Mew's bad manners...

[courtneykp]

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• courtneykp
• May 23, 2014

This is my little doll face, Mew. She is seriously the funniest cat I've ever seen. She has some issues with biting and scratching, due to the fact that she was separated from her mom and siblings at 4 weeks (not by choice, the mom abandoned the 3 little ones). We are working on those problems with the help of my 16 month old Kitty, who is being a real trooper thankfully!
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Anyways, the main issue we are having is that Mew is food aggressive. Each cat has their own bowls and I feed them at the same time. I even supervise the meals! Mew will eat her food, but if anyone or anything gets near her food she growls and gives "crazy eyes" like she will attack. She has even attacked the spoon as I was putting food in her bowl! Kitty shows no interest in Mew's food since she has her own, but once Mew eats hers she moves on to Kitty's. Kitty doesn't fight back or anything since Mew is still a baby, but i feel awful that Kitty is being bullied by a 7 week old kitten!

Any helpful advice?

 

[pisces7386]

We didn't have any aggression issues, but we did have a problem with Bear being distracted by the other cat's food dishes when he was younger. We put a cardboard box with the top and bottom removed around him and his food dish so he wouldn't get distracted (picture 4 cardboard walls around around him and his dish). Maybe this would work to help Mew feel safer with his food? The other thing we did when the mom was the one trying to steal from other dishes was to put her in another room with the door closed after she finished eating... that would at least keep mew out of the other food dish. 

But, I don't know if those ideas are a good way to deal with the aggression part of the problem.

 

[lamiatron]

hmmm. some kitties will always be food aggressive. Your Mew reminds me of my Jet when she was first adopted, she was 10 weeks old, and the same exact situation as Mew. 

I had to separate Charlie from Jet when it was feeding time because if Charlie got Close to Jet, she would growl and give crazy eyes, but Charlie (2 months older than Jet) didn't really care and would take her food anyways. 

It helped to keep them separated when feeding. 

i did a few different things:

1) i would crate Charlie, and feed Jet in front of Charlie, so Charlie would learn that it was her turn to eat. When she was done I would do the same but with the other cat, crate Jet and let Charlie eat.

2) I fed them in different rooms, but that didn't work out too well, because Jet only felt comfortable around Charlie, so when he was taken out of sight, she just cried and meowed for him or hid (even in the presence of food)

3) i have a 2 level scratching post/cat tree. I would always feed Jet on top of the scratching post/cat tree, and Charlie got his bowl on the floor. They were both next to each other, but at different levels. This worked out for me THE BEST. No more growling from Jet, and no more Charlie trying to steal food (although some times he will finish first and try to steal Jet's food)

The growling and aggressiveness towards food, is not something that you can really get rid of. Some cats or even animals (because i've seen dogs do it too) will just be aggressive when it comes to food. To this day if Charlie gets too close to Jet when she's eating, she will growl.

I don't have to feed them on different levels anymore. They both get their food bowls on the floor literally a couple of feet away from each other, and neither one bothers the other. Maybe you might want to place their bowls on opposite ends of the room and see if that helps.

 

[pisces7386]

 
" I would crate Charlie, and feed Jet in front of Charlie, so Charlie would learn that it was her turn to eat. When she was done I would do the same but with the other cat, crate Jet and let Charlie eat."

"They both get their food bowls on the floor literally a couple of feet away from each other, and neither one bothers the other. Maybe you might want to place their bowls on opposite ends of the room and see if that helps."

 I like that crate idea... eventually they will know that they will get their food even if the other cat is right there.. and even if the other gets theirs first. 

I forgot to mention that Bear eats on the far side of the room from the other two. We have all three trained to eat only their food for several months now, but if we put him right next to the girls he does feel the need to go sniff at their dishes to make sure they don't have anything better. 

 

[courtneykp]

Thanks, everyone! I'll try the crate thing, and separating them a little more. Kitty doesn't really have a problem with mew food-wise...but Mew doesn't like people or pets being near her while eating. It makes her nervous. I'm hoping she grows out of it, or at least learns that she doesn't have to fight for food anymore. :nod: