Food aggression

[pawpurrints]

When the kittens are drinking their milk, they have no aggression with each other.  But when it comes to meat, that's a different story.

We were giving pea-sized chicken pieces before.  But now we have been giving them whole pieces to chew, rip, and tear.  When one finishes, he starts to sniff at his 2 siblings, and all of a sudden, the ones eating start "growling" and hissing and really protecting their food.  Naturally, we watch them when they eat, making sure they stay in their own bowls.  We also pet them while they chew their food, but they still growl. This only happens with the meat chunks.

Question is, should we try to nip the aggression, or just leave it alone?

 

[ldg]

IMO, just leave it. :lol3: They'll probably stop this behavior after a few weeks - if that long. Our cats were the same when we first introduced chunks of raw - very growly when someone else approached them eating. I personally thought it was nice to see them so excited about food they wanted to "defend" it. :lol3: Once they finally realized they were getting it all the time, they stopped growling.

 

[goholistic]

Are you giving them raw or cooked chicken pieces? I would say you're lucky that you're cats like it so much that they'll fight for it!

So many of us struggle to get our cats to eat real meat (vs. kibble/commercial foods). Mine still won't touch it, raw or cooked, after several attempts. Boo hiss!
 

 

[sarah2cats]

My

Are you giving them raw or cooked chicken pieces? I would say you're lucky that you're cats like it so much that they'll fight for it!

So many of us struggle to get our cats to eat real meat (vs. kibble/commercial foods). Mine still won't touch it, raw or cooked, after several attempts. Boo hiss!

 

my sasha is a real snob she dobt like fish or cheap nuts she only likes Iams nuts and nitricat. She has took shine to whiskers oh so meaty chicking pouches lol my boy will eat anything even my chicken tika lol

 

[peaches08]

Oooohhh do I remember the "singing"! That's when I knew that raw was gonna work for my cats. It lasted about a week. I watched them to make sure it didn't get out of hand, thankfully it didn't and we were back to business as usual.

 

[pawpurrints]

Are you giving them raw or cooked chicken pieces? I would say you're lucky that you're cats like it so much that they'll fight for it!

So many of us struggle to get our cats to eat real meat (vs. kibble/commercial foods). Mine still won't touch it, raw or cooked, after several attempts. Boo hiss!
 

Well, considering these are still just 7 week old kittens that I've had since they were a day old, they hadn't had a chance to be exposed to commercial foods yet  So pretty much they've only had kitten formula or raw foods (unfortunately, one of my boys sneaks bites of my dog's dry food  LOL  We try to put the food up when our dog doesn't finish it, but sometimes, there will be one or two lying on the floor, and we catch him munching on it.  I'm trying to give them a variety of flavors so they don't become picky.

Our last cat that passed away a few years ago was dry-food fed (before we knew about benefits of wet food, let alone raw foods).  He was definitely picky.  If I couldn't find his exact brand of Iams, he would not eat.

Originally I was going with an all raw.  But now, I'm thinking I will introduce some wet canned as well, mainly because I don't want them to become too picky, and on occasions when I need fast food in a pinch, I want them to be able to handle the canned wet foods too.  I won't give it to them often though.  Just enough so they keep a taste for it.    

But they're so  cute when they're growling and chewing  LOL they step on their food so the others don't get to it

 

[ldg]

Right? It's so darn cute! :lol3:

Yep, I think offering them some canned at times just so they recognize it as food is a good idea. Many went without electricity during various hurricanes - so it's always good to have something that doesn't require a fridge or freezer.