Ragdoll Cat Forums

Long post, sorry

George is a food monster. Seriously! We cannot turn our backs to him for even a moment if there is anything that even resembles human food without him grabbing it and running. He KNOWS he's not allowed to eat it too!! We've tried separating him during our mealtimes (he will steal the food off of my son's plate if we're not watching while we're eating), we've tried giving the cats the best quality cat food that we can afford, we've stopped giving RAW food all together because we thought that it might be making it worse, we've tried spraying him with water whenever he gets onto the table... and nothing works. Lately, he's gotten much MUCH worse. We have become somewhat obsessive over making sure that the fridge door is closed properly WITH a child-safety latch on it as well, we make sure to take out the garbage daily so that he's not dumping it over (which he will do if there is bones or stuff that my son spilled in it), we even have to put a brick on top of the garbage pail. The other day, we accidentally left some homemade chip-dip out while we went outside for an hour in a SEALED container, we got home, and the sealed container was FULL of chew and claw marks!! It was also opened and spilled all over the floor... and he got it on his feet, mane, tail and chin... its hard to point fingers at anyone else when the others were perfectly clean with absolutely no evidence on them. Plus, the girls have very little interest in human food (sans canned tuna or salmon lol).

I'm afraid to get him neutered because he's already 18-20lbs as is, and neutered males eat more than intact males do.

I love him dearly, but its getting very frustrating to have him constantly trying to grab food from us. And its not like he is starved either!! He eats about twice as much as all of the female cats COMBINED eat!! We've got a large dog bowl that would be suitable for a labrador or golden retriever, and it gets emptied DAILY by George!! When he was being borrowed by a trusted friend for a week for stud, we noticed that the food dish would have only a quarter of its contents gone on a daily basis, and that's from 4 adult cats!!! He came back, and it was back to being emptied and completely bare by the end of the day. He acts like he's starving, yet I know that he's not. The vet did some tests on him for a possible thyroid problem but there was nothing wrong with him. The vet suggested that maybe as a kitten (like before we got him) he was traumatized and used food to comfort himself. Or he was possibly starved at one point in his life and never really got over the trauma of it, so he eats as much as he can in order to ensure that he'll never go hungry again.

I highly doubt he's a bored cat too. He's got 3 levels of our house to play in, get exercised via pen-light almost daily (its fun to watch him obsess over it lol), he's got myself, my son and my husband to give him loves, attention and playtime. Yet his food-obsession is getting out of hand!! Another time he chewed and clawed his way into a bottle of distilled water because he saw us drinking out of it!!! It NEEDS to stop, but we're running out of ideas as to how to get him to stop stealing food.

ANYTIME we're in the kitchen, he's got his nose to the ground, just itching to nab up a tiny speck of food.

Someone help please. I need ideas on how I can get him to stop it. The others do not do this, he's honestly the only one who does. I'm tired of having to brick my garbage pail, lock my fridge so that he doesnt break into it (which he can do by the way), and make sure that every single piece of food that is even SLIGHTLY edible is under lockdown.

Thanks
-Amanda

First off, I'm in class lol so while I intend to reply later I can't write much now.

BUT

The sooner you get rid of the idea that he "KNOWS" he shouldn't be doing something, the easier this will be to fix. Cats may seem like little children sometimes, but they are not aware of what is right or wrong and behave in ways based on past reinforcement and experiences, not maliciously or sneakily or in an ornery manner. So many behaviors take forever to fix because people insist on thinking their cats are doing things to spite them.

