The cat and I just can't seem to get along.

[FlossALump]

She is very sweet natured, nearly 1 and puts up with all sorts of kindly meant torture from 2yr old DS. However she drives me nuts. She is very intense and can't just sit on your lap, she has to be right up by your face. I repeatedly put her on my lap and fuss her there but she just works her way back up...

The main thing though is food. She is very fussy and will eat one kind of food one day and not the next. She used to like fish varieties, then only salmon and tuna, then not tuna, then she seemed to like rabbit and heart and the like, now not, sometimes she likes the go cat ones, most recently not. She dosen't eat the dry stuff at all. I've tried her with some small portions of our (meat) food and no joy there either. I'm stuck with a choice of paying a fortune for food or just leaving her to eat what she has got before putting new down. However, doing it the last way means she only gets one meal a day - not enough. Also, she will be following me round all day because of wanting different food and I literally trip over her about 8 times, soon I won't be able to see her and I'm worried I will fall.

So Mn'ers can you please tell this thicko cat owner what I am doing wrong? I am fond of her, when she went missing I was gutted but we just don't rub along nicely IYSWIM!

All cats are the evil creatures we wish we could allow ourselves to be. Self indulgent, pampered with no self control. Bit like toddlers.

Unfortunately we like them.

Are you pregnant by chance, cats normally either adore or hate preggy ladies (must be the smell of hormones!)

Yes, pregnant, hence worrying about falling over her!

TBH though, she has always been like this.

I really don't know what to advise, but, i can sympathise with you, BUT i have a 3 year old male who is like that and a 5 month old kitten so you can imagine what that is like.

Floss - I think we have the same cat. Mine is 18 and she is driving me insane - I buy the choicest most expensive cat food and she keeps changing her mind about what she likes and would apparently rather starve to death than eat something she doesn't want. I have even tried cooking chicken breasts from scratch and stuff like that - she will eat a few dainty mouthfuls and then refuse it for weeks on end. Then all of a sudden she likes it again.

Oh dear. At least I'm feeling a little less of a failure in the cat caring stakes if others find their cats are fusspots! Radley, you have my sympathies! Rosa, you have had this cat for 18yrs?!! Poor you!

oh my cat is similar, she will not sit on your lap, just buts you repeatedly with her head and nips you if you stop stroking her. As for the food issue i do the same for kitty as i do the rest of the children - EAT UP COS YOU@RE NOT GETTING ANYTHING ELSE!

i solved my cat problem nby making it dh's problem. I said "I wanted the babies more than you did, therefore I am happy to do most of their care. YOU wanted the cat so you cuddle it"

...now he thinks the children would Love a hamster. I say over my dead body!

We should set up an exchange scheme for catfood, I have five out of six cans in a pack of most types in my cupboards. If our do deign to eat anything they just lick the jelly off and leave the rest crusting on the plate.

My biggest catches about ten mice a day though (I know because he brings me the tails which he likes to leave where I will stand on them). We live in the country btw!

You're absolutely not alone with this - you can either have Independent Cat, who treats the house like a hotel, eats what its given and then picks a nice bed somewhere, OR Needy Cat - demanding, picky eaters who will never just sit on your lap but have to make a huge performance out of it. We have one of each - guess which I prefer . Needy Cat is currently on a mission to kill me - she is determined to trip me up on the stairs.

I must be a really mean cat owner. Ours gets what ever food i happen to pick up that week, always dry food as I cannot stand wet food.

She has shown a preference for one brand over another but if i leave it down long enough she eats it and carries on until the box is empty.

Oh and i don't feed her a certain number of times a day. I fill her bowl up when empty and thats normally once a day.

She does drive me nuts with the fussing thing though, oh and she behaves like her bowl is empty unless it is overflowing, all round my feet all the time.

I've just had a thought - are all Needy cats - the picky eaters who never just sit on a lap - female? or neutered females? Mine is, so's the OPs, so's RosaLuxembourg's - Radley bucks the trend, but still, 75% of picky eaters are female!

So what you are saying is, if she only gets fed once a day the RSPCA aren't going to burst in with the new 'adequate food' thing?

Mine isn't neautured as yet...

my needy cat is female too. Hold on, I have just realised that I am liable to sashay in front of my husband until he notices me, to bite him when he stops paying me attention and I sometimes push me food away and say "I don like it" like Andy from Little Britain.

I think me and the cat are the same person...

sounds like my cat except for the tolerating the toddler bit... he's terrified of her and has hissed at her for trrying to give him treats.

the only time he cuddles me is when i'm pregnant (more accurate than a test!) but he pesters dp in exactly the same way you describe.

cat's are insane selfish demanding creatures but for some reason we love them

well to be fair I did cry on saturday night when DP brought home a bolognaise past bake instead of spaghetti bolognaise. Perhaps it is all learnt behaviour!