I adopted my rescue cat about 5 weeks ago, he was immediately confident in the house (from appearances) but had some very clear food anxiety. He was someone’s pet but they abandoned him outside :( He’s 4 years old and has only been neutered for about 2 months. He eats all food in sight including people food if we’re not looking and will GOBBLE a big bowl up very fast. Due to his food anxiety, he eats 4 smaller meals a day that have been routinely given to him at the same day every day. Recently he’s started meowing incessantly in the morning to wake me up. And it’s been starting earlier and earlier. He eats every day at 8am and the meowing has started at 6:30. I’m assuming to feed him? He’s very friendly but not a cat that likes to be pet (yet). I’ve seen recommendations to ignore the meowing, and I have but man he will scream forever or until it’s finally time to eat. Once he eats, he’s happy to come lay back down in bed quietly. I just recently bought an automatic feeder to potentially break the association that my eyes opening = breakfast. But I just want to know if this is normal adjusting for a rescue kitty? Will the meowing and wake up calls get better the longer he’s here?
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2If you live at a higher latitude (i.e. north), it could be he meows earlier because it gets light earlier. Tomorrow is the longest day, so it may get better after that.– BerendCommented Jun 20 at 19:40
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The automatic feeder is a great idea to break the association between waking you and getting food. Some cats are afraid of automatic feeders, so just keep an eye on how yours reacts to the sound etc. the feeder makes. Worst case he's so much not afraid of it, he'll try to get his paws inside to take his food. Take a good look at the feeder, try sticking your fingers inside (even while the food gets dispensed) and make sure it's impossible for your cat to injure himself.– Elmy ♦Commented Jun 21 at 4:51
2 Answers
He's training you. The more successful he is, the more he will continue to do so.
You need to make clear that waking you does not produce food. This may involve closed doors and earplugs. It may involve going to fewer, larger meals later in the day --if he wolfs it all down at once, that's up to him, but it doesn't get him more.
Food insecurity is common in rescues. It takes a long time for them to let go of that habit; some never do and can't be trusted with self-feeding. But you don't need to meet their demands, and shouldn't. It's up to you to train them that they can wait.
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1This is true of most pets I suspect. Sometimes you train your pet, sometimes it trains you :D– Journeyman Geek ♦Commented Jun 21 at 3:43
Honestly, the only thing I really expect to be effective in completely shutting down the begging is feeding exclusively with an automatic feeder, and even then I don't think that's a guaranteed solution. Begging is a very instinctual behavior, and it's very easily reinforced even when you don't want it to be.
Cats are also smart enough to know you understand they want something when they try to communicate through begging. When I fed my cat exclusively using the automatic feeder from day one, she never begged me for food. Until the feeder malfunctioned. She knew the feeder failed to work, and therefore it was time to tell us there was a problem by begging at us, even though logically we had never given her a meal the entire time we had had her. Given that, I think you can't exactly "train" them out of knowledge they clearly naturally intuit.
On the positive side, some amount of begging is actually a good thing. You can tell if something happened and the cat wasn't fed when it should have been, and you can easily tell if the cat has changes in appetite that could indicate a health problem.
That all said, there are things you can do to try to lessen the problem.
Ignore the cat's begging as much as you can, so it isn't even more encouraged.
Try to break up your routine. You should still feed the cat on a schedule, but part of how cats tell time is noticing their owner's routine. They'll start to notice if you predictably do certain things before you feed them. Then if they see you do that thing, they'll start to anticipate getting fed.
Play with your cat before meals. Part of why cats beg so much is that they get hyper when they are hungry. This makes sense if you stop and think about it, because in the wild, the natural order of things would be to get hungry, then hunt, and then eat. Human children seem to naturally want to pester you the most when they are bored, and cats seem to have the same impulse. And they naturally feel the most need for entertainment when they are hungry and hyper.
Get an automatic feeder with slow feed feature, and feed fewer meals. This way, there are fewer times in the day it will get hungry and beg, but with the slow feed feature, the cat won't gobble so fast it makes itself sick. I would also invest in slow feed bowls in case you have some problem with the automatic feeder, or you have to switch to wet food, so you are able to slow feed the cat even if you are feeding it by hand.
