Messy cats! *Updated with cat pictures!*

abcdefghijklmnop

Hi All,

You were a great help when I first got the 2 fluffy monster cats so I thought I'd come back for more help!

They make such a mess with food! They pick the food up from the bowl... put it on the floor and THEN start to eat it?! Any ideas to stop them doing this? At the minute we seem to end up with a 3ft circle of wet cat food every evening.

Also, are they okay in this heat? They are longhaired and seem very cross with the weather - they have plenty of wet food / water (which we do see them drinking) and they seem to like having the fan on! We leave the blinds at the front closed so their favourite room doesn't get too much sun but it's still almost 30 degrees in there...

Thanks for any help!

C

Fire_Fox

Try a different shape/ size/ material of bowl, put less food in the bowl at once, use a washable mat under the bowl. Do your cats have unrestricted access to cooler rooms and can you open windows?

ETA: is there only one bowl between two cats? Also this thread is not valid without photos.

PixieDust

I think you need to make sure that the cat bowl is as shallow as possible....a tea plate is ideal. This is because a cat likes to be able to see potential predators approaching while it's vulnerable (eating), and with deep cat bowls they can't do that. So to overcome this they remove t to the floor, which means they can eat with their vision unrestricted.

That's what I read anyway

spendaholic66

If you find a solution to the 'I'm gonna drag my meat on the floor to eat' please let me know!!!! I read an article once that said it is really uncomfortable for cats to have their whiskers touched as they are super sensitive, and to use flat plates or very shallow bowls for food as a deep dish means their whiskers have to touch the sides and this is uncomfortable for them. I do this, but Maisy (the most neurotic cat you could ever wish to meet) still drags her food out and eats from the floor. My dog does this with his kibble as well. Arghh! I have resorted to putting their bowls on food trays. It doesn't solve the problem but it means I don't have to mop my floor twice a day.

abcdefghijklmnop

Hiya,

Thanks for the replies... they have the wipe clean mats but our boy especially likes to drag food the entire way around 'his' bedroom before eating it! They have separate bowls and eating areas - as he's a greedy guts and will happily eat his sisters dinner too! He wouldn't go above floor level when we first got them so she has her dinner on the window ledge to give her a chance!

I will try flatter bowls/ plates... Hopefully that's the answer as they HATE the vacuum cleaner with a passion and now that they are so comparitvely settled I hate to 'scare' them.

Will try for some photos... I don't know how to do them but my boyfriend will when he's in.

To be honest I can totally tolerate the mess as it's so nice to see their personalities starting to come through compared to how scared they were when they arrived. Even if that personality is to be a greedy monster who throws food everywhere!

Thanks,

thehappybutterfly

Hilarious! Now, my Charlie is just the opposite - if you give him food off your plate (he's partial to a bit of pastry or pizza crust) he'll cart it though to his private dining room and put it in his bowl then proceed to eat it! He does the same thing when he steals food from his housemate's bowl too. I can see the logic - he's making sure you don't change your mind and take it back!

Anyone else's cat make a dreadful slurping noise when they eat wet food? They just won't listen when I scold them for their shocking table manners.

demystified

They can tolerate higher temperatures than humans, they are descended from desert dwelling species of north african/middle east wildcats. I wouldn't worry too much about it, they'll find somewhere cool to lie out the heat.

abcdefghijklmnop

I've got some pics... hopefully they work as I haven't tried this before!

This is my boy... ...
www dot dropbox dot com/sh/v48k7r4t6mvf9fn/3ecMUDiRLI/20120604_220255_HDR.jpg

(Sorry I can't post links but if you take out the 'dot' it should work?) He likes to stick his tongue out in photos for some reason! But the quirks make it easy to forgive the mess he makes!

And this is his sister (she's much smaller than he is... )

www dot dropbox dot com/sh/v48k7r4t6mvf9fn/km1MwYSWnN/20120605_230555_HDR.jpg

There are a few other pics here:

www dot dropbox dot com/sh/v48k7r4t6mvf9fn/jEx9XLpkpZ#/

They are both just cuddly balls of fluff!

I really would recommend older cats to anyone looking to rescue as they've really come on in leaps and bounds!

abcdefghijklmnop

demystified wrote: »

They can tolerate higher temperatures than humans, they are descended from desert dwelling species of north african/middle east wildcats. I wouldn't worry too much about it, they'll find somewhere cool to lie out the heat.

Ah thanks for that - made me not worry about them! The silly things do sometimes seem to hide in the warmest spots even on the hottest days! Good to know they are made for it.

abcdefghijklmnop

thehappybutterfly wrote: »

Hilarious! Now, my Charlie is just the opposite - if you give him food off your plate (he's partial to a bit of pastry or pizza crust) he'll cart it though to his private dining room and put it in his bowl then proceed to eat it! He does the same thing when he steals food from his housemate's bowl too. I can see the logic - he's making sure you don't change your mind and take it back!

Anyone else's cat make a dreadful slurping noise when they eat wet food? They just won't listen when I scold them for their shocking table manners.

Haha! I don't think my boy cat has any manners - the girl seems to have a certain class to her though! She has aspirations of being a rather regal cat I think... where as her brother is such a clumsy thing and he makes a lot of noise with any food!

She's a fussy girl - she only eats Felix as good as it looks but given that she's 10 I shall give into her demands. To be honest she doesn't eat a lot at all but doesn't lose weight. He will eat anything - I want to try giving him some raw chicken wings to vary his diet a bit. He will eat every meat / fish I've given him but refuses cat food other than Felix (when he eats his and THEN starts on his sisters...) he's such a fatty!

To be honest I give in to their demands generally if it sees them happy - they were so timid when we got them and now they are gaining confidence so quickly. At the minute they live mostly in their bedroom but they are starting to venture out. Both come into our room to wake us up to get them breakfast now and they do wander to the top of the stairs. I guess a house must seem very large when you've been in a pen at a rescue!

walwin

Thanks for the photos, they're really lovely cats


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v48k7r4t6mvf9fn/3ecMUDiRLI/20120604_220255_HDR.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v48k7r4t6mvf9fn/km1MwYSWnN/20120605_230555_HDR.jpg