We’re talking whole new levels of naughtiness here April 26, 2007 ~ 6:00 pm
Posted by Julie in : Da Cats , trackbackI just walked in the door, and on the surface, things seemed normal. Joe waiting at the door, yowling to tell me something. Freddie a few steps behind. I walked into the kitchen, put my backpack and jacket down, and that’s when I saw it. A bag of kitty Greenies on the floor. With a hole in it. A chewed hole.
Freddie had apparently gone up on the kitchen counter to the little nook above the sink where I keep their treats and helped himself. The bag of Greenies was still mostly full, my guess is because I interrupted him. However, there was also a bag of Pounce Meaty Morsels missing. I looked all around the kitchen and dining room and didn’t see it. I was beginning to think he’d eaten them bag and all. And then for some reason I went into the bedroom and picked up a book I had left on the floor beside my bed last night. And that’s when I saw it.
Someone (who shall remain nameless, but whose initials are obviously Freddie) had torn the bottom off of my box spring and made a cat cave. And in that cat cave? The mostly empty bag of Pounce. Y’all, I have a kitty scavenger on my hands.
I think he’s probably going to be very sick before the night is over, since the regular Purina that I’m weaning him onto (off the raw food) still occasionally wreaks havoc on his little kitty bowels. He’s in the bathroom for the moment, because he and Joe were in a pitched battle that was showing no signs of stopping while I cleaned up the treat wreckage. Maybe I’ll just let him stay there for a while, just in case.
But what do you do with an animal who is so fixated on food that he chews through bags to get at it? I can’t leave food down for him because he’ll eat it all and then be sick. What do I do here? Suggestions?
Comments
Isn’t there a Kitty Overeaters Anonymous meeting he can attend?
not sure what to do with a cat, but if he were a dog, then I’d buy one of those kid proof locks for the treat cabinet, and then Freddie loses his freedom privileges during the day when you’re not home. Hopefully it’s something he’ll grow out of.
Otherwise, get used to food lockdown for the next 16 or so years.
I think I’ve seen those automatic kitty feeders, where you measure out the amount you want to feed them, and a compartment opens up when you set it to,…so you can have food available all day, but only when you decide… (and if it hasn’t been invented, it should).
As far as the treats - yeah - I’ve had kitties and doggies do that. Put those treats in some storage bins, etc - they can’t chew through those!
Good luck hon!
My cat’s do that all the time. If they think I didn’t feed them enough, or often enough, or I just plain left them alone with constant temptation. So food is either in a sealed container, or put in a drawer or on a shelf. You just have to be more vigilant. It’s totally normal kitty behavior. And I doubt he will never grow out of it, it’s rewarding. But buy a storage container, and put it in it, it keeps the food fresher, too. I now have to do it for the cats and the dog, so they all have containers! And so does my bread, that’s the next thing to watch for, eating through the bread bags… sigh…
My co-workers cat eats through bread bags too.
I like Varla’s suggestion and definitely some heavier duty containers. Maybe just hide food all over the apartment and embrace his scavenging.
Wow - you’ve got a couple of cute, loveable stinkers on your hands.
We keep our cats’ food in a Rubbermaid container. It’s the only thing I know that will deter Shad. I’ve also had to “lock up” the nip in a similar fashion too along with stashing all plastic grocery bags in a drawer too heavy for them to get open since Kippie has some weird attraction to eating those.
Freddie made a cat cave. That must have been both hilarious and infuriating. I love that Joe tattled.
Storage bins, definitely. Back when I had Frank and Bean I had one of those automatic feeder doohickies. Frank, who was a moose and not too bright, would knock it over, stopping the flow of food, and then scream at me when I got home. I couldn’t leave a single thing out with Frank. I didn’t find this out until I left a just baked cake out to cool one day, and spent the rest of the night with a very sick cat. If I didn’t immediately rinse my plate I would find that plate sparkling clean and shattered on the floor.
So obviously, I have no idea how to change that behavior either and simply changed mine.
Our cat does the same thing. The only option was to put the food in a closet and keep the door closed. The cat has yet to figure out how to open it. But when she’s hungry, she’ll sit in front of it and meow like crazy.
Mikey~There should be, based solely on this one.
ESC~I never had to baby proof, even with Joe. Of course, Joe also broke many things (noteably my mom’s depression glass punchbowl) when he was little, so perhaps we should have. I am investigating baby proofing as we speak.
Varla~I totally couldn’t believe it, because no other animal has scaled counters to get to the treats. The treats now reside in the pantry, behind closed doors. I am also pricing automatic feeders.
J-me~The food resides in an old Tidy Cats bin, which snaps down very well and is sturdy. He can’t break into that, although he’s tried. Treats are now put away, which we never had to do before. Although, thinking about it, both Jesse and Joe were older when they moved in with me, so maybe they just weren’t able to jump that high.
Seth~Yay, another thing to watch out for. This cat is NAUGHTY.
FD~Plastic bags are a huge temptation to Joe, who likes very much to chew on them and lick them. That noise really irritates me, so all plastic bags are in a special holder that cannot be reached by kitties.
Tot~Joe has always been a tattler. Somewhere around here I have a video of Joe telling me about his day for over a minute. And that’s when he was the only cat around here. When there is someone else to tell on, he goes on and on for up to a half hour. (And Freddie too tried to eat a cake. Fortunately, I was around to relocate the cake before he got too into it.)
Vince~One of the many reasons you love that cat so much, huh?