Moving food from floor to table

ejw

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Hi there,

I've tried moving my cat's food bowls from my dining room floor to a table in my kitchen, because I'm about to foster two toddlers and I have visions of the little ones eating the cat food.
My cat just won't jump up to the table though.

I've considered that maybe it's too high for him as he is getting older (7). But he still climbs 5ft fences several time a day and the table is just under hip hight.

At the minute the food is on the floor next to the table. Yesterday I had resolved to put the food on the table and leave it, thinking that he was probably being stubborn and he would jump up there when he got hungry enough. So I put the bowl down, in front of him and lifted him onto the table so he could see it. He ate a bit, jumped down, then five minutes later he was stretching up with his paws at the edge of the table. A few times he looked like he was going to jump up but changed his mind.

In the end, he ended up going to the door to be let out. I know that there is somebody in my neighborhood ignoring his 'don't feed me' collar (he's on a special diet because he's over weight) so I got the impression that he'd decided to just get food else where. I ended up putting his bowls on the floor again.

Am I asking too much for him to jump that high for his food at his age? Or am I just letting him call the shots?
 

kateallen

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Hi ejw,

I think your cat can't figure out yet where the food is. Can you try to put it where your cat can see it first and then put it higher until it reaches the table? Let me know if this makes any progress.

Meow.
 

gilmargl

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Can you do it in stages? First put the food on a low box. When he's happy with that, put it on something a bit higher (solid pet carrier or storage box?) then on a chair, and finally on the table. Unless he's very overweight he should be able to jump up. Perhaps he's learnt not to climb up onto a table and just won't do it!

On the positive side: a lovely couple in the village have cats and dogs and now that their own children have fled the nest are fostering 2 severely abused and extremely difficult pre-school siblings. There is very little chance that these will ever be adopted. And even after three years, they still try to eat the cat or dog food but with no serious consequences. Compared with their previous experiences as babies, a bit of cat or dog food is harmless. By the way, the cats soon learnt to keep out of the way of these two toddlers.
 
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ejw

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Can you do it in stages? First put the food on a low box. When he's happy with that, put it on something a bit higher (solid pet carrier or storage box?) then on a chair, and finally on the table. Unless he's very overweight he should be able to jump up. Perhaps he's learnt not to climb up onto a table and just won't do it!

On the positive side: a lovely couple in the village have cats and dogs and now that their own children have fled the nest are fostering 2 severely abused and extremely difficult pre-school siblings. There is very little chance that these will ever be adopted. And even after three years, they still try to eat the cat or dog food but with no serious consequences. Compared with their previous experiences as babies, a bit of cat or dog food is harmless. By the way, the cats soon learnt to keep out of the way of these two toddlers.
You may be on to something with him learning not to jump on a table... I've just remembered that when he was a kitten and first tried to jump on the kitchen work top (this was at the hold house) he knocked some trays off. The clatter scared him and he's never tried to jump on work tops since. Up until now I saw it as a lucky break that I never had to worry about leaving food out unattended maybe he's just learned that he can't jump up in the kitchen, even though we've moved since :/

Working the height up might work, I'll have to look at what boxes and things I could use. My kitchen is quite small so options could be limited.


I know the cat food is unlikely to hurt the little ones. But these have suffered severe neglect and aren't over the 'I need to eat what I can get because I don't know when I'll get something else' mind set yet. I'm not too worried about how the cat will get used to them, he's pretty tolerant and will either go to bed or outside if he doesn't want to deal.
 

gilmargl

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I know the cat food is unlikely to hurt the little ones. But these have suffered severe neglect and aren't over the 'I need to eat what I can get because I don't know when I'll get something else' mind set yet. I'm not too worried about how the cat will get used to them, he's pretty tolerant and will either go to bed or outside if he doesn't want to deal.
The problem with the 2 foster children here, is that they have been hurt so badly that they consider hurting themselves and others (people, cats, dogs. anything) is normal. Cutlery, scissors, pencils are very dangerous in their hands so catfood is a minor worry. In your case, I could well imagine that the toddlers will be more subdued and will hopefully soon learn that catfood is for the cat. Perhaps you can feed them all at the same time. I had cats as pets when my children were toddlers and must have had cat food in the kitchen on the floor when one of them was crawling about. I'm fairly certain that at least one of my grandchildren had to be forcibly removed from the cat's dish when I was in charge.

Good luck with your hungry little ones - I hope they soon settle down with you.
 
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