Should I allow one cat eating the other cat's vomit?

Question

Sometimes one of my cats vomits after eating something she really likes. Both my cats like the Whiskas food but they only get a little bit once per day. I suspect she's just eating too fast and that makes her throw up.

What happens when she vomits is that her brother comes running and starts to eat her thrown up food from the floor. Apart from the fact that it is practical for myself as I don't have to clean up the mess, should I allow one cat to eat the vomit of the other one? Is it healty?

To the best of my knowledge she is not ill, she's been vomiting sometimes since I know her, and especially when eating very quickly.

Answer 1

If your cat is puking because she's ill (or even if she has some illness unrelated to the puking), then it's possible for her brother to pick up the illness from eating her puke, so it's generally not recommended. In my experience, cats will share their diseases anyway, so it's not a large concern.

Rather than focusing on preventing the second cat from eating the first cat's vomit, you could address the issue by reducing the amount of vomiting that your cat is doing. How can I stop my cat from eating too fast and throwing up? addresses the reason you suspect that your cat is vomiting, and may help.

Answer 2

I've seen both these behaviors in two cats (one of whom later I owned).

Maggie had a nervous stomach which was easily irritated by her eating too quickly.

Sputnick loved the taste of regurgitated cat food ("its warm and prechewed!") to the point that he would try to push her out of the way when she was puking the stuff up.

The solution was to feed Maggie slower (when I had her she didn't puke up as often because I would feed her in smaller amounts (albeit more frequently) so her stomach wouldn't get irritated).

Their owner at the time liked what Sputnick did because he'd clean up the puke better than any human could. He died young and later their original owner moved to another country so I took in Maggie.

Answer 3

Do your cats get some other food than the "small amount of Whiskas once a day"? If this is all they are getting, chances are that they are underfed and very hungry, which would explain why the one gulps back food until she pukes, and the other comes to eat the puke. In this case, they should be fed several times a day. I have dry food out for my cats at all times, and give them wet food once a day for dinner (thinking of splitting this into two wet meals each day though).

If they are getting other food and this is just how your cat eats (one of my cats is a wet food "gulper", though she's not made herself puke, while the other slowly licks her wet food over a few sittings), I would suggest looking for ways to slow down your cat's eating as Zaralynda suggested...there are some great suggestions on the thread s/he linked to in his/her answer that I will be trying myself.