Stop bloody feeding my cat!!!!

[Frickssake]

WHY do people feed cats that are not their own? My cat has an extremely sensitive stomach. Someone put a pic of my cat on sm as they think he is a stray and have been feeding him as he is always begging for food!! FFS. He is extremely handsome ( well I would say that!) So in no way looks neglected. I've responded saying the cat is mine and please stop feeding him. ( This was Sunday). He came home late last night and I woke up this morning to cat vomit. Arghhh

I didn't like cats or dogs or unwelcome garden shitters for many many years before MN even existed.

Flaming hell and I thought the replies on some of the dog threads on MN were bonkers

If you let your cat out to wander freely then it is going to get fed &/or steal food from other cats.

If you don’t want this then have an indoor cat.

We feed hedgehogs in our garden and actively dissuade cats from visiting but I am sure that some cats manage to steal some of the offerings. If the neighbours don’t like it they can keep their cats indoors.

@Bluntness100

Op you answered your own question, because he’s begging for food. And he’s collarlesss. Of course some people are going to feed a cat begging for food.

But these people need to understand that he's begging because he's greedy, not because he is hungry.

We just started letting our kitten out and we don't have a cat flap (rented) so I've been leaving the back door open a wee bit and she has been coming and going... but so has the cat from two doors down and helping himself to the food that's out 🤦‍♀️ door is now getting closed until I see her at the window

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy

If he's begging food from other people, he isn't getting enough nourishment from you. Suggest you talk to your vet about his diet and stop blaming people who are kind enough to feed what they they think is a hungry, neglected cat.

I assume you're not a pet owner?

My old boy is on medication that makes his stomach think his throats been cut. He is constantly starving and would eat and eat and eat and eat and eat if allowed. He's always asking for more food.

We have a frequent visitor to our house who always takes food. My cat is too much of a wimp to see him off.
This cat is so persistent that he managed to lock himself in my house when I was on holiday
He apparently forced his way through a closed cat flap but couldn't get out again. He was in there for three days when he was spotted in the window by his owners who were leafleting. They called the RSPCA who called the police who were apparently going to break the door down to get him out. Fortunately my neighbour heard the commotion and came out with the key.
I got a snotty note from the RSPCA about not feeding the cat.
Within half an hour of us getting back from holiday, he was back looking for food. Hadn't learnt his lesson clearly.

So it's not always other people fault

I find the whole stop your cat using my garden as a toilet a bit I take it most people are aware that there are various other animals that visit your garden pee and poo there too!

I think you will just have to live with this OP. You have an outdoor cat who removes his collars and goes begging and the fact is some people think it's ok to feed cats who go begging. I think that's selfish and wrong too but it is not a problem you'll be able to solve.

My sister, who has never adopted a cat herself, was feeding a cat she thought was "extremely malnourished" and it turned out it's just a neighbour's cat which looks naturally scruffy.

I had a cat dubbed the friendliest cat in the world. Several neighbours mentioned her to me "She loves King Prawns!" "Did you know she even eats Chilli flavoured crisps?", and it was obvious they weren't the only neighbours she visited. She could hardly fit through the cat flap. In the end we made a little laminated disc and hung it from her collar, saying "Please don't feed me, I'm on a special diet"....and she started losing weight, so that worked!

Obviously I’m not advocating that people hurt cats, but the truth is that they are just as much pests as e.g. foxes, or pigeons, and there are people who feed all of those.

If you don’t want your cat to be fed then you really can’t let it out.

If your cat wanders into someone’s garden or house and they feed it then you can’t hold the person who feeds it responsible for that, and given your cat is an animal with its own instincts who can’t be held responsible, if your neighbour feeds your cat then the person responsible is you, for letting it out in the first place.

Especially if, as people here say, “the cat refuses to wer a collar/shouldn’t wear a collar because it’s dangerous,” etc.

The fact is that there are a lot of stray cats out there, some who have been born as strays but many who are abandoned when an owner moves, or who find their way home if the owner moves house. So it’s actually natural that people would feed them. The alternative is that many of these cats wouldn’t survive.

And I’d rather feed a cat, even a greedy one, than watch it slaughter the local birds.

I fed somebody else's cat, it walked into my house so is fair game.

