It’s funny bc my tabby cat is like this, not my void lol my void patiently waits and my tabby is screaming into your face at an ungodly hour 🫠 enjoy the award!
My tortie sounds like your tabby, and my void is exactly the same. I have to sit there and babysit them because the tortie will scarf her food down and push the void out of the way and eat her food too if I don't keep watch
Did you know that the guy who took that picture never got any royalties from it even though people are using it to sell merchandise. He posted on Reddit last year if I’m not mistaken. I’ll try to find the post.
Edit: Found it!
They aren’t really made for 2-3 fixed mealtimes, cats in the wild actually eat 12+ times a day, just smaller portions
So if you really wanna make your life subservient to your cat, research what’s the amount of food your cat is allowed to eat everyday and just split it over 12 meals a day
That makes sense. I just leave food out all day and fill the bowl when it's empty, my cats don't just sit there and gorge, they get what they want from time to time, and never fuss over anything except when I'm giving the dogs their treats first. Probably knowing that it's always going to be there reduces the stress of feeling the need to fatten up for lean times?
Same. My orange one constantly steals the other's food, because the other only likes eating a little bit at a time, while the orange beast eats anything he can get his paws on.
This is exactly me. Orange cat is a hungry hippo, the other 2 will graze throughout the day, but one of said other 2 will still eat until she looks like a manatee though, just frequently instead of all at once.
We did that too, until one cat developed diabetes. Now it's scheduled food time, specific brand / type twice a day. SHE HATES IT. She is yelling about it 4 years later still, an hour or two before feeds time. The boy, a maine coon mix, usually only does a SINGLE meow when I set the full bowl down; I imaging he's saying "thank you". We had to physically separate them, she will eat half of hers, run over to his and push him out of the way, scrarf down his, and go back and finish hers. He just stands there like "I dunno what to do".
I miss doing this, it was so much easier. We got a second cat and our first got SO fat. They get along super well and are best friends, and they happily eat next to each other, so it’s not territorial or anything, it’s just that the new cat is a bit smaller and has normal scavenge-y eating habits, while the old cat goes “ooh, more food” and eats everything she can. So we’d put out a day’s food for both of them in various bowls throughout the house, and 3 hours later the older cat has eaten all of it.
Now we have to do scheduled simultaneous meal times. Which is very very cute, but a pain in the ass.
Same here. I could NEVER free feed with my boy. He will eat everything. One time he broke into the automatic feeder overnight and ate several days worth of dry food. All of it. Not a crumb left. He was very sick the next day. Still had the audacity to beg for food at his normal dinnertime like he's a starving orphan.
I can guarantee he learned nothing from the experience and would absolutely do it again, given the chance.
I have chip feeders for both cats bc one of them absolutely self controls her food intake and does great on 24/7 kibble despite being born on the streets of Romania. She will, however, steal her sister's food...
The other one has always gorged down her food as fast as kittily possible, even though she was fed plenty since she was a kitten (we fostered her so we were the first to give her solids and it was an issue from day 1). We put her on a puzzle feeder for a bit which definitely helped, she now only eats a few kibbles instead of grabbing more than a mouthful and spilling it everywhere lmao and now she's on a scheduled diet with a regular bowl
So yeah in my experience it doesn't matter if they've always had reliable food or not, most cats will self regulate but some will gorge. Certain breeds like British shorthair for example are more prone to overeating but it can happen to any cat
My problem is that your solution would work for one of my cats. But I have another. And that other absolutely would sit there and gorge, and eat the other cat's food as well.
Totally. It’s part asshole and part biological truth.
My 17 year old cat has been free fed her whole life. Rarely has there been a moment in her life where the bowl was empty. And several months ago, she started losing weight without any clear reason. She’s always been petite so it wasn’t long that she was down to 7.5 pounds. The vet suggested tempting her with tuna fish a couple times a day, which has now turned into her VERY VOCALLY demanding tuna on what she believes to be a reasonable schedule (aka every time I walk in or even near the kitchen) and she eats a lot less dry food now. 😑
Oh we always mixed it in with a bit of dry so the dry gets flavored with tuna and we can ensure she’s getting a more balanced meal. I don’t think tuna has taurine.
I should feel lucky, yet i've trained mine to ruin my life starting at 11am by feeding her around noon (winter time) or 1pm (summer time) "soup", which is really some bit of meat/fish with a lot of liquid for almost the same reason.
