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-   -   Need some cat psychology help (http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=72824)

Love4himies September 29th, 2010 05:57 PM

Need some cat psychology help
 
Rose as sweet and lovable as she is has a funny quirk that I am hoping somebody can explain.

My cats get fed in separate dishes, Sweet Pea and Puddles are always in separate rooms, so there will be three cats together. If Puddles or Jasper is eating, she will stare at them until they leave their dish, then she starts eating their food. The quirky part is she has her own dish only inches away :confused: . I used to feed her just raw because she wouldn't eat cat food, but now I have started feeding them all the exact same thinking she just wanted what the other cats were eating. But no she still does it and it intimidates Jasper and Puddles :yell: :frustrated: so they stop eating and let her have it. She doesn't do this to Sweet :evil: Pea.

Any idea what is going through her head?

bendyfoot September 29th, 2010 06:05 PM

[QUOTE=Love4himies;955357]
Any idea what is going through her head?[/QUOTE]

[B][FONT="Arial Black"][SIZE="7"][COLOR="Teal"]OMNOMNOMNOM[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/B]

:laughing::laughing::laughing:

Seriously, though, she just wants their food, and they're deferring. I see that here too. We have to police everyone's meals. :rolleyes:

Frenchy September 29th, 2010 06:47 PM

[QUOTE=Love4himies;955357]

Any idea what is going through her head?[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=bendyfoot;955362][B][FONT="Arial Black"][SIZE="7"][COLOR="Teal"]OMNOMNOMNOM[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/B]

[/QUOTE]

:laughing: yep , that about sums it up :laughing:

Foster Toby was doing the same thing to foster Esmee. I had to supervise ! Jack does the same with toys , he always wants to play with the ones Nelly or Sienna are playing with. :shrug: It always looks greener on the other side .... :D

catlover2 September 29th, 2010 10:59 PM

[B]L4H[/B], you say Rose's dish is "only inches away" from Jasper's and Puddles. Maybe she thinks that's too close and by staring at them she's intimidating them to move away, which they do. It sounds like a domination thing to me by taking over their food. Some cats prefer to eat by themselves away from others. So try and put Rose's dish in a far away corner from the others, and see if she likes that better, and leaves Jasper and Puddles food alone. For some reason she gives more respect to Sweet Pea, maybe because SP's dominant over her?

Love4himies September 30th, 2010 06:50 AM

[QUOTE=catlover2;955443][B]L4H[/B], you say Rose's dish is "only inches away" from Jasper's and Puddles. Maybe she thinks that's too close and by staring at them she's intimidating them to move away, which they do.
[COLOR="Red"]I have tried moving their dishes into another room and she follows them and still stares :wall:. She is just not the dominant type of kitty :shrug:, she gets along with all my cats and has from day 1 :confused:, that's why I find this so confusing. [/COLOR]

It sounds like a domination thing to me by taking over their food. Some cats prefer to eat by themselves away from others. So try and put Rose's dish in a far away corner from the others, and see if she likes that better, and leaves Jasper and Puddles food alone. For some reason she gives more respect to Sweet Pea, maybe because SP's dominant over her?[/QUOTE]

Oh yeah, you are so right, SP is the ruler of the house and lets Rose know who is boss. Puddles doesn't back down from her, hence why they fight :(:frustrated:

Love4himies September 30th, 2010 06:53 AM

[QUOTE=Frenchy;955371]:laughing: yep , that about sums it up :laughing:

Foster Toby was doing the same thing to foster Esmee. I had to supervise ! Jack does the same with toys , he always wants to play with the ones Nelly or Sienna are playing with. :shrug: It always looks greener on the other side .... :D[/QUOTE]

Maybe that is what it is. "Whatch ya got, huhhhhh, whatch ya got?, I want that too." But it is the exact same thing as what is in her dish :wall: Maybe I am thinking too much into this and it is very simple. I just wish she would stop. Poor Jasper won't eat when she stares at him and Puddles stops after a few nibbles:(

bendyfoot September 30th, 2010 07:35 AM

I just fed my three. Boo is the slowest eater. Audrey isn't shy, she'll try to stick her head right in Boo's bowl asap, which usually earns her a swat (although I normally just have to keep a toe handy to poke the little pest out of the way first :D). Solomon on the other hand will park himself about 6 inches from Boo and stare and stare and stare. If it wasn't for the fact that Boo is undeniably "the boss" and Sol is undeniably her b-tch :laughing:, another cat in the same situation could be intimidated to move. As for being interested in what's in the others' bowls...Boo ALWAYS will refuse to eat right away...she must see what the other two are getting first.

I could, like Frenchy, equate this to normal dog behaviour that we see here too. All three dogs could have an identical toy (frisbee, bone, whatever), but Heidi would much rather have one of the other two dogs' items; she'll steal Jaida's outright or wait for Gracie to look away from hers then steal it. Poor Jaida always loses her stuff this way. We'll be outside, playing frisbee, Heidi and Jaida will each have one (identical) and as soon as Heidi sees Jaida with one, she hip checks her and steals it. :rolleyes: Brat.

