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Original poster

Stop bloody feeding my cat!!!!

165 replies

Frickssake · 20/04/2021 09:20

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

OP posts:
novaissuper · 20/04/2021 14:01

I've cat proofed my garden using protectapet. I have three cats. Sadly there are lots of nasty people out there and I can't take the risk of someone harming my beautiful animals.

My neighbour's cats sometimes poop in my front garden. I just scoop up the poop with a nappy bag and bin it. It never occurred to me to complain about this. Birds also shit on my garden as do the hedgehog I am sure. It's just a fact of life. Many cats are still free roaming. We all shit and animals don't understand property boundaries. I actually think it's really arrogant to expect animals not to infringe in any way on your outside space.

But more to the point of your post.. if you have asked someone to stop feeding your cat and they continue to do so then they are definitely being unreasonable. People shouldn't feed other people's pet cats, and it's usually easy to tell a stray cat apart from a well looked after cat. Why is the onus on the OP to keep her cats in? Why isn't the onus on the other people to do the right thing? That's like saying the onus is on me to fence my cats in to prevent nasty people from hurting them.. surely the onus is on people not being evil c*s in the first place?

If you know who is feeding your cat then perphaps contact the RSPCA because if it's making your cat ill then it is a animal welfare and safe guarding issue... just an idea.

denverRegina · 20/04/2021 14:31

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

It's not brain surgery."

Don't let your cat shit in my garden.

It's not rocket science.

Frymetothemoon · 20/04/2021 14:34

Our neighbours' cat ended his life locked in their house. He needed a special diet but despite them leafleting the neighbourhood, people kept feeding him. As a result he lived the end of his life miserable, as he was desperate to get out but wasn't allowed

MixedUpFiles · 20/04/2021 14:44

Before I learned to do better and stop letting my cats roam, I would occasionally get cat visitors in my house eating my cat’s food. Wasn’t much I could do since I was leaving the door propped open for my cat to wander in and out. Lack of control of diet is just one of the many dangers that come with allowing your cat to roam.

LST · 20/04/2021 14:52

@Frymetothemoon

Our neighbours' cat ended his life locked in their house. He needed a special diet but despite them leafleting the neighbourhood, people kept feeding him. As a result he lived the end of his life miserable, as he was desperate to get out but wasn't allowed
Mine would hate it. I wouldn't be fair on any of mine to be kept in after being allowed to roam their whole lives.
FireflyRainbow · 20/04/2021 15:26

My neighbours cat walks in and helps himself to my cats food I don't feed him, but if the doors open he just comes in.

Frymetothemoon · 20/04/2021 15:37

exactly @LST and that's the reason they went round every house requesting them not to feed him. He had always been allowed to roam and hated being forced to stay inside

GeoffreyGeoffreys · 20/04/2021 15:47

My cat has also sadly had to become a house cat, because every time he comes home he is sick from eating cat biscuits he is allergic to. In my experience no amount of explaining to neighbours, do not feed collars ect will help. The best you can do is cat proof your garden so he has your garden to use. I personally don't understand, rescue centers are full, if you want to feed a cat why not adopt one?

Boood · 20/04/2021 17:04

My cat wears a collar with a disc on it that says DO NOT FEED on one side, and has my mobile number on the other side. She is very pretty and friendly, and over the last year I’ve been approached by approximately 300 bored people on walks telling me how much they like her and how friendly she is. There is absolutely no way anyone could genuinely think she is a stray, and if they did and were genuinely concerned, a quick call to my mobile would reassure them. This has never happened.

We knew damn well she was getting let in and fed by several neighbours because she also has a tracking chip on her collar, and we’ve seen her signal inside houses. In spite of the collar tag. The only thing that stopped it was a note delivered to every house on the street explaining that she is on a prescribed diet and eating anything else makes her ill and requires a £50 vet trip to put right.

If you don’t like cats, fair enough. If you don’t want them in your garden, fair enough. It’s not a position I admire, but you’re entitled to hold it.

But if you like them, and you enjoy their company, then please listen to what the people who are actually responsible for feeding them and caring for them and picking up the pieces when their tiny little brains make bad decisions based on greed are telling you. Feeding other people’s cats is not kind. It is not being an animal lover. It’s being an unhelpful idiot who is potentially harming that cat.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 20/04/2021 18:40

@Fluffycloudland77

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.

We've done that. Sometimes I feel a bit mean but there's so many speeding drivers and cat hating idiots (as proved by these threads) that I'd rather he was safe in a smaller garden. It also keeps him away from the feral little bastards with their catapults who are killing the local wildlife around here.
Octodog · 20/04/2021 18:51

Your cat, your responsibility, should be kept on your property only.

So sick of people not being responsible for their pets and putting my life at risk.

AryaStarkWolf · 20/04/2021 19:04

@Octodog

Your cat, your responsibility, should be kept on your property only.

