Managing cat behavior around food

April 5, 2023 2:05 PM

I have a pair of sister cats just over two years old... and they have become food obsessed. Do you have any suggestions or techniques to help me mitigate this increasingly annoying behavior?

I have these two generally delightful cats that I raised from tiny kittenhood (we fostered the nursing mom cat and two others from 1 week old, and then adopted these two while the others went to other homes). So they are very socialized, friendly, well behaved cats and they are fine with each other.

But for a while now, they have become so irritating about food, especially the larger, gray cat. I feed them three meals a day, consisting of half a small can of wet food (1.5 ounces for each cat), a few pieces of dry food - in total, probably a little more food than they actually need every 24 hours. I'll give them treats, too. The gray cat is overweight, the black cat is on weight.

The idea is to feed them about every 8 hours... wake up around 7:30 or 8, lunch around 3, and then near 11 for last meal. But they (more the gray cat, but also her sister) just pester me like crazy starting a few hours before the time I plan to feed them. If I walk from my bedroom/office to the kitchen, they will always follow me expectedly. And the closer to meal time, they become very persistent and aggressive - knocking things down, jumping onto my back if I am seated at the computer(ouch), walking across the keyboard, etc. For reasons of how my apartment is set up, some nights I can't keep them out of my bedroom so they consistently wake me up about 5:30am if they can get in by walking on me, nibbling on me, or jumping up on my plants shelf and pushing them off. Again, its not just persistent meowing or leg rubbing.

A couple other things that might be useful to know:
This behavior is focused on me - I feed them 9 of 10 times and I usually work from home so I can feed them their 3 times. If I am not home and others are around they are not like this.
- their mother was very food obsessed and similar in shape to the gray cat. (Of course she was nursing four kittens so she had good reason to be.)
- I'd say this has increased in their second year.

Has anyone had any luck with adjusting cat behavior around food? I'm not expecting miracles, but I need them to chill out a bit. Any suggestions to turn the heat down on this would be greatly appreciated.

posted by RajahKing to Pets & Animals (13 answers total)

I have not had this issue myself, but I would suggest getting an automatic feeder, I believe you can get one that will dispense a set amount of food at preset times. This might require you to switch them entirely to dry food, but it might get their focus off of you.

Other forms of cat entertainment and stimulation may help too, you probably know that.
posted by Rhedyn at 2:13 PM on April 5, 2023

I would say a good chunk of pets bugging us for food is to engage in an activity with us. It is a fun game for them that I am sure is more exciting than what whatever else they are up to.

The good news is that cats are trickle feeders. You actually can just have food out all of the time for them and they will count their own calories and most all cats will adjust to the best weight for them. Here is an excellent video on cat feeding. Bonus, your cat will top bugging you for food.
posted by nanook at 2:18 PM on April 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yep, the answer to this for me was automated feeder. If dry food is not an option there are ones you can set up for multiple wet food servings, with an ice pack to last the day. You'd have to set that one up once a day, so you'd probably still get bothered that once, but it would at least cut down on the feline harassment.

Getting a bit less predictable about feeding time was also helpful. "Stacey wakes up and goes to feed cats almost immediately" was a bad thing for them to learn. "Stacey wakes up, goes about her morning, and somewhere in the 30-60 minutes later realm the cats get fed" resulted in fewer cat shenanigans because there were less predictable cues and times to learn. They still stare at me a lot for that intervening 45 minutes or so, but that's fine.

If there's any element of this that's about the two cats stealing food from each other, individual microchip feeders so they each calm down about their own food supply might be part of the solution too. I don't know if there are options that cover *both* microchip access *and* timed/metered food access, though.
posted by Stacey at 2:30 PM on April 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

They sound bored.

Can you do a catio/catiary? Open a window where they can comfortable window watch wildlife?

I pet-sat a cat that required a full hour of play time twice a day chasing a cat fishing pole before she would touch her food.
posted by aniola at 2:32 PM on April 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have had great success training a food-obsessed cat to associate the iPhone "harp" alarm sound with mealtime, instead of me. I made it _very_ clear (cat theater! theater performed for cats!) that I was hearing, motivated by, and serving the almighty clock sound. "Collie! It's the food sound! Time to get food! Yes it is!". I made no move toward any cat food or dishes at any other time.