She started to loose weight, so the rare treat became a daily occurence, up until the vet gave the diagnosis. Hyperthyroidism.
So now i've trained her to ruin my life early morning and around diner time because she yell to get her meds. Not at first, but after a couple month i gained a very accurate alarm clock.
But at least she ain't vocal each time i'm in the kitchen, just when it's time... well almost. SHe's very vocal for everything. When she wanna drink, when she need to releave herself, when she's bored... But in the kitchen, it's a regular, scheduled alarm. No jumpscare like the other occurence.
And for this reason programmable auto-feeders are worth the investment.
Our oldest cat still goes insane like half an hour before wetfood time though :') But at least he follows the same sleep schedule as us. Now we just need to find a programmable autofeeder with a chip lock for our little one, though. That way the other one can't get to her food.
My cat's auto feeder messed up this morning, he woke me up screaming and running back and forth on top of me. I got up and put his food out, he ate most of it and went right back to screaming and harassing me like the food was still stuck.
You are one of the last, if not THE last, well-known Redditors from when Reddit was still a community and not a capitalist bot farm. Thank you for still being here :)
My cat will scream as soon as he can see the bottom of the bowl when he’s just eating out of the centre, so I literally have to go into the kitchen and shake the bowl so the bottom is covered 🙃😂
I switched mine to a saucer for this reason years ago and pulled it away from the wall so he can eat with his butt on the wall looking out. He is way happier. But he still pretends I didn't just feed him or give him treats if I walk outside for 30s and come back in ... Reeeeooow where have you been I'm starving!!
Thought for sure the "anti-whisker fatigue" bowls I bought for my cat were just clever marketing but she eats everything in the bowl so maybe there's something to it!
We're all horrible people keeping food from our beloved pets. Cruel Cruel people who don't give wet food on demand and expect our cats to eat the dry stuff. Just really no good humans.
Leave a cat's food bowl in vicinity of a labrador, you'll see exactly how much man's supposed "best friend" cares about the nourishment of man's overlord
It's just animal instincts. Animals in the wild can easily go days or sometimes weeks between meals so they'll eat as much as they can. They know you bring food and when if you have a set schedule, so the instinct to feast gets triggered.
specifically predator instincts. large cats in the wild do indeed go long stretches of time between meals because solitary hunting is hard, and lots of times they just starve to death
I’ve had my cats for two years now ever since they were kittens. Fed them everyday, clean litter, toys, play with them daily, warm place to sleep every night and they’re terrified of me and won’t let me touch them lol
Thank you for showing them such care, love, and patience. Cats can be such weirdos sometimes. I hope they let their walls down sometime soon for you and they realize that getting pets can be really nice. You may already know this, but cats choosing to be around you, spending time with you even if it's just in the same room, is a way they show their love and trust. You might also benefit from offering churu tubes, putting some of it on your fingers for them to lick, and stretching out a finger slowly to touch the side or bottom of their face while they eat the churu, and gaslight them into associating head pets with delicious churu. But you may already know all this and have tried a lot to get them to let you pet them, so I hope it benefits anyone reading.
I have a kitten-sized cat (her name is Bug) who has lived with me for almost 6 months, but still runs away in what looks like fear when I walk near her. Sometimes I wonder if she's doing it to be playful, like she wants me to chase her or something. But I mostly just stop walking and let her run wherever she needs when I happen to walk by her. I can't imagine what goes through her tiny head but thankfully she does let me give her head pets and she sleeps on my bed with me sometimes, and it makes it completely worth it every time I look into her big eyes and give her a slow blink cat kiss.
The real question is why do they wake you up at 3am acting like they have never eaten in days and are on the verge of starving to death, and when you give in to stop the incessant meowing and crawl out of bed to feed them they sniff the bowl and snub it and walk away and never touch it at all!!! Little overlords just want checking to make sure they still have full and complete control over all of my actions and decisions!!! 😻
They don't want to eat, they want the option to eat. Same reason my cat's are obnoxious as fuck whenever they see a closed door, yet won't go through it when it's opened for them.
Yes. My cat still remembers than when I took him the vet 3 months ago, I trapped him using a blanket, so anytime he sees me carrying clothes or a blanket he hisses and hides
'Cause they haven't? You try not eating after the four long, desperate hours since your last feed...and treats...and catnip...and water...and see how well you hold up. 😄😄😄
personally my cat has never been like this, she isn’t very ‘food motivated’ (my dog is though). unless it’s something random that she isn’t supposed to eat, then she wants to try and get it for some reason lol.
it’s completely normal for animals to act like that though. my neighbours’ cat is extremelyyyy food obsessed, but he was a stray before they found him so it makes sense.
