Mealtime Quirk

[charbasaur]

Hey everyone. So about a month ago I changed my 4 month old kitten's wet food and shortly after that she started not wanting to eat unless I'm next to her keeping her company. Sometimes she'll even stop eating and she'll come ask for pets and go back to her bowl. The strange thing is, she only does this with her wet food; she doesn't have any problem eating her kibble by herself. To be fair I've probably reinforced this by giving into her behavior, but a) I want her to eat all the food she's supposed to and b) I don't want to let the food go to waste.

So is this something that can be "corrected"? Someone suggested that I leave both the wet and dry food out while I'm at work/overnight but I'm worried that the wet food could go bad and end up making her sick.

Thanks!

 

[Neko-chan's mama]

My kitten does the same thing! I give in to it too. I thought maybe she sees me as mama and trusts me to keep her safe while vulnerable (eating/sleeping).

 

[FeebysOwner]

To be fair I've probably reinforced this by giving into her behavior

Hi. How have you reinforced her behavior?

I ask because Feeby, who used to be on all dry food, has never learned how to 'properly' eat canned food. She laps at it, smashes it against the edges of the dish, and I have to repeatedly re-scoop it into a pile in the middle to get her to eat more. This goes on for a good half hour or more every time I feed her canned food. After at least a couple-three of years of this, I have accepted this is the way Feeby will always eat canned food. So, she has dry out for grazing and canned food at scheduled times when I can monitor/scoop it.

Also, if your kitten was on wet food before and didn't behave the same way, you might want to consider mixing some of her 'old' food with the 'new' food and see if that stops the behavior. It is possible that she just doesn't like the new food as well.