Food-Aggressive Cat? -Update in First Post-

[make_x_it_x_so]

Hey everyone! I recently adopted a little black spitfire of a kitty to add to my current pack (2 black cats and a brindle pittie mix).

Overall, she’s adjusting to the pack life pretty well- I’ve already caught her and the other cats snuggling together, and she’s generally tolerant of the dog (although quick to hiss at her when she feels that she has been wronged).

My only issue is that she’s been acting quite food aggressive at meal times. She is VERY food-driven (think labrador retriever-level). Initially I just noticed her pushing my other cats away from their meals when she had finished hers, so I started feeding her separately in the bathroom to let them finish eating in peace.

My new problem is that she gets very agitated when she knows that it’s mealtime. I feed her first in the bathroom so that she is out of the way, but even while I’m grabbing her can of food, she will run out of the bathroom to attack the dog, who is standing patiently in my room waiting for her own dinner.

Thankfully, my dog has been a DOLL about it, and mostly just pushes the cat off of her face without retaliating, but I don’t want her to develop a fear of cats, or to start getting aggressive towards them. I don’t mind a cat that smacks a dog when it’s out-of-line, but I would prefer if my dog is not punished when she is actually behaving!

Anyone have experience with this/ideas that I could try to make her a little more pleasant during meals? I’m hoping/assuming this will at least get a little better in time, when she realizes that no one else will take her food, but I’ve had her for almost 2 weeks now, and I want to nip this behavior in the bud.

Thanks in advance!

----UPDATE------
Thanks for the advice everyone!

I’ve been locking Tonks [Angry kitty] in the bathroom at mealtimes (and also closing the door to my room, with Fergie [dog] inside for her own protection).

Tonks is still VERY anxious and eats her meal very quickly, but I do think she’s starting to get a hang of the routine. Sometimes she even runs into the bathroom before I scoop her up to bring her in.

I don’t know if we’ll ever wean her off of the whole “feed in bathroom” routine, but at least I seem to have found a way to manage it so that she can’t bully anyone else, haha.

[make_x_it_x_so]

BUMP
Anyone?

[NoDQhere]

Hopefully she will outgrow this. Can you leave dry food where the dogs can’t get it but the cats can snack? That may help her to get over being so “hungry” at mealtime.

[Coyoteco]

I have always believed and continue to believe that if an animal is food aggressive or even just aggressive at meal time, it is because they are hungry and need their food increased substantially. My qh gelding gets ill tempered at feeding time in the fall - not other time is he ever the least bit ill tempered. Every fall, I increase his food for a couple of months and he is his mild mannered self. At the first sign of impatience in the fall, I increase his food.

I really believe that applies to all animals and I would feed that kitten a lot more to get her through what is probably a growth spurt. I’ve actually never had this theory fail.

[Jhein12]

I had a very food aggressive cat. I fed wet food, then prey model raw. I would just feed him in a crate. He’d run into the crate at meal time. The other kitty ate her food while he was in the crate- problem solved. Oh, and he definitely did not need more food! Before I switched him to prey model raw, he was pretty overweight. He got plenty of food. After the switch he still got plenty of food, even a bit more on occasion. He’d still be aggressive even if he had a whole cornish hen in front of him :eek:

[make_x_it_x_so]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far. She isn’t a kitten per se, she’s ~1 year old and I’m feeding her an appropriate amount. I can’t leave extra kibble out because I have a fat cat that will demolish it, but I can try feeding Tonks an extra snack (on top of her normal treats) in the afternoon.

Jhein12- how long did it take for your cat to learn to just run into the crate at mealtimes? I feed her in the bathroom, but the entire time I’m preparing her meal she’s running around hissing and terrorizing everyone else (today she chased the dog to her crate, where the dog has been trained to wait at meal times).

She’s always one step ahead of me- as soon as I get out of bed in the morning she knows that breakfast is coming and starts flipping out.

Here are some pictures as a thank-you:

Three black cats
(Tonks is in the middle)

A rare tender moment with the dog

ETA: I don’t think it’s a growth spurt because of her age, but given her unknown history (and small stature), it’s pretty safe to assume that she didn’t have access to proper nutrition growing up, which is probably why she’s so defensive.

[Coyoteco]

LOL I’ve never had anyone accept this theory:). I’ve never had it fail, so I’m pretty confident on this one. I remember when I said I was going to increase geldings food and everyone online perceived that as “rewarding”. That was many years ago and this simple solution has worked for a decade and a half. He just gets hungry in the fall so I increase his food - at no other time is he a “food oriented” horse.

