Both of my cats seem to be set on only letting one cat eat food(?)

I have two cats; Sterling (Female) and Silver (Male). I’ve had them for around 5 years, got them when they were very babie, and they’re from the same litter.

Ignoring the first week or so where their personalities were..switched for whatever reason, since getting them, Silver has been the most terrified cat I’ve ever seen, and Sterling is the exact opposite.

Sterling wanders about without a care in the world. When the doorbell rings, she goes to the door and runs up against the people’s legs as if she was a dog. She’s completely fine with being picked up and being carried around the house, even being put into her little carrier for trips to the vet (she freaks out when actually at the vet, but that’s totally understandable behavior). She’s not scared of a vacuum being used or knocking stuff over or anything of the sort. Point is, she’s a completely fine cat

Silver, though, is a different story. Silver runs away from the slightest noise that isn’t made by him or his sister. He’s scared of cat toys that move on their own and will only play with simple plush toys. He hides under the closest bed whenever someone enters the house, including family, etc. Before I start, I need to state that Silver is not a bad cat in any way. It’s not like he breaks things or attacks Sterling or anything of the sort. It’s more that I’m worried about him. Being scared of literally everything is fine (it’s sad, but it’s not worrying behavior.) but over the past year and a half or so, it seems like he’s..scared to eat food?

Me and my family have fed them both at the same time for the longest time. A bowl of dry food for each of them in the morning, and a bowl of wet food for each of them, once in the morning, and once around dinner time, plus refilling a shared water bowl whenever it’s close to empty. Sterling eats just fine, but it seems like Silver never does. For a bit, I thought it was because he thinks all of it is Sterling’s food. Sterling checks both bowls, and eats a little from both. We try to feed them separately in many different ways, but none of them seem to work.

Our first attempt was to leave Sterling’s bowl where we usually put it, and then bring Silver his bowl. 9 times out of 10, Sterling will immediately run over and eat his food without even touching her own.

We’ve tried feeding them at seperate times; again, Sterling just..hears us place it down or open the can of food and will eat both bowls, even when delivered seperately/straight to Silver.

We’ve tried locking Sterling in another room so she couldn’t get the food, but as soon as she starts whining, Silver immediately runs over and stands by the door. He doesn’t like it when she gets stuck, and makes it his duty to let everyone know where she is (even if he sees us put her there). It’s like both Sterling and Silver want to let Sterling eat all of the food no matter what.

Another side effect of this is that, obviously Silver is losing weight, but Sterling is gaining weight. We can’t just stop leaving Silver’s food out. Yes that’ll stop Sterling from gaining weight, but then there’s absolutely zero chance Silver will get anything. I do see him drink water from time to time, but I don’t think I’ve seen him eat any sort of food in over 4 months (obviously he does, but it’s definitely not enough..)

Also just in case it’s important, Sterling and Silver do love each other. They constantly groom each other and play with one another, and the only time it seems to get too hard or hissing starts is if something else is going on (like a lot of guests in the house or in the vet’s room)

Is there anything else I should potentially try to get him to eat?

(Also sorry if this is the wrong subreddit for this. I’ve never posted anything like this and this was the first one to come up)