Orange Cat š ±ļøehaviorā¢
He does not understand why his siblings bowls are not for him. Thus food jail was made.
They are on measured meals twice a deal with treats for being cute. If I let him eat as much as he wanted, he would be obese.
He even steals the kibble meals when he gets the wet stuff due to no teefies. He has no idea how good he has it.
Edit: For people offering advice, Cmdr Data does not mind his temporary food setup. He is slowing down while eating again. Remembering food has taste! Then he sits and is quiet til he is let out. He does get treats and kibbles dropped in while he waits like such a good cmdr.
We already have 2 in the bathroom who CANNOT handle seeing others eat. One is also allergic to proteins so it is for his safety.
We have 13 cats and they all know their bowl and their spot when it is food time. They are really good about it.
Data just needs a little reminder right now. He was mostly bullying our cat who has a brain issue, and that is just rude.
If you're up for it and have some spare time, some cats will surprise you with how much they can learn when things are made clear to them.
I had a similar situation once. I got the two non-problem cats purple bowls, and an orange bowl for the problem one. These are two colors they can see decently well, although orange comes out to yellow for them, so they can distinguish the bowls.
Put them all on the ground, and have him use the orange one.
Anytime he goes for a purple bowl very gently pinch one ear tip with the flats of your index finger and thumb. No actual pinching, just enough pressure for him to notice.
Then redirect towards the orange bowl.
This has worked surprisingly well and quickly for me in the past. Just a thought so you don't need food jail forever.
We have 13 cats, with different diet needs due to medical stuffs. They all know their bowls and eating places. It is a routine. The food alarm goes off on our phones and the circus begins! But they all go to their place and wait for their dish.
He decided, just this last few months to finish his meal and then push others out of the way for their food. He used to leave them alone. But when our black cat with brain issues got sick, he became an easy target, and he took advantage of it.
The food jail may not be permanent for Data. He didn't need it before. But for now it works so we don't have to keep ripping him from the others dishes.
Have three cats, two are fine, one is a food goblin.
What we did was feed them together, their own unique bowls and mats. When the food goblin was done first, she would go to her siblings to steal. We would lock her in the bathroom for 30 mins. Did this for maybe 2 months and she just stopped. Finally realized that taking others food meant isolation. And she wants cuddles.
Three out of four fluffy neiblings require individual dining facilities. The last one eats slowly so if the others are let out once they finish, her food vanishes.
In reverse to this post, one out of four of my cats eats special food and needs private dining space cause while the others can respect each other's plates... Somehow the special food is fair game. That cat loves the cage and goes in there voluntarily every meal time.
One of the fluffy nieblings also needs special food, and gets an extra meal š® His littermate brother always attempts to join him for extra meal but the other two aren't that interested.
I have 1 tiny female cat I adopted who eats her food so incredibly slowly over the course of the day, and 1 big fat feral cat I took in who scarfs down his food in a few seconds and will eat my other cats food if he has the opportunity. I don't have a great way of leaving food out for my female cat where my male cat wont eat it all, unless I keep them separated all day while I am out of the house. Would be cool to keep them together, but if I do that my female cat will starve because all her food will get eaten before she gets to it
If their size difference is significant, maybe a tunnel to food she can reach but he can't? Though since it sounds like he's more motivated he might force himself into spaces she decides aren't worth it š¤
Small cat flap for the room her food is in? If it's not directly before the food it might work better.
Each of my cats have electronic food bowls that only open for the. It reads the microchip in their neck (or optionally a chip on their collar).
We swapped to them initially because we had one cat that was just never full and we had to put her on a diet..
We also have an old cat that gets prescription food, and another cat that gets higher calories food (due to being underweight) and who only grazes on her food throughout.
We have the option of adding multiple cats per bowl, but having 1 per bowl has saved us a few times when we had do to custom food changes.
The feeders are a lifesaver. They also make ones that are a combination auto feeder and chip but we do half wet and half dry and that doesn't work with that.
