Help with training my cat!?

Question

I have 3 cats in my household. My youngest (who is about 2 years old now) has been developing a bad habbit of crowding the other two cats away from the food and water bowls. If you put down an extra dish, he will stop eating his, and start eating out of the new one, and sometimes he'll not let the others eat. Why is he doing this and how do I get him to stop?

Answer 1

lol....he's being territorial.

The problem is there is a pattern formed and what you need to do is break it.

I think you should start placing him in another room (shut the door) with his own bowl to eat separately from the others. Do this for a while (few weeks) consistently.

When he starts to get (or expect) that he gets his food in that room then slowly begin to leave the room open while they are all eating. He needs to be focused on his own food and at the same time get used to the idea that the others are also eating.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Your cat is trying to establish dominance over the other two cats. Male cats are apt to do this -- even if they are neutered. I had two male cats from the same litter and the runt always tried to pull this on his bigger brother.

The best thing to do is to feed the cats at different times. I know it's inconvenient, but your youngest cat will develop a weight problem if he is constantly steeling food from the other two. Feed the youngest cat first while the others are shut out of the room, and then when he's fed, give the other two their food, pick up the youngest and take him to another room. Shut the door and pet him or groom him or something so that it's "positive" time.

If you can't do that, consider how you can feed the cats all at once in two different rooms -- separate the youngest so he can't crowd out the others and eat their food.

I did use a water pistol to squirt my cats in the face for something like jumping up on the kitchen counter, but I don't think that kind of training would work here -- too hard to get just the culprit without nailing the innocent cats.

Answer 3

If they have a set feeding time, and you can stick around while they eat, try shutting the offending cat in a separate room with his own food. Or you could feed the other cats while he's closed up, and then let him out when the others are done. I don't know if there's really a good way to stop him with this behavior. Maybe after being shut in a room he'll slowly stop.

Answer 4

Sounds like your cat is trying to prove himself to be the alpha cat. He wants to be in charge and first at everything.

I also have three cats. The only problem we have is in the morning. We leave a bowl of hard food out all the time but in the morning we give them a treat of a couple of ounces of yogurt a piece. They love it but I have one fast eater and one slow eater. As soon as Bubba finished he would race to Midnghts bowl and try to take over and Midnight could be intimidated away and Bubba would eat his too. We considered it a discipline problem so we handled it the same way we do when they are doing something bad. We use a squirt bottle on them. When he headed that way we would squirt just in front of him and that usually stops him because he does not like to be squirted. If he kept going and ate he would get squirted on the head and he would run like the devil leaving Midnight to eat in peace.

Good Luck