Cat Being Picky About Leftovers

[droidus]

I notice that when my cat gets down to a little bit of food left, he refuses to eat, and comes to me, asking for more food. Is there any reason that he wouldn't finish this? How can I encourage him to finish his food before serving him more?

 

[duckpond]

There are several things i have read, that indicates cats are stressed by lack of resources, and food is a resource. Once the bowl gets this low they stress that they will run out of food and starve. I don't know, but an interesting concept.

More mundane things might be that it has sat out to long and is going stale? Another issue may be that it is difficult to get? i cant really tell from your photo, but cats are not fond of a bowl that they can touch the sides with their whiskers? I know about how much my bunch will eat, I throw out any bits of left overs each night, and put out fresh. With dry i will normally feed it on a medium size paper plate, its flat, but with a bit of a lip to keep the food from being pushed out on the floor. Hope this might help

 

[pharber-murphy]

I've noticed that my two, particularly the older one, won't eat anybroken bits of kibble. She'll hoover up everything else in sight, though! I just put it down to her being a cat. We let them get away with everything, don't we ;-)

 

[HungryPandaCat]

With my two cats, they will stop eating once the food in the middle disappears. So I just push the food back to the center and they will continue eating, though even then they will still leave a few pieces behind. I kinda see it as a cats way of saving money for a rainy day xD

 

[Vega's Dad]

My cat does the same. But if I refuse to give her more, she would finish the leftover.