Eating behavior

[Suru]

My cat is an indoor/outdoor cat that gets locked in at night. He gets one meal of wet food first thing in the morning, and one meal of wet food last thing at night. He is free fed dry Dr Elsey's Clean Protein the rest of the day. During the day, he's in and out of the yard and the house doing his own thing. We don't let him roam the house as he pleases as my mom hates cat hair getting everywhere, so normally he only has access to the second kitchen via the cat door. It's pretty much his own room, since we rarely use it.

So there's a few odd behaviors I'm somewhat concerned about
1. When I'm around in his kitchen, he will go to the food bowl and eat ravenously, as if I've starved him for days. However, he tends to stop eating once I leave.

2. He never finishes his kibble. No matter how little or much I put in his bowl, he will really "procrastinate" on eating the last bit of kibble. There will always be some left when I go to refill his bowl, I make sure to put the kibble on the bottom back on top so he eats those first.

I can't for the life of me figure out why he's behaving this way. He's good at self regulating his food intake (when I'm not around), and that's why I had left him free fed. A couple of days ago after feeding him his wet food in the morning, I stayed around to clean his feeding area, and he started inhaling his dry food. I guess he ate too much too fast (?!), because he vomited out his wet food AND dry food. I guess I could cover his food bowl when I'm around, but if possible I would like to know how to deter this behavior altogether.

 

[ArtNJ]

I guess item one is cueing. Some cats learn cues or develop rituals about when its time to eat, and they can get quite weird about them. Like they have to see or hear you banging around with the can of food and the bowl, and if they are upstairs and don't hear, they won't eat when they come down even if they can see the food in the bowl-- unless you simulate the process. I have a cat now that briefly wanted to go to the sunroom and come back right after the food went down before he would eat. Some sort of weird pre-eating ritual. So you are the cue, learned from the pre-free feeder days. I don't think abnormal cueing behaviors are super common, I've only really had them I guess twice for a little while, but they can happen.

As for item two, I think that is normal behavior for a cat that isn't that hungry. Also, the last few pieces may be a PITA to get too, given the shape of the cat snout and the shape of many cat bowls. So if they aren't starving, they don't really work for it, and wait for the bowl to get fuller. I've more found this behavior with moist food then dry. Cats *can* lick the standard shaped bowl clean, but if they aren't that hungry, they prefer not to work that hard. Mine, will, for example, completely finish overnight when they know more food isn't coming. During the day, they just won't work that hard and will meow at me when its time for more even if there is some still in the bowl.

 

[Suru]

I guess item one is cueing. Some cats learn cues or develop rituals about when its time to eat, and they can get quite weird about them. Like they have to see or hear you banging around with the can of food and the bowl, and if they are upstairs and don't hear, they won't eat when they come down even if they can see the food in the bowl-- unless you simulate the process. I have a cat now that briefly wanted to go to the sunroom and come back right after the food went down before he would eat. Some sort of weird pre-eating ritual. So you are the cue, learned from the pre-free feeder days. I don't think abnormal cueing behaviors are super common, I've only really had them I guess twice for a little while, but they can happen.

Oh! now that you mentioned it, it definitely started happened after I went overseas and left him with a friend - before then, he was also free fed. He was gone for half a year, so of course he must have been fed differently. It's so obvious, but because when he came home he settled in like he never left, I had completely forgotten that he had been away at all and it never crossed my mind. *whoops*

Interestingly, his food preference also didn't change. My friend brought him back with a big pack of fancy feast canned gravy. Which, he was so reluctant to eat this, that I gave it away. When I switched him back to his old food (Dr elsey's and canned pates), he happily gobbled it up like before.

As for item two, I think that is normal behavior for a cat that isn't that hungry. Also, the last few pieces may be a PITA to get too, given the shape of the cat snout and the shape of many cat bowls. So if they aren't starving, they don't really work for it, and wait for the bowl to get fuller. I've more found this behavior with moist food then dry. Cats *can* lick the standard shaped bowl clean, but if they aren't that hungry, they prefer not to work that hard. Mine, will, for example, completely finish overnight when they know more food isn't coming. During the day, they just won't work that hard and will meow at me when its time for more even if there is some still in the bowl.

Ah okay. He doesn't touch the last bit even if it's over night, if there's a bit left at the bottom, it will still be there in the morning. I had left his bowl unfilled a few times to see how long it will take him to finish off the last bit, but unless I'm standing there, he won't even touch it. I'll try a shallower bowl and see if that changes anything. I have a very shallow dish-bowl for his wet food, and he licks it pretty clean. sometimes he misses a spot if he can't see it (ie, under his chin), but if I rotate the dish for him he will lick it clean!

Thanks for the help!