Kitty needs cuddles before wet food?

[floofnugget]

I don't know if this belongs under behavior or here, please feel free to move. My cat Tempura has a funny food habit. In the mornings she gets her serving of Orijen dry food. She eats this no problem and scarfs it down. On the few days she doesn't finish it before I leave for work, she'll have eaten the rest of it before I get home.

I'm the evenings she gets her half can of wet food. This is were she gets a little odd. She needs me to cuddle her before she eats. When I get home I lie on my bed and she jumps on my tummy and I pet her for a little bit. She then decides when she's done and jumps down for me to feed her. She'll eat around half her serving. Sometime later I'll cuddle her again. After she'll finish her food. If I try to feed her right away after coming home, she'll still need a cuddle before she starts to eat.

I wasn't trying to make this a behavior. She was never as big of a fan as wet (although I tried a bunch of brands and this Natural Balance chicken pate is the only one she'll eat a whole serving of. If only slowly). I would obviously feed her and randomly pet her when she wanted love and then noticed the pattern after a while. She doesn't always need the cuddles. She'll eat her wet food but I definitely need to be around. If I leave she won't eat it. At all. Last night for Halloween I was out and came back, she hadn't touched it again. Other times I'll need to feed her and go, and when I come back she will not have touched it still. Now if need I need to leave in a rush I'll give her dry. With cat sitting I'm afraid I also have to only give her dry.

Anybody has any similar experiences and tips? I'm not sure how to reinforce eating without me (except starving her out until the morning, which makes me nervous). I'd like to switch her over to wet completely but this makes it a bit difficult.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Two of my cats are kind of weird when it comes to eating.  (they only get wet food, no dry whatsoever)   One of them sometimes will eat if she's being standoffish if I just rub her face, especially her cheeks.  Don't know if this stimulates something or what, but often it'll cause her to then turn to her food dish and eat.  The other one needs me to be right there most of the time or he won't eat.  Lately if he doesn't eat, I just pull up his bowl and put it in the fridge until the next meal.  I feed them 3 times a day, so figure missing one meal won't hurt him.   

You don't want her to go more than a full 24 hours without eating, but certainly your girl could miss one meal without any major health issues.  (maybe she doesn't really like her wet food...is that possible?  Have you tried different ones?)

Maybe this article will help:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transit...-to-a-new-type-of-food-canned-raw-or-homemade