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aggressive at meal time

post #1 of 12
5/13/11 at 5:53pm
Thread Starter 
so Isis likes to smack Saki when it's time for dinner and I'm preparing their meals. she will try to block her from getting to me (and the food) and will hit and bite at Saki to get her to stay away. how do I avoid this? lock up Isis before dishing the food out, setting the dishes in place, then letting her get to her food?
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post #2 of 12
5/13/11 at 6:59pm
My 5 each have their own feeding station. They each get their own bowl. I put the food down in the same order, at pretty much the same times (3} each day. They are used to the routine. I think cats like routine. We have no conflicts at meal times.

However, 3 of them are shut in rooms by themselves during the one canned meal. This is to prevent some from eating others' shares. They cooperate with going to their places fot dinner, because they want the food, and they are used to the routine.


Robin
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post #3 of 12
5/13/11 at 7:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bastetservant View Post
My 5 each have their own feeding station. They each get their own bowl. I put the food down in the same order, at pretty much the same times (3} each day. They are used to the routine. I think cats like routine. We have no conflicts at meal times.

However, 3 of them are shut in rooms by themselves during the one canned meal. This is to prevent some from eating others' shares. They cooperate with going to their places fot dinner, because they want the food, and they are used to the routine.


Robin
We have 4 and pretty much do the same thing as you do. Except I free feed dry. All of their bowls are a pretty good distance from each others and I usually set them down in the same order. I have a routine also and they all know it. Usually they are all sitting at their "assigned" station well before I get there with the food bowls.
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post #4 of 12
5/13/11 at 9:20pm
Thread Starter 
i do feed them at the same time, but in completely separate areas. it's only when i'm preparing the food (dishing their wet food out of the can into their bowls) that the one starts to smack the other. once the food's down and in their respective places, they're fine. should I let the aggressor to continue? how can I get her to stop? prepare the food with the aggressor locked away?
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post #5 of 12
5/14/11 at 6:36am
Locking (Beautiful) Isis up would prevent the behavior. But if you want to shape her behavior, you could, with some time and effort.

Some cats will stop by just telling them to, emphatically. I find "proximity control" effective. That's just my moving close or between the two having the conflict, and they move apart. You may need to do the, "Isis, NO!" and if she continues, pick her up and put her into another room and then close the door. I'd then wait 5-10 minutes before giving her the food. After 2 or 3 dozen times (or 4 or 5 dozen) of doing this, she'll get the message that if she doesn't smack your other cat, she won't get locked up, and she'll get fed sooner.

Training cats requires consistancy, so you have to do it every time. How fast she understands depends on how fast she understands the connections and how it is to her advantage to cooperate.

You may just decide to keep them separated by doors at feeding time. Cats seem better at changing our behavior, than us changing them.

Robin
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post #6 of 12
5/15/11 at 3:04pm
You don't say what, how much and how often you are feeding them. Is it at all possible they are food aggressive because of hunger?
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post #7 of 12
5/28/11 at 5:41pm
Thread Starter 
sorry, they are fed twice a day. @ 7 am, they get a 1/4 cup dry food, @ 7 pm they get half a can of wet food. I'm trying to be strong and not lazy about removing their food after about a 1/2 hour, but tend to not be consistent, so maybe saki is eating some of Isis's dry food in the mornings.... I know I'm going to have to be more consistent about it, but Isis has always smacked Saki, even when I know Saki hasn't been eating any of Isis's food at all.
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post #8 of 12
5/28/11 at 9:20pm
you say 1/2 can at 7pm but what size can? and what kind of food? That may not be enough food. I know for mine it wouldn't be. Mine would be climbing the walls if they didn't have food for 12 hours. I'd never get any sleep.
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post #9 of 12
5/30/11 at 2:45pm
Thread Starter 
it's the friskies canned food, I believe the 5.5 oz can? they haven't been losing any weight or anything, and have been on this regime for close to a year, so I don't think it could be too little food... Also, Saki (the one that gets punched at meal time), has a bit of pudge on her, so I'm trying not to give her too much food, but can't think of any way to get her to lose the extra weight without starving her. I've tried getting her to play, but she sort of becomes disinterested after about 10 minutes or so.
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post #10 of 12
5/30/11 at 4:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by twobananaz View Post
it's the friskies canned food, I believe the 5.5 oz can? they haven't been losing any weight or anything, and have been on this regime for close to a year, so I don't think it could be too little food... Also, Saki (the one that gets punched at meal time), has a bit of pudge on her, so I'm trying not to give her too much food, but can't think of any way to get her to lose the extra weight without starving her. I've tried getting her to play, but she sort of becomes disinterested after about 10 minutes or so.
1/2 can + 1/4th cup sounds like plenty, so I wouldn't worry about that.
10 minutes is a good amount of time for a cat to play, just try to get her excited enough to Quickly move around (even if only for 5 minutes) and then stop as soon as she is disinterested and then do that a couple more times a day and it should make a difference. You also may want to try switching her to wet only. That usually greatly helps with weight issues.

I would definitely either separate them at meal time or enforce the training, because its not nice to let Isis continue to smack Saki.
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post #11 of 12
5/30/11 at 6:01pm
Thread Starter 
since my first post on this subject I have started to squirt Isis every time she starts to smack Saki, and this has only helped to keep Saki out of the kitchen during food preparation time. I'm going to have to keep thinking of ways to keep them away from me while I'm dishing up the food....

I want to switch them both to completely wet food, but Saki is addicted to the dry stuff in the AM (i hear it's pretty addicting stuff), and will happily eat her wet food in the evenings, but when I tried the switch she turned her nose up to the wet food and let it dry up and wouldn't touch it in the mornings. too used to the routine I suppose. I'll give it another go once this bag of dry stuff is used up I think. They always eat all their wet food right away when they get it, so I don't know why she won't eat it in the mornings.
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post #12 of 12
5/30/11 at 6:27pm
Catinfo.org has a link on the right hand side with great info on how to switch dry addicts to wet.
I found that I couldn't feed 75% wet 25% dry like I wanted to originally because my cat just liked his dry too much. I got it down to only 1/16th a cup (if I remember correctly) and then just stopped it completely. I put wet down and he gave me his 'look' and I just walked away. Couple hours later, picked it up and refreshed it with hot water, he got excited, but the bowl down and he stared at me again. A few More hours later, I hear his tag tinging against the bowl and low and behold, he ate it all. He been on 100% wet ever since.
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