Kitten Trying To Take Over The Food Bowl

[Mama to the crew]

Hi im unsure on what to do here.

I have eight cats (and two dogs) the cats have two food and water stations in two different areas. In the last two weeks Sami a ten month old female has become possive over the food bowls. Before sami would share with the other cats. I do know this is a learned behavior. See my two older females don't always take to the other cats Talia my 3-4 year old calico will not deal with the others and can be aggressive toward them but thats only when they get to close. When she eatting she growls to create space for herself if they insist on bugging her. Ally two year old trobie is the creater of the trouble. She is diff the boss of the whole lot and rules with an iron fist. She is also the mom of two for sure possibly four of the cats. She refuse to share the bowl while she eats and slaps the others away. While two weeks ago she was eating when Sami butted in and Ally halfheartedly swated her. Sami back off but reached out and smacked Ally in a surpriseing move all Ally did was look at her. Every since Sami has taken to slapping the others when she was eating but today i had to run her off because when my two males tried to eat she'd run up and slap them. It wasn't light slaps either but hard ones. Its not about the amount of food the bowls are huge four cats can easily eat out of one and they rarly all eat at once. She become this little bully and im not sure what to about it.

 

[rubysmama]

Hopefully some other members who have multi-cat households will post with comments / suggestions.

Meanwhile, here's the TCS article on The Multi-cat Household which may be helpful.

 

[duckpond]

Cats can be very territorial with food bowls, litter boxes, toys, beds.. ect...
some cats can share a food bowl and be fine with it, others not so much. Cats can be very aggressive about defending their resources. I read that this is one of the biggest problems with fighting in a multi cat home. So with my 4 i do my best to make sure no one has to share if they dont want to. Its not actually in a cats nature to share, so i try to work with that.

I feed wet and dry food. when i feed wet each cat gets their own plate, in a different area. no stress about sharing. They are in the same room, can see each other, but not eating out of the same bowl. Social eating

For dry i have three areas, in different rooms, and out of sight of each other, where i keep a small plate with dry. Two of mine would be fine eating with each other, the other two, my girls, would starve if they had to eat together at the same time. I put out small amounts of dry, in different rooms, takes a bit more time, and my husband says just put down a bowl, they will be fine. Maybe, maybe not, i prefer to be proactive and make sure everyone can be comfortable when they eat. I also put the dry food out in a less busy area of the home, they need to go find it, not just wander by and eat. Non social eating

Best of luck, let us know how it goes.

 

[Mama to the crew]

So i read the article and the other post and feel i should maybe explain a bit more of the dynamic with my crew as ive notice mine don't seem to react like normally expected. So 7 cats came from an abandoned colony of about 30 cats mostly female no joke i think there was like ten males most of the females where either nurseing or pregnant or both.

Talia is the only one who doesn't want to share. We learned early even with wet food it was pointless to try feeding in their own bowls as they would trade or eat out of the same bowl. Ally will make the others let her have her share while they wait they won't even touch the other bowl until she says. After that the others are content to trade off at the bowls.

Last night was the first time Sami had went after the boys over the food bowl actually im not sure if it was the bowl or me she was being a bully over. She always been a possive cat her and Talia are both considerd my cats as they prefer me and Talia and Ally are the only cats Sami wont challenge about being near me. Mainly i think because she knows neither will think twice about taking her to task over it. Sam also always had a bit of a mean streak in her worsened when Sierra arrived. Sierra was not part of the original colony and came from a barn. She fitted in with the group even Sam grew to accept her. I know supposedly cats don't get jealous but alot of Sam behavior stims from it. Sam was the baby now Sierra is, she was Ami playmate but Ami has been fasanted by Sierra, Sierra is diffeintly a woman cat and had no problems demaneding attention, finally Sierra went from being smaller to being twice the size of Sam even though she two weeks younger. I think what drives Sam nuts the most is Sierra just shrugs off whatever Sam throws at her.

The night i posted this i was a bit paniced as it was out of the blue she went after they boys. Granted those to are some of the most submissive males i have ever seen the girls are always roughing Harley up and he nothing but a lover. Ace can be a um instagater as he'll poke his sisters or Sierra until they chase him. But that night we where working on learning that being touched isn't bad. He come a long way but its a long term thing. He'd just went to get a bite when Sam smacked him. I really think she on a power trip since Ally let her get away with slapping her.