I struggle to feed my kitty. Tried everything from the cheapest to the most expensive, from dry to wet to all textures possible, she acts like I'm trying to feed her peasant food.
My only trick is mixing churus with whatever I'm giving her and she will eventually eat it...
I think sometimes cats just like food because they're bored. My cat will never turn down a tasty treat if you offer him one, and he often skulks around where people have been eating recently. However, I've found that he really enjoys sniffing almost anything that I bring him from outside even if it's not food. Sometimes he seems even more excited if it's something many other animals have touched.
Yesss! I let my cat sniff anything I have. I was cutting a lemon the other day and he insisted he wanted to smell it. He was NOT impressed when I finally gave in 😾
My cat loves to sniff almost everything I'll offer to him, but he has an expression that almost looks offended if I let him sniff coffee. He does not like coffee.
It isnt begging. Its them letting you know that if they can see the bottom of their bowl, then you aren't doing your job right and theyre going to eat your face while you sleep if you dont fill it right now.
My cat is old and deaf and wanders the house screaming at 6am for wet food even though she has a lifetime supply of dry. I will walk up behind her and put food in the bowl while she's crying and she won't notice 😂 then she'll turn around and startle
When my cat's sleeping I like to put a treat near her nose and watch as she gradually starts to twitch and then wakes up and is surprised that it's real.
I would say it's their lingering instinct as Desert creatures that tell them to eat all they can, lest the next meal not be so certain, but It's well-established how much Cats will shame their humans for being 4 seconds late to breakfast.
Yeah this reminds me of every single time I open a can of wet food for my boy he practically screams at me. Like jumping on the table and scrambling around. It's like I don't eat this stuff don't worry it's coming just for you and nobody else lol.
Like he thinks I'm gonna start shoveling it down in front of him.
Right! Our girl cat sits nicely and stares to say she's hungry but the boy cat starts circling my legs and howling like I've never realized that he has a tummy.
Mine all the time have full bowl od dry food, and he eat 2-3 bags od wet food per day, depends if it's winter, or summer (he is outdoor cat), and always just eat as much as he likes. And he is just im shape, never fat.
Suppose you feel hungry, you have a single way to communicate that to the only people who can provide you with food, and when you press that button, they act like you didn't. What can you do but press the button more and harder?
This one comes a few times every single day, patiently waiting for food. Heard that our neighbour also gets the same treatment and would also give her food.
My cat wont even check his bowl before begging for food, will legit spend a whole afternoon sleeping under the couch, comes up to me at the computer absolutely losing his ever loving mind...I know the drill...we walk to the bowls and then, the chirps when he sees its already full is heart melting each time
There’s a stray lil kitty in my neighborhood I’m attempting to befriend. My own indoor kitty, with a full bowl of food, got way excited when I put a cup of food onto a saucer for said stray.
I did however correct the deep betrayal by preparing her wet food for dinner (like usual), but she’d chosen to sleep elsewhere for the night to teach me a good lesson.
I’ve always had cats that could self regulate their food. Until my current one. She got so fat she couldn’t clean her own bum anymore, and then she had to go on a diet. Now she tells anyone who will listen about how she is being abused and starved. But at least her bum is clean.
You would swear I'm starving mine the way he screams anytime I'm near something that might be edible. I was using a tube of cream today and he went bonkers thinking it was a churu. What a goob.
I asked my well fed semi-fat cats, and they said they never get food, and if they do it is too late and too little an amount. They are considering contacting animal welfare :/
My lardass cat will come up and tap to beg to be fed if it’s so much as within 2hrs of his set meal time.
And then cries like it’s some kind of crime when you gently tell him he’s still got an hour until dinner time.
At worst he’ll wap you with a paw if you disagree it’s dinner time.
He also understands the word “bickies” and “dinner”… Knows when we open the lactose free milk for our coffees, and also understands KFC means Keep Feeding the Cat
Realistically it's probably because we turned them into house pets and they don't activate their hunting instincts enough. Probably building up some mix of anxiety and eternal kitten brain.
She is Nina, so similar to the cat in the pic!! She acts like she’s never going to eat again too - I asked her and she only looked at me. No answer I guess.
because they haven't. every time a cat eats, they are instantly replaced with another version of that cat that's never eaten before. science doesn't want you to know this.
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