TBT: I have finally come to the conclusion that it is IMPOSSIBLE to feed just 1 cat. Their sense of hearing and smell are just too good.
It's not that I deliberately try to feed just one to skip the others. But Laz is both fussy and wants to get outside, so he often won't eat but instead runs to the deck door begging to go outside. So after an hour, he wants to come in and eat.
You wouldn't think that just moving a food bowl onto a rubber mat softly would alert the others, but it does. And Bast help me if I need to top his wet food with a few kibbles to get him started to eat. Yeah, just a few kibbles get him started and then he eats the wet food underneath.
I tried not adding a few kibbles, but all that happens is that he loses some weight, and I'm not inclined to see how long he would hold out. If he needs to have some kibble to start eating, he gets kibble. Or freeze-dried chicken. He loves that too. And a good thing because I bought a large bag of it and it wasn't what I expected.
The stuff in the treat-size bags or small containers was "just plain freeze-dried chicken" and looked like chicken cubes. This new stuff looks more like dried dog food that you add water too. But he (and Lori) love it crushed a bit and dry. Ayla and Marley treat it like sawdust and barely even sniff it!
But back to feeding one cat being "impossible". No matter where they are in the house, all the cats know when there is food available. Oh, of course they can hear a can being opened. But they can hear the plastic jar of kibbles being unscrewed no matter how carefully I do it. They are all there at once before I even try to take a few kibbles out of the jar.
I even tried once to open a can while they were outside and then covering it with a rubber top and setting it aside before they came in. Even the Mews who went to nap on the waterbed came running the instasnt I took the cover off. Way before the smell could have reached them.
Out of curiousity, I set a kibble on the counter while they were outside. What little smell a kibble has must have permeated the house by that time. Yet when they came in later, I picked it up carefully and set it on the rubber mat; Marley and Laz were there immediately and Lori was not far behind. Ayla stays in the bedroom or The Mews Room, but I heard her calling for food too.
Clearly, cats must have telepathic abilities...