Anyway, good luck with your cute kitty. There are a lot of beautiful cats in all colors, but black cats are especially beautiful to me. She may not have gotten enough as a kitten as you speculated - perhaps she just needs to become confident about that now, and my approach to that would be different.

[myleetlepony]

Along the line of Coyoteco’s theory, I would probably isolate her for a day or two with a bowl of dry kibble to snack on throughout the day, in addition to her normal meals. My adopted “ghetto” cat taught me this lesson by chance.

He was food aggressive when he first came into the house, not so much towards the other animals, but he would sneak attack and take food out of your hand as you were eating or making meals. It got to the point where if we were preparing food or eating, we had to lock him away. It was getting stressful on everyone. About a month after we took him in, we had to go out of town for a weekend. I set up the timed feeders with wet food and left a large bowl of dry food out. I was amazed to find some of the dry food left when we came back, and “ghetto” cat has not been food aggressive at all since. It was like after being left to a buffet, he finally calmed and realized he’s no longer going to starve. He gets three meals a day and he knows it…I don’t think he’s had to feel hunger since that trip, and that has calmed him immensely.

[make_x_it_x_so]

Update: I just locked her in the bathroom with a kibble-dispensing toy and way more kibble than should fit in her little kitty tummy. I’ll add a litterbox and plan on keeping her in there for a couple of days. It will be tough, because she’s a quick little thing at running under your feet, but I really need to get her to just CHILL OUT about food.

[Coyoteco]

I think that you should keep giving the canned food as normal, too.

Good luck with the pretty little kitty.

[make_x_it_x_so]

[QUOTE=Coyoteco;8156962]
I think that you should keep giving the canned food as normal, too.

Good luck with the pretty little kitty.[/QUOTE]

Forgot to add that- I’ll still feed her on schedule (she had her can of dinner tonight, and will get a kibble refill in the morning).

Thanks for the well-wishes everyone!
I’ll post updates as we go- luckily I’m on summer break, so I have some extra time to devote to this.

[make_x_it_x_so]

Update #1:
This morning, after nibbling on some fresh kibbles that I topped her off with, Tonks figured out how to open the bathroom door. So much for that idea… (the house I rent was built in 1852 and so none of the doors have actual knobs- just latches that are pretty easy to wiggle open).

But she does have a VERY full belly of kibbles, so hopefully that helped her to some extent, haha.

My plan, moving forward, is to close my room door so that Tonks can’t sneak through the gate to beat Fergie up while I’m feeding dinner. And I will continue to close her in at meals, give her an extra lunch, and overfeed the kibbles.

[Romany]

I don’t know if you can juggle this in your situation, OP, but after frustrated juggling of food bowls, crates and dogs with our chronically food aggressive dog (she’s elderly, a rescue, and DESPERATE about food, which we were warned about when we got her), I feed her in the garden, and let the others feed indoors. Seems to have worked out well for her, as she waits to go out when she sees me getting meals ready, pops out when I open the door, and is happy snuffling around the yard once she’s scoffed her food while the other, non food aggressive, dog finishes his meal.

I get that you can’t feed her outdoors probably, but could you pop her into another room to eat her meal, and throw a handful more kibble across the floor that she can graze on while the others finish their meals?

[Coyoteco]

That’s too bad. Sometimes cats can be really creative on getting through doors.

[make_x_it_x_so]

[QUOTE=Romany;8158159]
I don’t know if you can juggle this in your situation, OP, but after frustrated juggling of food bowls, crates and dogs with our chronically food aggressive dog (she’s elderly, a rescue, and DESPERATE about food, which we were warned about when we got her), I feed her in the garden, and let the others feed indoors. Seems to have worked out well for her, as she waits to go out when she sees me getting meals ready, pops out when I open the door, and is happy snuffling around the yard once she’s scoffed her food while the other, non food aggressive, dog finishes his meal.

I get that you can’t feed her outdoors probably, but could you pop her into another room to eat her meal, and throw a handful more kibble across the floor that she can graze on while the others finish their meals?[/QUOTE]

I can’t do it outdoors, especially because of winter, but the bathroom method seems to work. She doesn’t immediately break out of the bathroom after eating, so there’s usually enough time that the other animals are all finished. Today, I locked the dog downstairs while I fed the cats, and that seemed to help decrease her anticipation. She was actually quite calm through the whole feeding process. I think I’m going to try and change it up a bit so she never really knows when I’m going to feed her, at least in the afternoons (it’s harder to change my morning routine!).

Thanks for your help, everyone! It seems like we might have found a system that is working. I don’t mind keeping the dog downstairs while I start feeding- she’s pretty smart/adaptable and will soon learn that I didn’t actually forget about her, haha.

[make_x_it_x_so]

bumped for update in first post