She will meow directly at me only (2 people in the house) and will have me follow her to her food bowl.
She does this even if the bowl is completely full. She stops meowing once she starts eating and if I leave while she’s eating she doesn’t start meowing again.
She seems to always do it right after a nap, if I’ve been petting her for a while, or completely random times.
Does this mean anything?
The other answer is valid, some cats just having you nearby.
There is another reason: forgetting there was already food. I've seen my youngest cat do this often.
He's so eager for a treat that whenever I even vaguely move in the direction of the kitchen, he will try to guide me to the cat treat cupboard.
When he enters the kitchen, he passes the bowls. If there is still food in there, he turns towards the food instead and no longer tries to guide me, nor does he prevent me from leaving. I suspect he simply forgot that there was still food, or assumed it was eaten (we have 3 cats so the others may have eaten it).
Since you say it happens right after a nap, it might simply be that your cat has forgotten about any leftovers, and has gotten in the habit of asking for food before checking is there if any available.
The solution to that? Teach the cat to look for food before asking. I can think of two ways to do so. It depends on your cat:
Some cats are just "social eaters," that is, they for whatever reason want company while eating. It could be also that they aren't as food motivated as they are attention or play motivated. In this case, the cat might not eat if their owner isn't in the room because they want to know what the owner is doing more than they want to eat.
Since it sounds like she's not a cuddling cat I think she's asking for attention rather than food and you may have inadvertently trained her a little. She meowed at you, you ignore, she continues, you finally "reward" her by walking, looking at, paying attention to her, finagling it with a food bowl. Have you tried just answering with play? Cats like to hunt, and work & catch their food too. As all animals, they may eat & play more on their own if it requires some challenge before getting to a food reward. I have trained both domestic and wild animals and cats are interesting creatures!
