Food guarding in a cat - help please!

[Gertrudetheadelie]

We've recently adopted a lovely old cat who had a bit of a tough time between his previous owner and him coming into the care of the charity we adopted him from (suffered from malnutrition, fleas etc).

He's always seemed a bit greedy and we've had to remove him from the table, pantry etc but today he suddenly jumped onto the table and ran off with my roast chicken breast. I first tried to get it off him or encourage him away from as I'd cooked it with garlic and onion and the poor boy started hissing and curling round it and then legged it up the stairs where he hid under the bed still hissing and trying to eat his chicken.

He had never shown this kind of behaviour before but I think the smell of roast chicken was just too much temptation for him. It just broke my heart to see him so scared over losing food. So, lesson learnt: no roast chicken for a while. Is there anything else that we can do to help him leave behind his fears from having to fend for himself? All advice is gratefully received as he's such a lovely cat who deserves a calm, happy retirement

ah we have a rescue off the streets and he has been with us since he was about 4 weeks old. Nothing has ever helped but a word of advice from my DH is do not fight with them for the food once they have it, my DH got badly bitten by our little tiger monster fighting him for a sausage.

I just guard our food when we eat and lock the cats (now we have 2 of them, both food thieves) off when we want to have some quiet supper time.

Just make sure you are offering him plenty of food and don't give tidbits off plates no matter how tempting. And be very aware not to give him opportunities.

I just adopted a gorgeous pair from a challenging house where they had to scavenge for food. To start with I made sure there was always loads of crunchies in a dish as well as their wet food. I spoke to the vet when they had their first inoculations as they ate a lot and she said to just feed them as much as they wanted at the moment and maybe cut down once they felt safer. A year later and they eat much less but seem confident food will always be provided even if their dish is currently empty.

I used to say to them alot 'food is provided in your dish in this household'. Not that they understood or cared but it reminded me to stick to that.

That's very helpful - thank you both . He has three pouches of gourmet Perle a day at regular mealtimes (although perhaps the clocks going back hasn't helped with him feeling regular) but I was wondering about substituting one of them with biscuits but he absolutely inhales his food so I wasn't sure if it would be any better!

I've moved the feliway into the hallway so closer to the kitchen and dining room in the hope that it helps him to feel less stressed around food. The lady at the charity suggested maybe shutting him out of the dining room when we eat to remove opportunities but, currently, that is where his food bowl is so I was worried it would make him yet more stressed. I'm happy to change where he is fed even if it is a less convenient space for his dish!

I really do appreciate the advice

We have a similar situation here. What we do is to feed the cats their dinners at the same time we are eating ours.

For some reason, roast chicken seems to be the worst for setting them off!

My cat is a thief. I NEVER leave food out where she can get hold of it. The only safe place is on top of the fridge.

Cats are hunters. Leaving food out all the time is not recommended (but it does make them silent and sleepy :-D ).

From what I was told is feed cats twice a day after some playtime, and I add a midnight dry food feed too (that makes them silent till about 6am which works for me).

Please if you can even a little afford to feed something high in meat (like Lilly's Kitchen/Orijen) should prevent issues later.

Cats are not designed to be fat, and it is our responsibility as their owners to keep them slim/average at least.

@ZooKeeper19 he has the recommended portion for a cat of his size and is fed his treats only after a successful play hunt so we're not just feeding him constantly - don't worry! I think the issue is more that he has legacy issues of having to find food/ANY food and so is desperate for anything he sees and scared he will lose it.

@eddiemairswife. I agree! He's more agile than we thought he might be at his age. The issue was that I was laying the table and had to leave my son in charge of his dinner and mine for a split second (my error) when he pounced. I think we're just on a learning curve with his determination and his abilities to jump!

I didn't know my 10/11 yo rescue could jump on the worktops till I cooked a turkey thigh joint. She went berserk over it.

She's usually such a dainty lady like little cat.

My boy was feral until I found him and took him in 10 years ago, so he'd had a crap life (he was about 7 then, the vet thinks). I give him 3 pouches of food a day, at set times. He had Purina dry stuff, which is available all day - a big bowl of water too - so he's never hungry.

When I'm cooking chicken, I cut off the stringy/veiny bits and cook them for him. He also has tinned tuna (in spring water, not brine) a couple of times a week. He's very spoilt

My boy is from a Shelter, and was underweight when he arrived. He ate huge amounts at first - about 1.5 times the recommended amount for his age.

Some v experienced cat vets recommended Hills dry kitten food, as much as he wanted. I started him on 1/2 cup and would give him another 1/2 or 1/4 cup whenever his bowl was almost empty. This worked really well. He ate a lot, but got used to the idea that food was always in his bowl.

After a fortnight I introduced wet pouches morning and night, plus the unlimited dry food. He LOVES the wet food, eats about 1/2 cup of the dry food a day and is always v interested in what I am cooking for me, but not in the desperate way he was at the start.

I know others have said the cat might get overweight, but I would try unlimited dry food, as having it there might help him psychologically. As I said, mine doesn’t over eat it, but it calms him down knowing it’s always there.

We used to put chicken on a plate for the cat at mealtimes also had a treat ball where you can put treats in (like a dog but smaller) and they have to work to get it out I used diet biscuits instead of dreamies though as my cat had weight issues

My vet was very much of the opinion that short term it didn't matter if the cat got fat, what mattered was that they were confident food would always be available. Maintaining a sleek figure could come later.

If you're cooking something tempting like that, I would keep some aside for his bowl so he can enjoy it while you eat yours, but then I spoil my three rotten

So what did you eat, OP?

I'd cooked Italian roast chicken with flatbreads so my entire portion went in the bin (he's had a few digestive issues so I don't want to take any risks!) Luckily, he was less interested in the brownie that I'd done for pudding so I had that as my main!

I'm just feeling a bit exhausted constantly on watch at the moment. We had an Amazon delivery while I was cooking today so I had to try to keep him inside, collect the cat litter that had been delivered and stop him eating today's lunch - I'm knackered already! Fingers crossed it will get easier the longer he is with us and the more confident he is of his meals being delivered.

I think it's all a bit new as our last old boy was a reluctant eater with kidney problems, among many others, so we spent all our time googling how to get him to eat more!