Cat stressful feeding

[charlie05]

Hi all! We have two cats, Charlie (2 years old) and Eva (1 year old). Prior to getting Eva, Charlie would whine in the morning for food until we got a device from amazon that is a motion detector and would blow air in his face when he came near the door. When we got Eva, she is scared of nothing and would stand at the door and just let the air blow in her face. So that device no longer works. Now they start whining at around 6 am until we feed them at 7am.

We we go to feed them (for both breakfast and dinner), they just go absolutely crazy whining and running all over. In short, it seems like a stressful experience for them. We have to feed Charlie in a separate room bc Eva will just eat all of his food. I stay calm through the whole thing, hoping that it rubs off on them, but it clearly hasnt.

Eva is also obsessed with trying to steal our food while we are cooking/eating. Spritzing her with water hasnt helped.

We got an automatic feeder, but since Eva eats much faster than Charlie and would steal his food, he would just starve if that was the only way we fed them. We tried using the feeder to give them a pre-breakfast snack, but that just made them whine even more in the morning.

I was wondering whether anyone else has such crazy cats around food, and whether you have suggestions on how to make it a less stressful experience for all of us.

 

[stephanietx]

They're excited about feeding time!! I don't think it's stress, just excitement. We used to have to separate Hannah because she would inhale her food and then proceed to eat Callie's food. We then started working with her on NOT eating Callie's food. We had to supervise feeding time. When Hannah finished, we'd block her access to Callie's food, tell her "NO!" sternly, and redirect her to a toy or something more appropriate. She finally got the memo on proper feeding time etiquette. It was a long process and we had to be diligent to supervise, but she learned.

Then, we got Tumbles. He was a hoover!

We had to teach him to stay focused on his food dish and to not eat everyone else's food. We did the same thing to him as we did with Hannah, taught him not to horn in on other's food and have proper manners. Now, we have to stand near Hannah, who eats slower than Tumbles, and redirect Tumbles and/or distract him with a toy. He's learning and getting better everyday.

 

[auntie crazy]

Hmmm, I think you're right. It sounds a bit excessively excited to me, too.

I wonder if maybe they're not quite getting as much food as they need? Eva, especially - at a year old, she's still a growing kitten and kittens need about twice as much food as adults.

I would make two changes. First, if at all possible, I would start feeding them three meals a day, instead of two. Cats evolved to eat many small meals in a day and only two is really stretching it for them, especially for young cats (if Eva were any younger, I'd be suggesting four!).

I would also switch them over to a canned diet. Kibble is often loaded with carbs and doesn't satisfy a cat's need for protein quite as well as canned foods do. Cats have to eat a lot more of it to get their nutritional needs met. Eventually, this can and often does lead to obesity, diabetes and other complications. Canned food satisfies them quicker, helps keep them hydrated (a good UTI preventive) and is just generally healthier.

I think with these two changes, you'll see a big difference in meal-time drama.

Best regards!

AC

 

[casperd]

Yes I am a little bit excited about it..

 

[kat013]

I'm going to second the idea of feeding more and feeding more frequently. I'm also going to suggest free-feeding, but that if you try it, work up to it. Or to feeding canned on a schedule and free-feeding dry.

I know some kitties will just eat until they overstuff themselves, but I think this is a behavioral thing that could be trained out of them if you were to take time and go slowly. Switching to a higher-protein-content kibble may help with the process. I've always free-fed my cats from kittenhood, and none of them are food inhalers, nor are any of them obese.