I think ants are safer to your cats than poison : ( Don't spray poison on food.

Dont leave the food down is the only way I know of, feed them in the morning and at night the cats will get into a routine of feeding times.

Can you put the dishes of cat food on another shallow dish or tray and then fill the tray with water? The water would act as a moat preventing the ants from crossing to the food. You just need to make sure that the cats can lean over and reach the food.

I'm sorry for your misunderstanding elly_nj but I most definitely did not spray poison on my cat food. And thanks ilovepoco, i like that idea!

My renters are having this problem. We purchased Terro, ant bait traps. The ants take it back to the nest. It's enclosed, so your cats are not exposed to it. I put the traps indoors behind the washing machine(cats won't fit back there) and the ants are coming into the house to eat the cat food.

It takes about a week and you'll get results.

I do the moat thing. I find dishes at the thrift store that have a shape that make a built in moat -- for example, a gravy boat or a chips-and-dip plate.

I found that just putting the food bowl inside another dish didn't work for me because the cats would scoot the inner bowl until it was touching the outer tray, and that made enough of a bridge for the ants to get to the food. (This is a little hard to describe, but if it happens to you then you will know what I mean!)

Terro didn't work for me, but I have had friends who had great success with it. I guess it depends on your ants :).

Mix 50-50 powdered sugar and 20 mule team borax (located in grocery store laundry detergent aisle pour in a 2-3 inch line across ant path this kills the nest your cat won't eat it you must have 3 good dry days nest dead means no more ants

I have used a small cookie baking tray filled with water, which works well to keep out the ants, but more food gets droppped in the water. Currently I use one of those wide rimmed shallow soup bowls that the smaller foot bowl sits into. Since the bottom of the soup bowl is smaller than its rim, the food bowl stays centered in the soup bowl (it won't shift to the edge of the soup bowl enabling ants to cross).

Feed them on a small table ... put the LEGS of the table in small pans of water to make a moat.

I like lazy's idea! Put a few drops of dish soap in water so that the ants will sink immediately when they touch the water instead of float.

I put the food dishes in glass pie pans (cheap at a thrift store) and fill the pans with water. Yes, food drops in there so the pans have to be emptied and cleaned pretty often.

I do the moat thing too, but instead of buying a special dish, I make my own.

This one is a glass ash tray and pie pan, both from the dollar tree. I glued them together using food safe silicone (aquarium silicone from petsmart)

I put it in the dishwasher every few days because of the dropped food in it, and it has done fine for 3 years.

I used an ash try because most of the small bowls with flat bottom were too small for my cat's head. The ash tray was wide and shallow.