One of Two Kittens Tries to Eat the Other's Food

[natalieh]

Hi Everyone,

First post on this forum. I've read a lot of material on here and the information/feedback is great!

I just adopted two kittens from a shelter a little over a week ago. They say they were born in mid-March, but they're quite small for the age that would put them at (13 weeks now). Anyway, one is a gray tabby named Finnegan and the other is a tuxedo named Ulysses (both male and neutered). They get along really well and are obviously bonded - play together, sleep together, wash each other, follow each other around etc. One issue has been Finnegan's eating habit with wet food. When I divide up portions for the two of them he gobbles down his portion and then runs over to Ulysses bowl to munch. Ulysses is much slower at eating, so when Finnegan is done Ulysses still has about half of his wet food left. Once Finnegan goes over to Ulysses' bowl he will growl and Ulysses will back away. So, I believe there is a dominance thing going on. Ulysses is always still hungry at this point, but obviously isn't able to get to the wet food. I do have dry food out all the time for them to nibble at when they want. 

I have tried things to try to help Finnegan stop doing this such as: picking him up before he gets to Ulysses' bowl and holding him, but then he squirms. Then I may put him in another room but he'll start crying Or I'll move Ulysses' to another room with his bowl before Finnegan finishes so he can eat in private. At first I would leave Ulysses in the room alone with the wet food but then he would lose interest and start crying - almost like he was missing Finnegan. So then I had to stay with Ulysses in the room and stroke him while he ate until he stepped away from the bowl showing he was done. Essentially I'm wondering if there are any techniques I can try to help Finnegan get over this issue while he's young or if I will just have to monitor them when it comes to wet food. 

Not sure if this is relevant to the topic, but Finnegan does have an obsession with food... he loves going in the fridge when it's open to look around and when we are eating he will cry and cry and try to jump up on the table. He loves the kitchen and human food (according to the foster mom). We've seen him look intently at our food but haven't given him any in hopes that he'll calm down about it.

As I said earlier they are both small for their age. I just took them to the vet a couple days ago and they were weighed. Finnegan weighed 2.54 pounds and Ulysses weighed 2.50 pounds - at 13 weeks!

Thanks much!

 

[tulosai]

This is really typical behavior.  He frankly probably will not get over it and you're going to have to keep using the techniques you've already thought of (unless someone else has something else to try). My guys have had this problem since thy were babies and I still have to pick up one of them and put him in a different room to stop him from going over to the other one's portion.  In my case I've stopped being super vigilant about it though because it's the much skinnier one who is trying to do the stealing and the other one has no issue with growling and bopping him away with his paw.

One other thing I tried when they were younger was reserving a TINY bit of the food when I split it, then picking up the stealer and bringing him to a different place and letting him munch on that bite of food- often by the time he was satisfied he had gotten it all the other kitty was done or nearly done.