety.

When I had cats I fed them together, and they all had to sit in a straight line (side by side) and wait while I prepared their food.

They got good at keeping each other … uh in line, and they all either succeeded or failed the task together (I mean if they failed we just kept trying until they got it).

They didn’t seem to have much anxiety in terms of eating fast, and didn’t throw up often either.

My suspicion is the co-op nature of the task they had to perform helped them feel at ease with one another.

Who knows though. I trained them to sit there and wait because they’re were driving my girlfriend crazy with their meowing during food prep.

How many cats do you have? Are they overweight? Can you provide more details about your specific situation?

If you have cats vomiting due to eating too much too fast, maybe try slow feeders? There’s also microchip feeders available so that your slower eaters can come back on their own schedule, and it’s more difficult (but not impossible) for other cats to steal their food. And finally, there’s automatic feeders that will dispense food on a schedule. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anything that combines even two of these into a single product.

In my case, I have 2 resident cats, and frequently foster. My Tabby is a slender grazer, and although he prefers kibble, the vet said he needs to either eat wet food or prescription kibble (urinary). My Void LOVES food and will devour almost anything, and would gladly be a total potato if he could.
I use a microchip feeder for Tabby, and feed him twice per day, leaving the food out for about 2 hours at a time, which seems to be enough time for him to eat enough to maintain his weight. Void currently eats from a basic/standard bowl. He also eats twice per day, and usually finishes his food in less than 5 minutes, but has only vomited when there was an urgent medical condition, so I haven’t actually tried a slow feeder for him yet.

My vet recommended feeding my cats once a day when they turned 1yo. It was a very noisy transition from being free fed as kittens to only eating once a day.

We all found our happy place by feeding them dry food in the mornings and pudding treats in the evening (its mostly water! < is what I tell to my vet). My vet is happy that my cats are at a healthy weight, my family is happy that we no longer hear the song of our cats’ people at 3am, my cats are happy that they get to eat treats.

Also they don’t vomit anymore and don’t leave any leftovers since they know that it’s the next day before they can eat big again. We were able to maintain their weight at 3.8kg for 6mos now since we started this diet.

We have a grazer (who is also picky) and an over eater at home. To control their food we had to give them more, smaller meals each day. Here is our feeding schedule:

Breakfast: split a can of wet cat food between both cans (3.2oz can) - between 6-7am Lunch: a scoop of dry food into a bowl each (don’t really know the size, maybe a half cup) - around 12pm Dinner: split another can of wet food - between 5-6pm 2nd dinner: a scoop of dry food each - between 10-11pm

It’s not perfect as sometimes the over eater will get a bit more food, but the restrictions do help keep a schedule for them. When the grazing cat finishes only half their wet food, we often give the rest to the big guy. The dry food is also an appetite control diet, but the over eater still goes to town on it.

The picky one sometimes doesn’t eat the wet food and wants dry food, so we save the half of the wet food for the other one’s lunch.

Experiment around, see what works and what doesn’t. Maybe try an appetite control food, it is a bit pricier but may work for you.