Food Dish Placement

[PushPurrCatPaws]

I've been thinking of starting a discussion thread on this for a while, as I'm curious what other cat owners do...

Where do you usually place your cat's food dish?​

Do you place it facing the room so that your kitty has a view of the goings-on in the room while he or she eats?

Do you place the dish against a wall or in a corner so that the kitty just stares at the wall while eating?

Do you feed your kitties with the dish on the floor, or do you raise it up off of the floor -- maybe on a shelf, table, or cabinet? (I'm not talking about raising the dish up a few inches like one would for a kitty with arthritis, for example, to help them eat, but, rather, having the cat eat while perched up in a higher "position of power", far off of the floor...)

Do you find that your kitty eats more readily when the dish is in very particular places/rooms versus other areas of your house (bedroom? kitchen? other)?

Do you vary the placement of the food dish on a daily or weekly basis, for variety?

Do you leave your cat's food dish in the same location for their entire lifetime?



I actually vary the placement of Milly's dish quite frequently. There are about three places where I feed her most regularly, but I also move it around if I feel she is not approaching her food dish for some reason -- I feed timed meals, not via free-feeding, and occasionally it seems like she doesn't want her playtime or nap interrupted, and won't come to eat. So, I set the dish nearer to her current location, and then she does eat. I've also found that with cats who do not feel well (nausea and the like), if I set the food dish up higher on top of a shelf or table or cabinet, the cat will jump up and eat more readily there (off of the floor), than if the food is set on the floor. Weird. Maybe when they are feeling ill, that more vertical "position of power", where they can also survey the room, makes them less nervous at the food dish.

I also think it is good to change up the location of the dish at times because if we were ever to have cat sitters in the future and the cat sitter puts the food in an unfamiliar place, I'm not sure Milly would eat as readily if she was too fixated on having the dish in only one location.


How about you?

 

[margd]

What a great topic for a discussion! I'm really interested to see what everyone else says because I don't have a set place to feed Paul and Chula. I wonder if anyone else has been trained as I have been to deliver the meal to the cat, rather than the other way around.

Paul has a spot in the middle of the living room rug that he likes so he often eats there, but unless I place Chula's bowl directly in front of her, she ignores it and Paul eats hers as well. Chula does have a large cardboard box that she will often hop into as soon as she sees me get out the cans. Here she is, awaiting her waitress.


I've never offered them food in the bathroom and they'd rather not eat in the kitchen, preferring carpet under their paws instead. That may be instinctual since both will sometimes scratch the carpet before and after eating.

Their bowls are usually on the ground although I am a bit embarrassed to admit that Chula has eaten on the couch before.

 

[vince]

My two have had their own spots on the kitchen floor since they've come to live with me. They have their own dishes for food and water on their own mats and I never exchange them. The kitchen is rather small and has no eating space, so they eat alone or along with me if I happen to be cooking. Sir Eats-A-Lot eats near the broom closet and Chesterfield eats in front of the dishwasher, across the room.

They readily eat anywhere there happens to be food, including off my plate if I look away. I really can't dine in peace anymore.

The only problem is that Chesterfield will push Sir Eats-A-Lot away from his dish and will eat his food if I don't keep an eye on them.

 

[neely]

I guess I'm the one who is a creature of habit, i.e. I have fed my cats, (past and current), all in the same place. I put the food and water bowl on a placemat near a piece of furniture. They can look out or position themselves with their back to the door. Carleton is my solo kitty now and I feed him in my bedroom because it is quieter than the kitchen. He will eat if I'm in the room but prefers to eat peacefully by himself. I'm sure this is due to his past life before we rescued him.

When we had Neely we also had a dog so I put her dishes up high where the dog couldn't get to them. This way if there was any food left she could graze without being disturbed. However, Neely would only drink water out of the dog's bowl. Not sure why but then Neely was like no other cat we have ever had or will ever have. She was a diva in every sense of the word and definitely had tortitude!

We have lived in our house for a good number of years but in previous homes we used to always feed our cat(s) in the kitchen near the wall.

 

[dragoriana]

Violet has a spot in the corner of the dining/kitchen area, it's in line with her favourite path to one of her cardboard scratchers that she passes a nice view outside to get to. We wanted somewhere she could eat away from foot traffic (why we have a massive dining table that barely gets used who knows!). It is a different area to where we had Charlie's, and we bought new dishes. There is another water dish at the other end of the house, but main food area in that one spot. Also the laundry is down that end and the tray is nearby so she can eat and poop till her heart's content. Even though they're close they are separated by a wall so no mixing of poop and food..(why did I feel the need to clarify in case I sounded like a bath mother? lmao)

 

[artiemom]

I am a creature of habit also.

Artie eats in the kitchen, directly across from the sink, facing the wall.
He has his own placemat (messy eater). I also have another placemat with a water bowl. This is next to the food placemat.

I find this is much easier for both of us. Artie knows where his food is, and I can just pickup, and wash the placemat, daily or when it is really messy.

This is blurry, but shows the set up. Artie loves to push his dry food off the dish, onto the placemat; eating it one by one.. like a snack..