Morning Nips

[redvelvetone]

My 10-month-old has recently started some behavior that I am trying to nip in the bud (pun intended!). He has a voracious appetite (the boy can't get enough food it seems) and he's at his most hungriest in the morning (as I am sure some of you have experienced with your own cats).

Anyway, after he gets me up in the morning ( he's not supposed to get fed until 7 AM, but he starts pestering around 5:30 AM. I try and ignore him until at least 6:30 AM and then I may cave in and get up, because he'll come over to me and keep patting my face, and sometimes even planting both front paws on my head and standing on my forehead and meowing down at me until I give in). Anyway, he escorts me to the kitchen where I get out his canned food. Up until a couple of weeks ago, he would rub against my legs like crazy (literally jumping up and sliding his whole body down my leg) while I'm getting his food. Now he still does this but IN ADDITION he starts nipping at my shins and calves. Not too hard (he's never drawn blood or bitten down very hard), but it's still like little pinches on my legs first thing in the morning and it's annoying. I have said no, and push him away when he does this, but so far he has not gotten the message. I feel like he's literally trying to herd me in the direction of the food pantry by nipping at my legs (or maybe he's just super excited about the fact he's about to get fed). he does not do this nipping behavior at other mealtimes, just for breakfast.

I was thinking of locking him in the bedroom until I get his meal all ready and then letting him out to eat it once i've gotten it into the bowl.

Any other suggestions? He's not an aggressive cat at all, other than sometimes we play with him and if he gets over excited he'll accidentally scratch us while going for his toy or something. Or sometimes he wants to wrestle and he'll grab my arm and bite (but not hard). I stop playing with him if he does this though and use a teaser toy so he can grab on that instead of my arm. And he also sometimes grabs my head with both his paws and tries to lick and chew at my hair on the top of my head. But he's not ever hurt me doing this. 

BTW I have also tried feeding him closer to his bedtime so that he might be less hungry by the morning. Nope, does not work. He's always hungry lol (he gets 8-8.5 oz of food a day).I am not sure how much he weighs now, but I am guessing he's either at or close to ten pounds. He's neither too skinny nor too fat from what I can tell. Right now I feed him 3X a day (and with one snack at mid morning and one cat treat at bedtime).

 

[jennyr]

I have two possible suggestions - first has he been wormed lately? That may be making him more hungry than usual. And maybe you should cut him down to two meals during hte day - often enough for most cats, and give him a small bowl of crunchies to snack on during the night. Otherwise, you are right to ignore him as much as possible while he is nipping you, or he will see it as behaviour that is getting the reward of being fed.

 

[redvelvetone]

Hi

Thanks for replying

He does not have worms. I should add he's not hungrier than normal. He's always had a huge appetite since I got him and he's been to the vets twice (once from the rescue group when they picked him  up and once from me and he's perfectly healthy). He's still growing too, so that is probably it. And he used to be feral (maybe that has some sort of impact or not).

I was going to maybe cut him down to two meals a day but not until he reaches adulthood and has stopped growing.

I don't like to feed him a lot of dry food though and leaving a bowl of kibble out overnight won't help because whenever I feed him, he eats everything at once. he never leaves anything for later. If I put a bowl of kibble out he'd eat it down at once and wouldn't have any for later if he got hungry again. But like I said, he gets fed mostly wet, and some raw, and a few kibbles in the morning (maybe 20 pieces) as kind of an extra snack.

 

[Willowy]

Ah, teenage boys! :lol3: We all know how they eat!

I would lock him in another room while you prepare his food. The more he gets to practice this behavior, the less likely he'll stop doing it. Maybe after a while he'll calm down and you won't have to do it anymore. But for now I think that's the best solution.

 

[redvelvetone]

yeah i am going to do that. Esp. since today I accidentally stepped on his toes when he nipped the back of my leg and then he ran from the room and cried out in the hallway for a couple of minutes. i felt guilty  (of course then it was easier to get his food out, and all was forgiven when he saw me setting the food down on the floor. zoooom! back into the kitchen. heh. I gave him some hugs later and he was OK)

 

[redvelvetone]

Here he is being a little more chill...