So sick of people not being responsible for their pets and putting my life at risk.

Putting your life at risk? The melodrama
UrAWizHarry · 20/04/2021 19:29

@Octodog

Your cat, your responsibility, should be kept on your property only.

So sick of people not being responsible for their pets and putting my life at risk.

What kinds of cats do people round your way keep, fucking tigers?
Boood · 20/04/2021 19:35

@Octodog

Your cat, your responsibility, should be kept on your property only.

So sick of people not being responsible for their pets and putting my life at risk.

How exactly are cats putting your life at risk? You are being completely ridiculous. You know that cats and large dogs are different, right?
JesusInTheCabbageVan · 20/04/2021 19:43

@Octodog

Your cat, your responsibility, should be kept on your property only.

So sick of people not being responsible for their pets and putting my life at risk.

Are you a mouse?
Pumperthepumper · 20/04/2021 19:51

The people who feed cats that aren’t theirs are the same people who feed horses in fields - people who know fuck all about animals.

There’s loads of stuff you can do to stop cats shitting in your garden.

Pumperthepumper · 20/04/2021 19:52

Also Facebook has somehow become a place where people can prove how Good they are by faking concern about ‘this poor starving cat’ and a picture of a greedy Tom sunning itself.

Anonmummyoftwo · 20/04/2021 19:57

Been here myself I ended up saying my cat is diabetic and if they continue to feed her il assume they don’t mind paying her vet bills soon stopped it

sunflowersandbuttercups · 20/04/2021 20:01

This is one of the risks of letting your cats out to roam. You can't control where they go, what happens to them or what they eat.

I have cats myself (they mostly live indoors and have access to a cat-proofed garden) and this is one of the reasons why I wouldn't let them roam. I don't trust other people to be responsible and tbh, why should they be responsible for a pet you let out to do whatever it likes?

Boood · 20/04/2021 20:05

@sunflowersandbuttercups

This is one of the risks of letting your cats out to roam. You can't control where they go, what happens to them or what they eat.

I have cats myself (they mostly live indoors and have access to a cat-proofed garden) and this is one of the reasons why I wouldn't let them roam. I don't trust other people to be responsible and tbh, why should they be responsible for a pet you let out to do whatever it likes?

You don’t have to be “responsible” to not feed somebody else’s cat, it’s not something you have to take action to avoid doing. They’re devious little creatures but they can’t actually force people to give them food against their will.
sunflowersandbuttercups · 20/04/2021 20:09

You don’t have to be “responsible” to not feed somebody else’s cat, it’s not something you have to take action to avoid doing. They’re devious little creatures but they can’t actually force people to give them food against their will.

But it may not necessarily be deliberate. Some people leave cat food outside for their own cats, or for hedgehogs. Some cats will enter other people's properties (we've had it happen to us) and eat the food of the resident cats, or eat out of bins, or eat scraps off the street from old takeaway containers etc.

If you let your cats out to roam, you have to accept you can't control what happens to them. I would never deliberately feed a strange cat, but one got in our bathroom window once and helped himself Grin

1Morewineplease · 20/04/2021 20:11

I noticed that our ( now departed) cat seemed to be putting on weight.
Took us a while to work it out as we only fed her the same food.
Turned out that two, very elderly, homebound, neighbours started to enjoy her visits and reciprocated with titbits so that she'd spend a few minutes with them.
Once we found out, we reduced her feed.
They enjoyed her visits and , when they passed away, quite soon to each other, our cat just stayed at home.
It gives us joy to think that she gave these two wonderful ladies joy.

As to our cat's 'very specific , medical diet ' that we'd been warned about by the vet ( that cost squillions ) well we totally ignored it for years and she lived til she was twenty.

LST · 20/04/2021 20:15

@Octodog

Your cat, your responsibility, should be kept on your property only.

So sick of people not being responsible for their pets and putting my life at risk.

Where the heck do you live?! My ginger tom is big, but unless you're a pigeon I think you're safe
Boood · 20/04/2021 20:17

But it may not necessarily be deliberate. Some people leave cat food outside for their own cats, or for hedgehogs. Some cats will enter other people's properties (we've had it happen to us) and eat the food of the resident cats, or eat out of bins, or eat scraps off the street from old takeaway containers etc.

You’re right, and you’re right that that’s a risk you have to balance against the benefits cats get from being allowed out. But leaving cat food outside for your own cat is pretty stupid for that exact reason: you don’t know if your own cat is eating properly, and you don’t know what other animals you’re attracting.

Suzi888 · 20/04/2021 20:22

You are hardly going to encourage an unwanted cat by feeding it, that’s practically begging it to hang out and poop in your gardenConfused surely? Someone is feeding the cat so it spends time with them, they’re not thinking about poo. Why is it a point thread?!

OP YANBU I face the “can he have a treat” when I walk my huge lab, normally the treat has been extended anyway and his tongue is already on it!Angry

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