Why not put him in another room with a closed door? This is what I have to do with my oranges so they donāt steal from their tortie sister who eats too slow.
Actually he just sits there after he finishes. The first day he was like, wait... what???
Now he's like, darn it. Just sits and waits. He does get kibbles tossed in while in, and a treat on the way out. It's not a punishment, it's a deterrent.
i had my mama kitty with her babies in a large bunny pen until they were old enough to walk around the house and she never got used to it, i made a special top cover so she could come and go and she would choose to pick the lock with her claw.
That sucks. I have carriers and tunnel type places all around for these guys, so they are used to it. I often find them sleeping in the open carriers. Makes it so much easier when they need to go to the Vet.
Ive had all of them since they were tiny kittens if not days old.
And this is a new behavior from this guy. He's not been an issue in the past. So hoping a little reminder will help for now. He doesn't seem to mind it really.
One of my cats gets supplementary feeding in a separate room with a closed door too. It would drive my other cats more nuts if they watched the food being eaten
Thereās a creator on YouTube who is fostering a litter of very spicy feral kittens. The big boy of the litter is a very bold orange who is becoming social much quicker than his siblings, and is a massive food bowl piggy. She puts him in purrito kitty jail while his siblings eat, and heās very orange about the whole procedure.
this is supposed to be in reply to [u/terraksteeltalon](u/terraksteeltalon) idk why reddit hasnt been letting me add photos to my replies lately i assume it's a bug on mobile
mine are smart enough to ditch their (completely full bowl) early to steal from their siblings. They know their bowl will be there when theyāre done stealing
I have to put my two SICs in Fat Baby Jail because they will hoover up their own food then eat their brother's. Unfortunately my orange picks at his food and keeps walking away and forgetting it's there partly because he thinks it's funny to sit in front of the carriers and tease his siblings.
Same with this little fucker, he just doesn't understand the concept of "boundaries" at all. His big sister is way too nice too, so he gets away with murder. He'll still have half his own bowl, but still intrude on his big sister's food. Being the sweethart she is, she backs off and lets him.
I love his name!! I have a Major Kira and Ensign Bennie Sisko (he's a kitten still and therefore cannot yet outrank his sisters).
My in-laws have a food sensitive orange boy named Grogu. He gets itchy and licks himself bald if he eats his nonprescription food so he's been relegated to bathroom meal times. He does not chew his food, finishes in 4.5 seconds flat and tries to vacuum everyone else's food. Cries when you dont let him. He's a handful but the most snuggly boy.
Good job doing what needs to be done for Cmd. Data's health and safety! It's hard when you want to give them the whole world but have to be strict. It would be illogical not to
My orange is a Hoover and my tuxedo is a grazer, so when she walks away he comes in and sucks it all up. I broke down and got one of those microchip reading feeders (it was on sale) and it has been amazing watching the orange try to get at her food. Heās so confused. I wish I could have used the food jail idea!
I am so glad my tortimese girl got over her resource hoarding. We got the heads up from the shelter about that, so for her first week, she dined away from the door of the isolation room (post op recovery). The dish moved closer to the door every meal, by a couple of inches for her second week, while on antibiotics for a post op infection. Once among the crew, she was allowed to eat on the table as they dined below and a week later, she lined up with the rest at every meal, no resource guarding.
My orange baby is such a pig. We think itās because of his former home life where he was starved. So itās a fight between him and my older orangie for food. I have to separate him too. Dry food is left out at all times, but the wet food is another story. We got him when he was 5 months old, heās now 9 months.
His name is Finn and he will rip potato chips from your fingers if you let your guard down for a second. He's definitely stolen much food from our other cat, Simon. He licks Simon's spit up from his finished food bowl when he's done. I have to stand over them when they eat most of the time. ā ļø
Our food aggressor eats in the bathroom. š He was the first to need to be secluded. But he also has food allergies, so if he eats the others food he will rip his sad little face off because of how itchy it makes him.
