Puzzled by Kitty Behaviour

[Lady Moreta]

My husband and I recently took on the care of two cats (at present, we're just fostering them, but if all goes well, we'll probably adopt them outright), but there are a couple of things that are baffling me/I'm not sure how to handle.

1. The younger of the pair, Lola, has this odd habit of shoving the water bowl around the floor and sloshing water out of it all over the place. I've seen her do it once, so I assume that it's her (she's very shy and timid and tends to run if you so much as look at her). I've noticed she only seems to do it when it's fairly full, so the obvious answer I guess, is to not have it too full... but it's one of these ones with a large reservoir so you don't have to fill it as often... I'd really rather know why she's suddenly doing it (she wasn't when we first got them) so I can figure out a way to get her to stop.

2. How do I feed one cat less while still making sure the other cat gets enough to eat? I had to take Tash (the older cat) to the vet the other day 'cause she's got conjunctivitis in her eyes. The vet also mentioned that she's a bit tubby and to feed her less. The problem is that they eat out of the same bowl... I tried putting each girl's portion into a separate section (it's a double bowl) but once Lola had finished, Tash just started eating the rest. The only thing I can think of is to feed Lola separately and actually shut the door on Tash so she can't get in... except that Lola is so shy and timid I'm not sure I'd be able to get close enough to her to do any of that without her running away (as is her usual MO). Yeah, I'm a little flummoxed by this one... any ideas?

[Grinner]

For #2, have you considered separate bowls?

I don't really have expertise in this subject, but I can point you to Jackson Galaxy's website (http://jacksongalaxy.com/learn/). He's got this show on Animal Planet where he helps people out with their cat problems, and he's got some advice on his website.

[The_Snark]

1. One of my cats does this. She has poor eyesight, and our current leading theory is that she moves the bowl to get a better look at the water level - it's easier to see when it's sloshing back and forth. (Our runner-up theory is that she just likes the noise it makes when she pushes it across the floor.) If your kitty only does this when the bowl is topped off, then her motives might be different - but it sounds like you don't see this going on very much, you just infer it's happening because you've seen it once or twice and there's spilled water on the floor? If that's the case, she might be doing when the water is low too, but it doesn't spill and leave evidence.

I would also ask, do you know if she drinks from the water bowl, or does she like to lick up the spill? I've known a cat who loved to get water out of faucets and potted plants, and can easily imagine one who prefers their water on the floor.

2. This is another thing I've run into with my cats: one is shy and needs to eat more, the other is dominant and could stand to eat less, and of course the latter will eat everything available while the other wanders off or hangs back... We ended up giving them two different food bowls and putting them in different places - the shy one's food bowl is up on the kitchen counter, which the other cat has trouble getting to. (She also knows she's not supposed to be there, not that this always stops her.) Even then, we have to pay attention to make sure they're both eating and neither one is getting too much.

I don't think there's an easy solution to this one. I'd definitely recommend separate food bowls; the other side of a double bowl is pretty tempting to a hungry cat who's just finished their own, and it's harder to establish that this is Not Your Food when they're so close. Could also try feeding them at different times - we end up doing this sometimes, our shy cat is picky and sometimes doesn't feel like eating until a few hours after dinnertime (and if we leave food out for her, she'll ignore it and the other cat will try to swoop in)... Hopefully Lola will get more accustomed to you as time passes, which will make things easier.

That's all I can think of. It's pretty hard to figure out a cat's behavior just from a secondhand account, but maybe one of these explanations will fit. Good luck working it out!

[Eldan]

We had one cat who got massively fat by terrorizing the others and eating their food away from them. In the end, we locked her up in the bathroom while the others ate. Probably not the best solution.

[Lady Moreta]

I don't really have expertise in this subject, but I can point you to Jackson Galaxy's website (http://jacksongalaxy.com/learn/). He's got this show on Animal Planet where he helps people out with their cat problems, and he's got some advice on his website.

This site looks really interesting, thanks for the link :smallsmile: I did talk to a friend about it who had some good advice that basically involved training Lola to realise that if she's calm I'll go away.. only problem is that some days she's better than others and it can be extremely difficult to tell whether she's in an 'if you take one step towards me I'm gonna run' mood, or an 'okay, I don't really care what you do' mood. Lola is very confusing... she'll freak out if I go anywhere near her, but she'll also eat out of my hand (in fact, this is the only way to convince her that new food is in fact edible). She confuses me regularly, but she does a great impression of a Sphinx. (http://img.pederick.id.au/gallery/d/1017-2/20150724_122331.jpg)


1. One of my cats does this. She has poor eyesight, and our current leading theory is that she moves the bowl to get a better look at the water level - it's easier to see when it's sloshing back and forth. (Our runner-up theory is that she just likes the noise it makes when she pushes it across the floor.) If your kitty only does this when the bowl is topped off, then her motives might be different - but it sounds like you don't see this going on very much, you just infer it's happening because you've seen it once or twice and there's spilled water on the floor? If that's the case, she might be doing when the water is low too, but it doesn't spill and leave evidence.

I would also ask, do you know if she drinks from the water bowl, or does she like to lick up the spill? I've known a cat who loved to get water out of faucets and potted plants, and can easily imagine one who prefers their water on the floor.

