Mother cat eating all the food!

[Neece]

My cat won’t stop eating her kittens food, they’re 7 weeks old and enjoying small meals and she will leave her food and try and eat theirs. Pushing them out of the way while they’re eating too.

She has more than enough food herself, we make sure to keep her very well fed due to nursing (and she’s a big eater) but she’s intent on getting their food. We feed her a mix of wet and dry kitten food and feed the kittens the exact same wet food, but after a few minutes she’s back trying to get to them.

How can we stop this? We don’t want to shut her out of the room but it’s getting silly having to move her away every few minutes. We’re not in a rush to wean them as they’re not going to their new homes until 12 weeks but now that they’re actively eating we want to make sure they’re getting enough.

 

[StefanZ]

feed the kittens somewhere else? Or in a tight box where she cant follow them.

Is the kitten food she gets another than theirs?

 

[Neece]

feed the kittens somewhere else? Or in a tight box where she cant follow them.

Is the kitten food she gets another than theirs?

There bowls are on opposite ends of the same room. We’ve just moved the kittens downstairs so we’ll keep hers in a different room but I think even then she’ll still be after theirs. We’ll have to start blocking them off while they eat until she stops doing it.

She has a mixture of wet food and dry food. The kittens have just the wet food.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi, when you say a mixture do you mean literally mixed together? Try giving her that but also add some just wet for her.

 

[catsknowme]

Your mama cat may need more moisture plus the nutrition in the pure wet food as well as the taste is better. I would keep the kibble separate from the wet food. Feed mama kitty wet food at the same time as the babies and keep kibble handy so she can free feed. As the kittens get older, they extract even more nutrition from her milk-producing body because mother's milk is ideal for developing brains in addition to building strong bones and muscles.

 

[Neece]

Your mama cat may need more moisture plus the nutrition in the pure wet food as well as the taste is better. I would keep the kibble separate from the wet food. Feed mama kitty wet food at the same time as the babies and keep kibble handy so she can free feed. As the kittens get older, they extract even more nutrition from her milk-producing body because mother's milk is ideal for developing brains in addition to building strong bones and muscles.

Thank you will try this at the next meal time! When we’ve given her just the wet before she still abandons hers part way through to eat there’s but I’ll put hers in a different room and see if that helps too

 

[Sarthur2]

My cat did that too, so I solved the problem by feeding her and the kittens the exact same food at the same spot and time. Mom needed the nutrition too, so it was easier to just let her eat theirs and them eat hers. It didn’t matter - it was all the same!

 

[Neece]

So we’ve been doing same food at the same time now for a couple of days and she’s still going straight for their bowls instead of her own. She was also grumbling at my partner when he moved her away from it. Right now she’s sat watching them eat and ignoring her on bowl

 

[Sarthur2]

So direct the kittens to “her” bowl. Same food so let her eat theirs and they can eat hers. She obviously thinks the kittens are getting something special that she wants too.

 

[Cherrun35]

My cat won’t stop eating her kittens food, they’re 7 weeks old and enjoying small meals and she will leave her food and try and eat theirs. Pushing them out of the way while they’re eating too.

She has more than enough food herself, we make sure to keep her very well fed due to nursing (and she’s a big eater) but she’s intent on getting their food. We feed her a mix of wet and dry kitten food and feed the kittens the exact same wet food, but after a few minutes she’s back trying to get to them.

How can we stop this? We don’t want to shut her out of the room but it’s getting silly having to move her away every few minutes. We’re not in a rush to wean them as they’re not going to their new homes until 12 weeks but now that they’re actively eating we want to make sure they’re getting enough.

I had the same issue...i have 2 suggestions what I did that worked pretty well. Feed momma first, alot. She hopefully will be to full to eat. The other suggestion I have...well I woukd still go ahead and let momma eat first then get a big round plate ( I used A lid from a Tupperware container) and put food on it all around the edges just all over. The kittens will be In a big circle eating that way if momma wants t o eat their food they just move over...it works really well actually of small kittens!!