6 Ways to Get Your Kitty to Enjoy Mealtime And Avoid Stress Eating
Feeding time can be a real challenge when it comes to kitties—and even some picky little dogs. Does your cat eat their food so quickly that they get sick, or do they tend to avoid eating most of the time? I understand how frustrating this can be, and you’re not alone. I hear about this issue from my customers every day. I’m here to offer you some tips to help maintain your sanity and improve your kitty's mealtime experience.
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Cats don’t want to eat where they pee.
Cats don’t want to eat where they pee. Who would like to do that? Ensure you have your food bowls in a completely different room so they can’t smell their waste while eating. Especially if you have multiple kitties using the litter box that will trigger a territorial response and therefore keep them from eating if they feel uncomfortable, it’s unclean too!
They don’t want to share a dinner table.
Cats don’t typically want to share their feeding space with other cats or dogs. If you live in a multi-pet household have your cat’s bowls in a separate room from each other so they don’t feel territorial or ambushed while eating. Cats eating together creates an instinct to fight for resources or chow down food quickly, so the other animal won’t eat theirs before they can. This leads to over-eating and eating too quickly which may make your kitty vomit often after meals or become obese. It may even lead to your cat being avoidant to eating all together. Also making sure you have one food and water bowl per cat. So don’t stress your cat out with company for dinner time, they don’t like sharing a table or plate!
No eating near entries or exits.
Having your cat’s bowls away from doors or windows is recommended due to the fact that cats may feel like they could be ambushed by an enemy or predator near entries or openings. This will add a level of stress and fear during mealtime so keep the food away from those places.
Consider a quiet area to eat.
Consider keeping bowls in a quiet area of the house away from where everyone may hang out. All the hustle and bustle of a crowded or busy room may stress a kitty into not eating or overeating!
Improve their posture.
Sometimes the angle at which cats eat is not a good one. Can you imagine being hunched over a bowl with your head at a 90 degree angle? Yeah, you wouldn’t feel good after eating that way either. Thats why helping to improve a cat’s posture will decrease chances of gagging and vomiting after eating and enhancing the overall enjoyment of eating! I would opt for what’s called an elevated feeder which is a couple inches off the floor and improves the posture of the cat’s body while eating and improving their ability to digest food and not having it build up in their throat before it can even get to the stomach.
Use Pheromones.
Pheromones can do wonders for a high-strung kitty or a kitty under a lot of newly added stressors. Such as maybe you got a new pet to add to the family or a new family member has moved in, or maybe you moved away and your cat has new surroundings to figure out. Whatever the change may be, it can make your cat avoid eating or eat quickly due to uncertainty of a changed environment. Pheromones are a substance created naturally by the body that evokes another animal of the same species to change behavior. Feliway pheromone diffusers are vet recommended and are a great natural way to get your cat to change its unwanted behavior and de-stress!