We've been dealing with this for a year now, he definitely knows that what he's doing is wrong because he's sneaky about it. He will not grab something off the table while we're looking, he always waits till he believes we have our backs turned even if we're just in another room. We've progressed from a sharp and assertive "No George!" to locking him in the bathroom till after we're done eating and have things cleaned up with the trash being bricked. The only thing that seems to work is the spray bottle, but we're not always home to reinforce it. The whole reason that we know that HE knows what he's doing is bad is because under NORMAL circumstances, he is the first to say "good morning!" or "Welcome home!!" to us when we wake up or come home from being out. However whenever he's done something that he knows he shouldnt have, he will NOT greet us, but will hide. The other thing that leads us to believe that he's aware that his behavior is unwanted is when he is caught in the act, (we NEVER shout at him or anything, we simply pick him up and put him in the bathroom without saying anything to him) he will lower himself to the floor in an obvious display of submission. He will also wince as though we've just stabbed him or something when we go to pick him up (of course we have never hit him, or anything like that, and we're not entirely sure WHY he does this).

I have no advice , I just wanted to say Im sorry you are going through this. Im sure it is very frustrating.

That a cat avoids things that will stop him from doing what he wants does not mean he is being spiteful about it. It just means he wants to do it and understands what that takes.

JanH Wrote:That a cat avoids things that will stop him from doing what he wants does not mean he is being spiteful about it. It just means he wants to do it and understands what that takes.

Yes!! I agree with you for once lol. He certainly knows what it takes to get what he wants, and he wants people food. He understands that he has to wait until we're gone in order to be more successful at getting things, and he also understands that when he gets caught taking what he wants my husband and I become upset and he loses his freedom.

THAT is what I mean by he knows that his behavior is unwanted

Edit to add: He will do what it takes to get exactly what he wants... what I want to know is how the heck can I at the very least, slow the behavior down or preferably redirect it towards something that we can BOTH live with?

Hi Amanda,

i do not have alot of experience with cats doing this but my little boy moodle, toto, does this in a way. he will scarf food down til theres no tomorrow and his lil belly bloats up like he is pregnant. i do have a suggestion tho it may not be what u want to hear. toto would whinge and whinge and whinge so to stop him we after every meal will give him a little of our ppl food as long as it doesnt contain onion as onion is toxic to dogs. maybe you could try this with George???

sorry i dont have anything better to offer you

danni

p.s it must be difficult to stay mad at a cutie like george he is gorgeous.

George is such a handsome guy for sure I honestly cannot stay mad at him lol. He's my big fat cuddly boy who made me feel incredibly guilty when I left for Florida for a week (apparently he slept on my dirty clothes and searched the entire house top to bottom obsessively, and cried the entire time I was gone.) I came home to an extremely excited George who even ignored my girl Angel while she was in heat!! He was glued to my side for a WEEK after I came home, and he'd cry whenever I went to the bathroom lol.

No, I could not give him food off of our plates without fear of him getting worse. We actually did try that, but all it did was make him even more nuts about it and he started trying to steal the food off of our plates... as we were eating it lol. He's the kind of cat where if you give him an inch, he'll take a mile and run like hell with it.

hmm that does seem to be a problem.

im sorry i have no answers for u. if you were in australia id say email Dr Harry, Dr harry is a animal show here in aus and he helps ppl out with all sorts of funny and weird behaviour their animal happens to portray.

i guess keep at the water bottle is all i can suggest you to do. cheecky lil bugger he is. butter wouldnt melt in his mouth huh??

Im just curious as George is an undesexed male inside your house with your girls, right? Because here in Australia the boys usually are outside in big enclosures as they spray. Does George not spray?

Maybe you could try putting him outside for a while until he realises that he has to eat the food you feed him or nothing, then you could slowely let him back in the house for limited amounts of time and if he tries to eat your food give him a firm no and put him back outside.

Also, maybe it has something to do with what you feed him....? You could not feed him cat food at all and feed him human foods, I know quite a few breeders around here feed their kittens cooked chicken and other human quality foods. I think you can feed cats rice and pasta while keeping them healthy aswell. You may find it to much of a hassle but just a suggestion.

Oh and try putting some vinegar in the spray bottle water and see if that affects him more.

Figures crossed it stops soon for you.