"If your cat wanders into someone’s garden or house and they feed it then you can’t hold the person who feeds it responsible for that,"

If you've explicitly asked that person not to feed it, then yes, you really can.

I fed somebody else's cat, it walked into my house so is fair game.

But hopefully you wouldn't carry on feeding it if the owner told you it made them sick?

It sounds like your neighbour was trying to do a nice thing at first so hopefully not the kind of person who would deliberately make your cat sick and will stop when she knows that's what's happening?

You can catproof gardens, I’m looking at katzecure for mine and you can diy it.

It stops all this stress and they can’t get run over.

WHY do people feed cats that are not their own?

Do you really have to wonder? Keep your cat in, then you will know exactly what it's been fed.

It's not rocket science.

Well, cat ( who has spent virtually every day in my garden apart from when it's night time or too cold out so sleeps in his bed) has gone AWOL. Have given up trying to reason with person who thinks he's neglected and due to the nasty comments I've had ( she's only trying to help a starving ( ) cat- removed SM for a while..........

But these people need to understand that he's begging because he's greedy, not because he is hungry.

But these cat owners need to understand that a collarless cat, begging for food might be mistaken for a lost/stray cat.

likeamillpond "Ps. I feed the neighbours cats sometimes. They have our left overs."

Why? Are they your cats? No, so stop it.

@Cam2020

But these people need to understand that he's begging because he's greedy, not because he is hungry.

But these cat owners need to understand that a collarless cat, begging for food might be mistaken for a lost/stray cat.

Nah. You can tell strays a mile off. Especially males. Mine begs and steals and can't wear a collar. You'd be daft to mistake him for a stray

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

WHY do people feed cats that are not their own?

Do you really have to wonder? Keep your cat in, then you will know exactly what it's been fed.

It's not rocket science.

Don't feed a cat that isn't yours.

It's not brain surgery.

We have cats that regularly come to our garden and hang about. There’s a particular one that’s all black. Usually our door is left open and they mind their own business and never go into the house. Nor do they play with us, they just watch.

There was one evening where the black cat just walked up to us and would not stop meowing. This wasn’t its typical behaviour. We’ve lived here 3 years and it’s not been remotely interested in us.

It then decides to walk into our house. We had to get it out and shut the door. It continued to meow and scratch at the door.

My partner who grew up with cats came downstairs and noticed it’s unusual behaviour and immediately said ‘it’s not been fed’. I told him he was being silly and jumping to conclusions.

The cat would not leave.

I decided to put some water in a bowl and the thing came at me like it hadn’t been fed. At which point I realised my partner was right.
I cracked up some left over tinned tuna and the cat went absolutely wild trying to jump at the food. This was not its usual behaviour.

He devoured the food and went on his way.

He’s been back in our garden since like the other cats but not behaved in this way and shown no interest in going into the house and hasn’t meowed like a nut job. Just watches the kids play, tries to catch flying insects and then goes away.

That’s why some people feed cats that aren’t their own. Because the owners have neglected to feed them.

Mine has conned the neighbours that she is a poor starving kitten. She's almost 10, the neighbours have known her since she arrived.

One neighbour allowed his grandson to give her milk, I actually bought some cat milk for the grandson and I believe they now give her this.

The other neighbour's son actually found her as a stray but they already had a cat so they should know better. But they are quite good about only giving her bits of chicken.

She also helps herself tot he local wildlife and still looks like she is 6 months old.

And yes when I first had her I asked around, took her to the vet to look for a chip, put up notices.

If he's begging food from other people, he isn't getting enough nourishment from you.

Said by no cat owner ever.

Said by no cat owner ever.

Our local cat was such a regular visitor to mine and the neighbour’s houses I even found him sleeping on our bed one afternoon.

His owner, ‘crazy cat lady personified’, once knocked on everyone’s house asking for £700 contribution to the vet bill.

He wasn’t overweight though.
Plus her Mustang was recently pranged ‘on the driveway’ clearly indicating neighbour fault.

We used to feed Alfie titbits every so often, the nine day she just said, he’s died. Young, healthy, roadwise cat too. Maybe the friendly neighbours killed him with kindness who knows.

I’ll go with the please don’t feed my cat collar idea too.