Eating alone?

I just got a cat from someone at work that was moving and could not bring him with them. He has mostly gotten over the "This is a strange place were nothing smells like me!" phase and has started eating more. It does seem strange though that he only seems to chow down when some one is with him and petting him. Has anyone else ever experienced a cat that does not like to eat alone?


P.S. He is in no danger of starving to death, he has lots of reserves

Although i have two cats i usually sit and watch them eat on an evening.

Sophie my youngest keeps looking up at me as if to check that i'm still there

At the shelter where I volunteer, we try to make sure every cat gets cuddled at least once a day -- partly because they go right for the food after being snuggled! This is especially true of kittens, but I've seen it with adult cats, too.

I don't know for sure, but my hypothesis is that they associate petting with food because when they were nursing, their mom used to lick them at mealtime.

When I had Tia (Carolcat's baby girl), she wouldn't eat unless I sat on the floor beside her while she had her dinner. If I moved away she would follow me and want to be held. (According to Carol, I think she still wants to be held a lot but not sure about the eating part.)

All my cats get company at dinner time (me). I do this with the bottle babies especially, because cats are social eaters. They start off life sharing the milk bar with their brothers and sisters. I sit on the floor or the ground when my cats eat and just share the time with them.

As my kittens start on solid food I'm there with them from the time go - as they get older they can eat by themselves no trouble!

I give mine affection before I feed them and after they eat, they go nap.

Mine don't like being kept company while they eat....lol....but their bowls are in our room so they kind of get company anyway - from a distance at least...

I have to hang out with the dogs when they eat though to stop them from stealing each other's food!