Can my two cats share food and water bowls, or do they need their own?

Hello, that is very cute. The only harm may be is that one of them may become overweight. You should still feed your kitty cat food and your pup, dog food. It would be best if they ate separate to control their weights and portions. This can be achieved by feeding them in different rooms. Sharing their water bowl is fine. Hope this helps and best of luck.

This is a good question! There is really no social or bonding benefit to feeding them next to each other, or having them eat from the same bowls - in fact, this can cause tension or even aggression issues in some cats, since they may get nervous about the other cat eating their food. So if your current system is working well, I would recommend just sticking with it :)

This food a good food (there are better options however). Purina's top product line is ProPlan. It will contain higher quality and easier to digest proteins and other nutrients but you can continue feeding the cat chow if you like. For now however, you will want to continue this diet and start the cats on any new diet after they are transited to your home. Having two cats is generally pretty easy as long as they get along. Make sure each cat gets attention and play time. You may also provide two litter boxes (or even three) to make sure the cats don't feel that it gets soiled too quickly. Most cats are fine sharing a water and food bowl as long as they don't have dominance or competition between them. If they do seem to have some problems, you will need to have two separate feeding and water areas. It would also be useful to read up on cat behavior so that you can interpret what the cats are saying to each other. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

This can be a challenging situation, especially if you have one cat that's more of an "eater" than the others. I would try to offer canned food for one meal, and dry for another. For the canned meal, you can put it out into separate bowls, ensure that everyone has their own bowl, and monitor the situation until they finish. Most cats will go ahead and finish a portion of canned food, unlike dry, which they will often "snack" on. You can also reinforce the "ownership" of each cat's bowl by calling them, and then feeding that cat only in that bowl (and consequentially, in that space) at all times. That way, you're teaching them that they will get fed at "their" bowl at all times. Interlopers onto other bowls should be discouraged and redirected back to their own bowl. Finally, if you're up for spending some money, there is an [automatic feeder](https://www.surepetcare.com/en-us/pet-feeder/microchip-pet-feeder) that opens only for a signal from your pet's microchip. This can become really important if one pet is on a special diet for health reasons - it only opens when the cat that has the specific microchip approaches. This is the best way to ensure that the right cat gets the right food.

If the cats are all healthy and don't have any illnesses such as FIP/FIV then it should be fine. However if you have a cat that is ill or FIP/FIV positive, it can be spread through the saliva/bite wounds, so it would be best to make sure they do not share a bowl.

I would have at least 1 water bowl on each level of the house. Its very important for cats to have access to water as they can be a little on the dehydrated side even when they are not sick. Put the bowls in quiet, out of the way locations.

If she has been vaccinated, dewormed and tested negative for FeLV and FIV, then she can be gradually introduced to yoru other cats. The general rule of thumb is to have one litterbox per cat and an additional box in a neutral area of the home. Provide sufficent numbers of bowls, beds and toys to prevent resource protection or food aggression. A pheremone product, such as teh Feliway Spray or plug in diffuser, may decrease any anxiety or aggression in the home after the introduction.