Dominance, bullying, or just pure gluttony??

Hi, I've noticed over the last few days Matt is taking the kitten food. He doesn't chase the kitten away from it or anything-just seeks it out and eats it up. Now I feed them both on the same food-friskies wet, so it's not like kitten is getting anything he's not so I'm confused.....and they eat side by side with no problem. I tried moving their food apart, and Matt still eats out of Midnight's bowl, leaving half of his own food in his bowl-which the kitten eats later upon fining his bowl empty

Matt seems to get along great with Midnight. He grooms the baby, even lays with him and gets upset with me when I put him in the bathroom when we're not able to supervise him. We only brought the kitten into the house on the 15th and other than the food, there's been no behavioral issues

Sharing the food. That's what Sugar and Spice do. I feed them on one plate. If I use two, they will eat the first one together, then eat the second one together.

My guys switch back and forth all the time.

Usually the little one gets bored with his dish and goes and nudges in on big one's bowl. Big one just goes over and eats from little one's bowl.

As long as the kitten is getting enough to eat, then it should be fine. Keep in mind the kitten needs more food than the adult cat to grow.

I have separate food and water bowls for Casper and Cocoa, but inevitably, one or the other will poach on the others.  I worry more about Casper not getting enough, he's larger and requires a bit more than she does.  With wet food he usually eats it quickly but kibble he grazes even though we only feed them main meals twice a day (and one snack before bedtime).  So, I don't mind him eating hers *if* there is any, but she really shouldn't be eating his; she's gotten a bit heavier than we wanted her to being a kind of small framed cat.  Of course, she was fairly underweight when we adopted her so perhaps this is just what her normal weight should be and it looks big to us lol.

The thing is we know she knows which area is hers; we happened to switch them last week just "because" and she stood in front of his place mat and looked at us like "What?  I'm confused!" and then walked over to hers.  

We've just gotten tired of trying to police them after 8 months of her being with us.  

Anyway the point of all of that is they share pretty much everything else in the house; sleeping space, toys, litter boxes, and groom each other so I think it's just another level of cooperative living.  Probably exactly what Matt and Midnight are doing.  Although it drives us nutty

My cats do not share their food and will not eat out of each other's wet food dishes. But cats have instincts that we do not always understand. Some animals send someone to sample the food first to make sure it does not make them sick before the others are ok'd to eat it.

If there is no aggression then you probably do not have any problems, as the kitten gets older I am sure he will end up eating all of his own food in one sitting.

Im interested in seeing what others have to say on this thread.

I wouldn't think it's Matt trying to show Midnight who's boss or anything if he isn't getting frusty when your little boy goes and helps himself to Matt's food later when his own has been finished.  Sounds like they're getting in to the shared space stuff pretty well to me. As others have said, I wouldn't worry as long as there's no indication Midnight isn't getting enough food.

Little one seems to be gaining weight well, so that's good This is my first experience with multiple cats, so any change in Matt's behavior is odd to me lol. The ones outside don't share, they fight so I'd not seen the bowl poaching until Matt did it. Glad to know it's a friendly-type behavior