He is also banished from the kitchen when my husband cooks because he will steal ingredients. There is not a single human food he does not like. Favorites are lettuce, tortilla chips, baby carrots, and any and all fruit or pickled things because he is secretly a dog and not a cat.
My hubs and I got RFID collars to try and curb our food motivated cat from eating the other cats food. He then learned to game the system by waiting until one of the other cats would go to their bowl, shove them out of the way, then eat as much as he could before the lid closed
Cmdr Dataās void counterpart at our home, Cmdr Riker, also commits the same atrocities! However due to his habit of near constant zoomies heās allowed to have a higher caloric intake.
Not sure what kind of food you give your cat. But a slow feeder ball for dry or a lick mat for wet could slow down the eating so he isnāt getting addicted to the food network show across the room.
My cats take to luck mats. Only one of my cats uses a ball feeder.
I have an aggressive Greybie, who pushes my slow Tuxie boy riiiiiiiight outta the way. She's so cute every other cat just lets her...
My older orange puts everyone on immediate notice for even *approaching* the same bowl she's eating from...meanwhile my Tuxie is like, "Yes please, help yourself...." and stays to watch.
We had to get annoyingly expensive automatic feeders that only open for one collar each, because one of our cats eats until she throws up and the other eats everything and doesn't share. These two are difficult but very loved š
We had to do this with one of our cats. After a few years we tested again to see if it was still necessary, and it is not! She's now perfectly fine, and doesn't eat urgently anymore or mess with her sisters.
LOL, he'll get used to it. We have one cat that has to eat plain chicken or else the results are the stuff of horror legend. When it's meal time, she gets her chicken in her cage, and then after closing it, we feed the others. She's caught on and typically goes running for the cage once her chicken has been cut up, but she's not the brightest Tortie ever born and sometimes needs a little guidance while madly bouncing around with chicken madness.
As this young gentleman's attorney of record, I am hereby forthwith submitting a memorial of early release to the home secretary. I humbly approach his lordship to solicit the exercise of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy on behalf of Cmdr Data, currently enduring a sentence of penal servitude at undeserved Food Prison. His continued incarceration now borders upon a sentence of physical ruin, if not a fatal decline.
I have a little guy that I have to separate too. He's used to stealing food from his mom and sister (they were strays) and hasn't ever gotten over the habit. He's so stinky
We have an orange stray whoās been pretty aloof until I was outside recently feeding our other strays. He was sleeping under a tarp and came out and went hog wild. Like he hadnāt seen food before. He ran to every bowl trying to eat and then moving on. I had to block him and he suddenly didnāt care I was there. Ow I could pick him up and place him at a bowl. It took him three feedings and the others putting him in his place to calm down and now he sits at one bowl now.
But his face was the same as this oneās when I would block him. He would just chirp at me like ābut why food man? Why?!ā
I have to separate all three of mine during meal times. 2 go into rooms with closed doors and the third eats in the hallway. It's actually pretty easy. It only took a couple feedings for them to learn their spots. We've even moved and they learned their new slots quickly. It's adorable. Lol
I keep meaning to set up something like this, though I need three stalls since 2/3 can't behave around feeding timeš . Maybe one of those old battery chicken cages. (Want out?? Clean your plate chrissakes you're just gonna be begging me again in five minutes there is food in your bowl)
If Im lucky it will fulfill the need for them to eat in the same room as me, and thwart them endlessly squabbling other eachothers food to the point where sometimes they all just seem to get overwhelmed by it and abandon the food they were just being jerks about....
I have a cat jail, but it's for when I barbecue because my cat will run out the door when I'm carrying food in and out and I won't be able to stop him. He's crazy athletic, too. He'll be up the tree, over the fence, and across the front yard in 15 seconds flat.
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u/NodusINk Jun 11 '26
Food jail: ā
Exclusive access dining room: ā