I really wouldn't read too much into it...it could be a dominance thing (staring, for cats, can be considered a challenge), a preference thing, a bratty-brat thing...but I don't think it's anything to worry about.

ancientgirl September 30th, 2010 12:09 PM

Maybe she's passive aggressive. :D:shrug:

Mine sort of do the same thing. I feed Oksana and Vlad on opposite ends of the counter, Maks and Kiska right next to each other and Czari a couple of feet away from Maks. Vlad will always want Oksana's food, so I have to block him from bothering her. Maks will always try to eat Kiska's food, which makes Kiska then try to go for Oksana's food as well. Nobody however, messes with Czari while she's eating. :laughing:

I just figure it's just them wanting what the other has, which is the exact same thing they are eating. :rolleyes: I don't worry too much about it because after they all move from plate to plate, they just come back and snack on the rest of their food. Everybody gets their fill.

catlover2 September 30th, 2010 11:00 PM

When I was breeding and had 5-6 females, I just put down a big plate of food and let them sort it out. Funny thing is they all ate together, no one hung back. At the time I did have a really piggy neuter that would gobble down his own food quickly and then barge in and eat the girls' food too. I did have to feed him in a separate room, until the girls had eaten as much as they wanted and then I took any uneaten food away.

When I got my Devons, my boy developed an allergy to a type of food, so instead of eating off one plate, I fed them separately, about 5 ft. apart, as my boy was getting different type of food than my girl. After his allergy cleared up, got them on the same food, but still maintained the separate plates. My boy whose always trying to be dominant does often try and eat my girl's food first. Usually he'll move if I tell him to leave her food alone, but sometimes I lift him up and put him at his own food. Sometimes she goes after his food, so it's often tit for tat. Sometimes she tends to eat too much and was getting a bit chubby, so I've been trying to give her a little less, and she's finally down to a better weight.

14+kitties September 30th, 2010 11:46 PM

If you watch a group of feral cats with a single mouse it gets passed around. It is always the strongest, most dominant cat that has the mouse. Always accompanied with lots of growling and staring. However, it only lasts for a couple of minutes and normally the mouse gets passed on to the next cat. Eventually they all have their moment in the sun and then the first one takes back the mouse and eats it. Or will eat his/her fill and leave the rest.
Once Rose has managed to move them away and she has had what she wants do they come back?

Love4himies October 1st, 2010 06:47 AM

OK, my posts keep disappearing :confused:.

14+, that makes perfect sense, I had no idea that's what happened in a feral colony. She is just not a dominant kitty :shrug: in any way :cloud9::lovestruck::cloud9::lovestruck:, she is just a very gentle soul :cloud9:.

Yes, Puddles and Jasper will come back to eat. They are small, frequent munchers, but Puddles seems very intimidated by her. Rose is very skiddish and fast moving and that seems to scare Puddles. She doesn't like any kitty running around her (I think her eyesight may be going :().

catlover2: I have one of those piggies :yell:, Sweet Pea and she is chunky :(, I do feed her in a separate room and keep the other's food away from her, but am not always successful. I wish I could get that unhealthy weight off her.

Czarina is just like Sweet Pea, Rose doesn't mess with her and stays away while she is eating. Sweet Pea has always chased all the cats away from the feeding area while I was preparing and putting down the food.

BenMax October 1st, 2010 08:18 AM

As funny as this sounds, I have to monitor my cat crew closer than the dog crew. I have 2 cats that want whatever the other cats have.....and it's the same darn food.:shrug:. And to add - one of those 2 cats wants whatever the dogs have. Luckily there is not food aggression amongst my feline and canine crew regardless of whose head is where.

Not sure why it happens, but the cats that are being stared down simply move to another bowl and continue on their merry way. I think it a dominence or pecking order thing.:shrug:

14+kitties October 1st, 2010 05:02 PM

L4 - Remember this site? It has some fascinating information in it. Some of it I have forgotten. Some of it is about feral kitties. Rose started her life as a feral or a stray. She hasn't yet learned all the "niceties" of civilized living. :D

[url]http://www.messybeast.com/cat_talk2.htm[/url]

Love4himies October 1st, 2010 06:54 PM

[QUOTE=14+kitties;956119]L4 - Remember this site? It has some fascinating information in it. Some of it I have forgotten. Some of it is about feral kitties. Rose started her life as a feral or a stray. She hasn't yet learned all the "niceties" of civilized living. :D

[url]http://www.messybeast.com/cat_talk2.htm[/url][/QUOTE]

What a great site :thumbs up. I haven't finished reading it all, but did about cats who vocally communicate with humans. Rose didn't say a peep for many months until she realized if she meowed she got my attention and what she wanted :lovestruck::cloud9: I love my sweet Rose :cloud9:


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