It worked really, really well. The only catch is that you can't miss feeding time, or the cat will be very, very distressed when they hear that harp sound and no food appears.
posted by amtho at 3:09 PM on April 5, 2023 [9 favorites]

Is there a reason you're feeding three times a day? I'd cut back to twice just to minimize the number of times they badger you.

With an automated feeder, the cats shift to becoming obsessed with it as the food-giver instead of you. I had a dry feeder with a large reservoir that my cat would kick for hours to try to shake loose an extra kibble. My friend's not-particularly-large cat has destroyed one of the automated feeders for wet food because she's just a chaos monster. Which is to say, plan for this when you place the feeders, maybe put them on a rug or placemat to keep the noise down.

If possible, set the automatic feeder to dispense food a little while before they usually wake you up, to help them catch on to you not being the food-giver.

When you say the grey cat is overweight, has it seen a vet? Some cats are just big, they have loose skin, it can be hard to tell. I say this because my cat was being super annoying about food, and it was because she needed to eat more. She looks a bit chubby now, but still has a bit of a waist and the vet says she's in good shape.
posted by momus_window at 3:23 PM on April 5, 2023

I also have food-obsessed sibling cats, with the portlier one being the most persistent (swiping at typing hands, gnawing on corners of laptops).

The most success I've had re: cutting down on mid-day and evening pre-meal pestering is by making their napping zone warm and snuggly (electric blanket on low or medium) so they stay sleeping for longer.
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:24 PM on April 5, 2023

I should have added: once she was conditioned to the sound cue for feeding time, Collie would go sit and stare at the iPhone (mounted on a charging clock radio device) when she was hungry. Instead of staring at me. It was amazing.
posted by amtho at 3:40 PM on April 5, 2023 [6 favorites]

I think you could still feed them wet food once per day but give them dry for the morning feeding in an autofeeder so they stop associating it with you. Look for one that tells you when it is empty, or they'll keep waking you from time to time when they get shorted. If you do try free feeding, watch them carefully for weight gain. Black cats seem to put on weight easier and develop diabetes more often.
posted by soelo at 5:03 PM on April 5, 2023

My chonky boy has responded well to my setting an alarm on my phone with a special ringtone. After a month or so, he has learned that he won't get fed until he hears his special music, and he is 80-90% less likely to try to convince us it's mealtime before the alarm has played. When the music plays, he definitely now knows that this is his song, and food is on the way.

Occasionally, it's proven necessary to change the time slightly, if we have other plans away from home, but we never feed him without playing the music first.

Also, we've put a sign above his food bowl telling him that meals are at 7am, 2pm and 9pm, but I'm not sure that's as useful to him.
posted by QuakerMel at 5:30 PM on April 5, 2023 [5 favorites]

Here to vouch for amtho's technique. They mentioned it in an earlier ask (2 yrs ago?) and I promptly used an old phone to create a Food God that lives in our dining room. It took less than a week for our 18lbs of furry fury to learn that we are not permitted to feed him unless instructed by the all powerful Food God. He now ignores any activity in the kitchen until he hears his song. It's remarkable (and peaceful).
posted by jenquat at 6:37 PM on April 5, 2023 [7 favorites]

The iPhone FOOD GOD has worked well for me with two separate dogs too. It's important that when the special food alarm goes, you feed them immediately so they know that the FOOD GOD is in charge of food decisions, and not you. (And yes, it also makes the meal timing much more flexible, even if that occasionally leaves the dog a little puzzled.)
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 7:54 PM on April 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

One thing that doesn't get mentioned enough is cats need massive amounts of protein for good health. When I first got a cat, I spent a long time looking up the science on cat food, which is how I came to conclude that 60% protein and 20% fat was appropriate, and that most cat food didn't have nearly enough protein and had way too many carbs regardless of marketing claims on the front of the package.

I don't have an automatic feeder, I just give my cat a bunch of high-protein kibble in the morning, and another bunch at night, and from time to time give him some wet food, in addition. It's worth saying he does not eat twice a day. Instead, he has a little nibble multiple times over 24 hours, which I've read is more natural for cats. Of his own accord, he drinks about a 1/2 cup of standard cat bowl water a day.

Anyway, this is how I've been feeding him for about two years, and when he's in the "loaf" position his "shoulders" have all become markedly muscular, and his fur is extremely lush, but he hasn't gained any weight per se, and he doesn't beg for food because he has control of his own, which is important to him.
posted by Violet Blue at 1:10 PM on April 6, 2023