Food aggression Fat cat

One of the two cats that I currently take care of for my girlfriend’s current housing situation is a real porker. When he first came to me, he was two full sized cats weight, about 20 pounds. A month ago he was about 18 lbs by the rough estimate on a cheap scale, since then he’s been more confident to jump up to other places he wouldn’t when he came in about 6 months ago.

The problem is that is where the other cat’s food is, moved it higher and just this week he has the confidence to jump that high. The fat one has food aggression; the other cat wanted to investigate a pottery that’s been brought in; because of an incident involving me calling the police when it was my apartment’s subcontractor who moved it without notice (that could be a thread of its own), and that made the fat one smack the other cat several times to back off. This has been creating a territory war where one cat goes in to the three litter boxes in a short time period, we were at two and fine till the territory thing started, and the other would go in and mark them a short time later. Sometimes when I’m away it has resulted in the one marking the outside of the litter box, and I can tell which one because I’ve seen him do it and their pee does have a different shade; it’s the one that’s not fat. When I’m away, I’m thinking the fat one is swatting the other away from his own food and that leading to the territorial aggression now going on.

Currently I have the fat one in a very small room in my apartment and he’s fine, a temporary situation I’m hoping. Only meows for attention when his food has run out. He does not care about anything other than food. Sure he sucks up when I come in but does not actively seek for anything but food. I have one place left that I can raise the other cat’s food but no clue if it will just motivate the fat one to jump where I know he can climb to, just never seems want to or is respecting the fact that to get there is the kitchen counter where food is made.

I need help here with ideas on how to deal with this situation. The other cat has free roam of the other rooms of the apartment and is really upset that he can’t interact with his roommate cat even though the food aggression and territorial fights are going on.

Other bits of info are the food is not in a typical dish, the cat locked away is has been using a Catit Food Tree and the other has been using a Catit Cat Digger, neither seems to be any easier to get food out of than the other. I use those so that they don’t scarf down their food when I put a lot out, it forces them to graze over the course of the day since I work a swing shift that right now can run 12 hours due to lack of workers; I can’t establish any kind of regular feeding time. My girlfriend can not come over every day, she has a third cat that if he doesn’t see her after while he freaks out; highly stressed cat that had a blockage so it could block again if it’s stressed enough even with special dietary food. That cat we are pretty sure was kicked and hit hard by her ex. Back to my cats: the one I need help with was owned by a woman before my girlfriend got him who fed him regular cat food and gave him bowls, I’m thinking fully filled cereal bowls of raw meat as well.

Thanks, if you made it through this novel I wrote here please do offer any advice you can.

a reply to: misterhistory

Sequestering them away from each other reinforces the competition.

You are promoting further division.

Your cat on lockdown is going what did i do wrong?

We have 3 cats, and once we took in the two strays our main cat became very aggressive with food and territorial. He was cool to the cat's otherwise, and cleaned them and looked after them but if they went near the food while he was near it, it was a problem- and he was always near it. Sometimes he'd sleep on the food dish.

This may or may not work for you, as it might even be something he needs to see the vet for, maybe has a UTI or something, but anyways......

I spent one weekend dominating the big cat and showing him he was not in fact the Alpha Cat. They may have their own cat hierarchy, and I get that, but I made it clear to him I was the boss and the boss wanted the younger cats to have a shot at the food as well.

I just shadowed him whenever he was in the food room, and hung over him, when the other cats came in and he started growling or getting aggressive, I just did it back to him. I would get on the ground next to him and hiss at him and grab him by the back of the neck and make him look me in the eyes while I used my "strong voice" to tell him what was up. (I don't think I hurt him, I was trying to imitate a mother cat)

Anyways, could be a dangerous thing to do depending on the cat, it's claws, and it's behavior but it worked for me. Now he's just papa cat. He watches them eat, and he eats when they are done, then he immediately buzzes off to a different area of the house. When they do start growling at each other about anything all I have to do now is stand up and they scatter like roaches.


Good luck! Hopefully it's a simple fix. Or he just get's used to it and gets over it.

-Alee

i'm not sure what advice to offer, tbh... i was going to advice just going to set feeding times, watching them, and taking the food back up after... but you said you can't do that due to your schedule.

perhaps if you were to keep them completely separated with their own food and water and litter for a few weeks and then gradually reintroduce the cats to each other in short sessions? they might be more amicable then.

i'm not sure how to address the food aggression, though. do they both eat the same kind of food? it sounds like they don't but i'm not 100% sure i'm reading that right.

a reply to: intrptr

This why I don’t want to keep that up

a reply to: fiverx313

One is on hair ball control and the other is on diet food. And I do swap and mix them from time to time and seem to prefer neither food.

I have the same problem with my 2 cats.

