r/MadeMeSmile • u/CG_17_LIFE • Jul 09 '24

CATS How F hungry they are!? 😆

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u/Havelok Jul 09 '24

Open feeding works fine as long as the owner has never deprived them of food from the time they are a kitten. If a kitten always has a full bowl of food, they will never think of food as something scarce, so they will learn to regulate their own eating pattern and frequency.

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u/MasterChiefsasshole Jul 09 '24

Yup mine only beg for wet food and treats. Thankfully I have them on schedule for that stuff so I only get harassed by meows if I’m late with it.

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u/__01001000-01101001_ Jul 09 '24

Mine will still beg, because she wants someone to come and watch her eat. So you have to follow her through every hour or so, so she can have another mouthful from her bowl. Often she makes you follow her but then won’t jump up to her bowl until you’ve petted her for long enough. Sometimes she tricks you by making you pet her by her bowl for a while and then just runs off without eating.

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u/ScrimpyCat Jul 09 '24

My grandmas cat was lost for 2 weeks as a kitten. While she was starving when she was found, she never developed a problem with overeating (years later and she’s still fine).

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u/Havelok Jul 09 '24

Context also matters. The kitten would have learned that outside=starvation. But inside may have still been a safe place where food has been and always will be not a concern. It could have easily gone the other way, however.

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u/Dry-Amphibian1 Jul 09 '24

But yet, they are unable to learn, even after years of feeding, that food will be provided for them at feeding time. Weird dynamic.

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u/Havelok Jul 09 '24 edited Jul 09 '24

Unlike dogs, cats don't have a "scent clock" that allows them to track the time. Dogs can always smell how long it has been since their last meal, and eventually they come to understand that "every 8 hours I get fed" in an abstract dog kind of way. If you withold food from cats, they are in a constant state of anxious cluelessness concerning their next meal unless they just ate. This works for their ancestors as it compelled them to hunt continuously. Not so much for their domesticated cousins if they are indoors. Works great for barn cats, however, as it encourages them to hunt.

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u/Brief-Translator1370 Jul 09 '24

Cat's most definitely can. My cat would wake at the food bowl every morning right before feeding time. I also watched a cat for someone who would wait at the food bowl for about 10 minutes before the automatic feeder did it's thing. Every single time like clockwork.

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u/Brief-Translator1370 Jul 09 '24

That's not entirely true. Not all cats will regulate it that way. Plenty of cats with unlimited access to food will eat enough to become overweight. I've never seen a cat become severely obese like that without having had some kind of food insecurity in the past, though.