Food Aggression in Cats?

Can cats be food aggressive? When I joined, I didn't post the story of how we came to get Petrie, but if I'm feeding him and another cat or dog comes by he grumbles. He's swiped at the cats (I'm talking about my bf's moms cats - I only have Petrie - but I take him with me everywhere because he loves riding in the car and playing with their 10 week old kitten) but doesn't swipe at the big dogs. He'll occassionally swipe at my bf's mom little yapper dog. This goes for wet food and dry food. He eats Whiskas (I know i know!! BAAADD food!) but thats all he'll eat.. He snubs other food and won't eat.. He's soo picky.

He couldn't eat hard food the first week and half after he was home and getting him to eat ANYTHING was more important at the time. So now that he's on the wet he'll only eat the dry Whiskas if I'm not home to feed him on time.

A lot of the aggression you are seeing is because they are cats he isn't all that familiar with.

Yes, cats do get food/territory aggressive, and if they all needed to live together there are ways to solve it.

Since the problem can be easily solved by just not bringing your cat to your bf's mom's anymore, that is probably the best option. If you still do, try keeping the food out of reach for everyone while you're there if it's for a short time, or feeding them in separate rooms so this doesn't happen.

My real concern would be for your bf's mom's cats-- they can't be very excited about having a strange cat come and swipe at them while he eats their food.

We've taken him over there since day 1 and thats where we spend the majority of our time.. I hate leaving him home alone and he cries when I go to school for 2 hours.. He's only 3 months old and they all play together .. its just that when it comes down to eating, he doesn't want them near him.. I just didn't know what it would stem from..

Aw.

Well, do you think there is any way to separate them when they eat? Do they eat the same kind of food?

He might feel threatened, since he's mostly used to eating alone.

I try to feed him on the counter alone and usually put the other wet food hogs out of the kitchen when I do.. Or if I can't wrangle them all, I keep him on the counter and feed the other guys on the landing in the basement to keep them away..

And I'm not trying to make excuses for his behavior because I don't allow it with my dogs at all...

Do you know anything about his background? Kittens learn behaviors from their mothers, and if the mother was in a bad situation and had to fight off other cats who were trying to get her food, then he would have learned it from her. The other thing that strikes me is that when a group of cats eat their "kill", the dominant one usually gets first dibs. In my house, the alpha male will simply push out the other cats at the food bowl when he wants to eat alone. They wait patiently for him to finish. I have seen kittens push him out, as sometimes kittens don't understand feeding manners, and I think my alpha has a soft spot for kittens and allows them to do this sometimes.

Whatever the dynamic is when they are young, they always seem to work it out over time.