You know, if I'd seen this any earlier I'd have had to say I didn't know, but I was in a position to spy on her this morning (she doesn't like an audience while she eats), and I saw her come into the laundry where the food/water/kitty litter is, and watched her eat, drink, pee and then wander off! I wasn't sure she was drinking out of it, but at least now I know. And it kills my secondary theory which was that she was moving the water bowl because she felt like she couldn't reach it. It's sitting in a corner right now and she kept shoving it into the middle of the floor (I know it's her because I did actually see her doing it once, and because the floor is just concrete I can hear it when she does it at other times - I don't have a job right now so I'm at home most of the time and can pick up on these things). Last night I tried not filling the reservoir and just putting a little bit of water in the bowl and she seemed fine with that. I'm thinking maybe she doesn't like it when there's lots of water in the bowl, so I think I'll just stop using the reservoir entirely... I'd like to replace it actually, it was given to us when we fostered the cats and it's kinda old and a bit grotty. I think I'll get another one and put them both down to get the cats used to it, I don't think staid, lazybones Tash will care, but Lola probably will if things suddenly become different. (She was an absolute nutjob yesterday and the only thing I can think that was different is that my husband and I didn't go to church like we usually do... today she's back to her normal self.)

I should probably mention, I definitely know it's happening because when I say she's 'moving the bowl around' I mean 'she's shoving it halfway across the floor'... I realised that I wasn't very clear in my first post... I've seen her do it once, I can hear her doing it at other times, and when I know the bowl was in a certain place and I come in and find it in the middle of the floor surrounded by water, I can guess too :smallwink:


2. This is another thing I've run into with my cats: one is shy and needs to eat more, the other is dominant and could stand to eat less, and of course the latter will eat everything available while the other wanders off or hangs back... We ended up giving them two different food bowls and putting them in different places - the shy one's food bowl is up on the kitchen counter, which the other cat has trouble getting to. (She also knows she's not supposed to be there, not that this always stops her.) Even then, we have to pay attention to make sure they're both eating and neither one is getting too much.

I cheered for Lola the other day when she shoved Tash out of the way so she could eat. It didn't last, but it was hilarious and cute all the same. I think I'll have to try that. I know Lola likes to be on the window sill in the study (where the Sphinx-cat picture was taken) and as far as I can tell, Tash has never been up there... I have a sneaky suspicion she can't reach, Tash will sit on the windowsill in the living room, but it's lower down and easier to jump up on. Now I'll just have to convince Lola that it's okay to eat up there... she did eat a little bit up there a while ago, I mixed their worming paste into some meat food (they normally only eat dry food) and put it up there for Lola because Tash had already eaten hers and I didn't want the little fat-cat to eat Lola's as well. I had to hand-feed Lola to convince her that it was in fact, food, and she didn't eat all of it, but I might be able to convince her it's okay. Be easier if she wasn't still scared of me, but oh well...


It's pretty hard to figure out a cat's behavior just from a secondhand account, but maybe one of these explanations will fit. Good luck working it out!

It's not that easy figuring it out firsthand either! :smalltongue: This is the first time my husband has ever had cats, and it's the first time I've had them as an adult in sole-charge. We had a cat when I was a kid, but she was a grumpy old thing who didn't like people unless you were feeding her, and I don't remember enough about her to know what taking care of her was really like. The cat we got when I was a teenager (and my parents still have, 17 years old and still alive!) is also a bit of a wuss, but he's mellowed in his old age and will come and demand you pat him when he feels like it. Of course, no one in my family is very good at the whole worming process (and this cat refused to eat meat) so worming him usually involved a trip to the vet. I'm having to learn all sorts of things... like how to put ointment in Tashcat's conjunctivitis eyes (I think it's almost as traumatic for us as it is for her, she's almost resigned to the process now, I feel bad every time we have to do it). But yeah, trying to figure out what each behaviour means is driving me a little up the wall, and we haven't had that much support from the organisation we're fostering for/with. I noticed Tash had conjunctivitis the first day we got them... it took me a week and a half (and her getting to the point where light was hurting her eyes and she couldn't open the really bad one properly) to get permission to take her to a vet.


We had one cat who got massively fat by terrorizing the others and eating their food away from them. In the end, we locked her up in the bathroom while the others ate. Probably not the best solution.

Definitely not for us, the cats aren't allowed in the bathroom :smallsmile: - not for lack of trying, on Lola's part especially... I think she's convinced there's a good hidey-hole in there somewhere.

[wxdruid]

One of my cats is tubby, he eats in a separate area and behind a closed door. I also started mixing in 1/2 can a wet food with 1/2 serving of dry (for one meal) and he has lost weight from this. The other cat (not overweight) gets a 1/2 can of wet, full serving of dry food. No food is left out during the day and they get to eat it while it's out, or they have to wait for the next meal time. Even when I had a really shy cat, she'd come out when she heard the sound of food.

The tubby one also likes to paw the water out of the water dish, so all my water dishes are on rubber mats with a raised rim so the water doesn't go to far.

At one time I bought a water dish with a reservoir, the tubby one just pawed ALL of the water out onto the floor.

[BannedInSchool]

Oh, I remember now that one of my cats would paw at the water in the dish a bit before drinking, but it was a heavy ceramic bowl (that said "Dog" on it, which made me feel guilty) so I don't know if she would have pushed a lighter bowl around. I'd think it's just some cat instinct to paw at water.

[Haruki-kun]

Cats like moving (running) water. We fixed this problem with our cat by getting a water bowl with a fountain thingy. Check your local pet store or pet section of the grocery store. It will probably set you back like 20 dollars, though. If you're not willing to pay this much then you can just put a plastic mat under it or other protection measures to stop water damage from happening.

[Lady Moreta]

I think it might have been that she felt like there was too much water in it... I've been careful to not put much water in it the past couple of days and she's been fine. The one day I did fill it with a little extra, she started shoving. I think I've solved that problem.

Thankfully, the floor in the laundry is concrete, so there's not much damage the water can do (which is why it's out there!) I'm starting to feed them once in the morning and once at night so hopefully fatty-Tashcat will learn to eat slower and not as much if she wants to be able to nibble all day (their previous foster carers had food out for them all day and I think Tash is the type who will eat it if it's there).