Just posted to follow up later.

originally posted by: misterhistory
a reply to: fiverx313

One is on hair ball control and the other is on diet food. And I do swap and mix them from time to time and seem to prefer neither food.

hm... maybe they could both be on the diet food for a while, and the hairball kitty could get a separate dose of hairball remedy, like the malt-flavored paste or something?

then if the food dishes are widely separated the aggressive cat won't be able to prevent hairball kitty from eating.

not a full on solution but might help you get through right now...

originally posted by: misterhistory
a reply to: intrptr

This why I don’t want to keep that up

Found this, hope it helps.

territorial cats

a reply to: NerdGoddess

Might work. The food aggression one isn’t the alpha cat as far as I can tell though. If I were to leave out food all day, I’m like talking covering the entire floor of my apartment with an inch of food, I doubt this one would stop eating until it is gone. He will eat himself to death if given a chance.

a reply to: fiverx313

You mean like a wet food? The one that needs hair ball control goes nuts for wet food. Haven’t given him any in while because he was having severe wet poops for days on end because of the stress of new state and new owners. He handled milk a couple of days ago very well.

originally posted by: misterhistory
a reply to: fiverx313

You mean like a wet food? The one that needs hair ball control goes nuts for wet food. Haven’t given him any in while because he was having severe wet poops for days on end because of the stress of new state and new owners. He handled milk a couple of days ago very well.

sorry, i'm confused. is the diet food a wet food?

my suggestion was to feed them both the same kind of food for now. seemed like it would be easier to give them both the diet food, and to give the hairball kitty a separate hairball remedy, since there isn't a stand-alone 'diet' solution for kitties.

something like this?

www.chewy.com...

edit to add: i don't think adult cats are supposed to have milk :/

The elder female 'super-swats' (like a rapid burst fire combo punch move) any other cats that've been around, from the dish regardless who was there first, but she only bulks up some weight for the winter. She hates the cold. She doesnt just eat endlessly assuming there's food in the dish. Never seen any cat do that. My cats are ALWAYS inside-outside cats; all litter business done outside; never an obese cat aside they all eat a lot more for winter I mean as soon as the night temps start to brisken I notice a sharp increase in food consumption.

We have 2 cats. They have been together since birth - Rocky and Adrienne.
We have 2 bowls for food and 2 bowls of water.
However, if one of those bowls goes empty, and the other gets low, Rocky starts having a tantrum and goes into survival mode.
He acts like the last layer of meow mix in the bowl is the last he will ever see, so if Adrienne tries to go near it, Rocky attacks her.
He will continue to chase her around kicking the crap out of her, until one of us notices the dilemma.
Then once both bowls are topped off, he becomes her best friend again.
Odd behaviour from a cat that has never even been outside in the wild.

Once he got neutered he started to gain A lot of weight.
He used to be quite the specimen of feline masculinity.
He's still quite handsome, with a glimmering black coat so don't get me wrong.
But until he gets his act together and gets some exercise, he definitely won't be winning any cat shows.

originally posted by: NerdGoddess
......I spent one weekend dominating the big cat and showing him he was not in fact the Alpha Cat. They may have their own cat hierarchy, and I get that, but I made it clear to him I was the boss and the boss wanted the younger cats to have a shot at the food as well.......-Alee

I would like to have seen this!

ETA: I currently have 3 mice named Silke, and Laverne & Shirley. Laverne is the porker and is twice the size of the others and has barbered them all the way around their necks leaving bald necklaces.

a reply to: Macenroe82

Oh my cats always have the same bowl. And the Hammer, shes only tough at the food bowl. The rest of the time the younger females I've had with her chases here around out there causing the hammer to act all freaked out like its about to be a bloody beating. This fighting only usually happens indoors when the foods been empty; the fighting all around increases then. The boys never fight back, or flex on food dish queen kung fu mama kitty. They have respect; the "toxic feline masculinity" wears off as soon as a female is spayed, in my experience.

a reply to: fiverx313

No, I mean like make wet food with that paste for the hairball control.

Adults can’t really have it, it’s the first time they both had milk since they were kittens, which they can’t have milk either. Well not milk like what we humans drink. The milk was just a Halloween treat for them, 2% milk. Their digestive tracks seem to have handled it fine. It may be a long time till they get it again.

originally posted by: seattlerat

originally posted by: NerdGoddess
......I spent one weekend dominating the big cat and showing him he was not in fact the Alpha Cat. They may have their own cat hierarchy, and I get that, but I made it clear to him I was the boss and the boss wanted the younger cats to have a shot at the food as well.......-Alee

I would like to have seen this!

ETA: I currently have 3 mice named Silke, and Laverne & Shirley. Laverne is the porker and is twice the size of the others and has barbered them all the way around their necks leaving bald necklaces.

As I was typing it I thought, well thank god no one was in the house to witness that because I'm sure it'd have been hilarious to see a 26 year old girl crawling around on the floor being the big bad cat LOL

-Alee

originally posted by: misterhistory
a reply to: fiverx313

No, I mean like make wet food with that paste for the hairball control.

Adults can’t really have it, it’s the first time they both had milk since they were kittens, which they can’t have milk either. Well not milk like what we humans drink. The milk was just a Halloween treat for them, 2% milk. Their digestive tracks seem to have handled it fine. It may be a long time till they get it again.

good news on the milk i do let my cats have a really small amount of dairy occasionally as a treat, too.

as for the hairball paste, i don't mix it with food. usually i smear a stripe of it on their paw and let them groom it off, or put it down on a separate plate. usually they like the flavor and eat it up pretty quick. it can be totally separate from feeding time.

I think it's an obese cat thing. Our little meatball (little being a relative term; she was grossly obese) was a champion speed eater and could boss Teddy right out of his food dish as soon as she inhaled her own ration. It's how she outsmarted the diet we put them both on.

Teddy ended up dieting.

You pretty much have to either establish separate feeding stations and ration, or you have to fend the aggressive cat off the other until it's done eating.

Now that our fat cat is the only cat for the time being, she eats only what we put down for her, but she still acts like a bottomless pit who's being starved.