Make Mealtime Peaceful for Your Cat

Final Up to date on: November 1, 2022 by Crystal Uys

Mealtime on your cat ought to be a contented, relaxed expertise. Your cat shouldn’t have to fret about whether or not she will eat in peace. This may be difficult in multicat households, particularly if cats eat at totally different speeds, require totally different diets, or one of many cats is a “meals bully.”

Why do cats really feel weak at mealtime?

With the intention to perceive why cats can really feel weak at mealtime, we have to take a look at life from the cat’s perspective. Margaret Gates, the founding father of the Feline Diet Basis, explains this completely in a current article titled Your Cat Worries About This:

“How does a cat’s concern with security intersect with meals? There are some cat actions that even cats perceive are much less secure. Consuming is one. When you find yourself consuming, your head is down and you’re distracted. Plus, a cat’s ordinary eating regimen within the wild is recent prey; the meal itself could appeal to bigger predators who could not solely need your dinner, however you as effectively. So, it’s fairly arduous for a cat to essentially chill out when consuming. There may be often numerous trying round and pauses to test the atmosphere. They instinctively know consuming is harmful.”

The next ideas will assist you to create a mealtime atmosphere that permits your cat to get pleasure from her meals in peace.

Don’t place meals or water bowls close to the litter field

Most cat dad and mom already know this, however it bears repeating: cats don’t prefer to eat close to the place they get rid of. This goes again to cats’ wild origins: within the wild, the scent of a cat’s waste could appeal to predators. And whereas cats will eat if having meals close to the litter field is the one possibility, this can nearly all the time create litter field issues: the cat will merely cease utilizing the field and discover one other place to do her enterprise.

Observe your cat’s physique language throughout mealtime

Does your cat appear nervous whereas she eats? Does she regularly lookup from her meals to go searching? In that case, you might want to seek out an space that feels safer to your cat. Some cats don’t like having their again to a doorway once they eat. Some cats choose to eat on elevated surfaces.

Don’t feed a number of cats from the identical bowl

In multicat households, every cat ought to have her personal bowl. Relying in your cats’ temperaments, you might want to position feeding bowls in separate areas, particularly if one cat eats sooner than one other, or if not all cats eat the identical meals.

Feed cats individually

In some instances, separating cats at mealtime could also be the perfect answer for everybody, particularly for extra timid or nervous cats. Feeding cats individually, behind closed doorways if ncessary, will permit everybody to eat in peace.

Get a programmable feeder

The Surefeed Microchip Pet Feeder reads a cat’s microchip to find out whether or not to present the cat entry to the meals inside. When the feeder is just not in use, the meals compartment is roofed with a transparent lid. Because the cat approaches the feeder, it reads the cat’s chip and the lid retracts.

Allegra and Ruby ate individually. Allegra eats tremendous quick, whereas Ruby appreciated to savor her meal. After I fed each of them within the kitchen, Allegra would attempt to nostril her method into Ruby’s dish after she completed her meal. This is able to inevitably result in Ruby growling, and whereas Allegra would heed the warning and step away, it might take some time for Ruby to return to her dish, and I needed to work at maintaining Allegra from attempting to get to it once more. This created unecessary stress for Ruby. After I began feeding Ruby on the toilet counter with the door closed, all people was comfortable.

In actual fact, it was nearly comical in that Ruby bumped into the toilet when she thought it was mealtime (which, typically, may very well be hours earlier than the precise occasion) as if to say “is it time but, Mother? Is it time?” My cat sitter used to report that when she came to visit, Ruby barely greeted her earlier than racing into the toilet.

Do you’ve gotten points together with your cats round mealtime? How do you deal with them?

This text was first printed in 2016 and has been up to date.

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