The Training of Cats

[deird1]

Dilemma: Smudge is getting way too dominant, and making Elf's life a misery. Elf, being a big wuss, is not going to stand up for himself to change this.

Our solution: When we feed the cats, feed Elf first, and insist that Smudge wait his turn - thus asserting Elf's dominance in the food-getting department, and levelling the playing field slightly.

(This is not such a random solution as it sounds: part of the problem was that Smudge was jumping in front of Elf to eat food, and Elf would just sit there and let him, looking sad and confused.)



New dilemma: Because we are now feeding the cats in order, they've each ended up with their "own" bowl.
Elf has figured out that he eats food out of his bowl, and shouldn't touch Smudge's. Smudge has not figured this out. I keep on being woken up by frantic requests from Elf, who is starving - because Smudge has calmly eaten half the food from Elf's bowl, and has saved his own bowl for later. Elf is too polite to touch Smudge's, no matter how hungry he is.
No kidding: the last three mornings, I've gone out to feed them, and found Elf's bowl licked clean and Smudge's STILL FULL. And Smudge looking extremely smug.

Our solution: Um...

Comments

[deird1]

When you get up in the morning, and when you come home from work, make sure you pat Elf first, before Smudge.

The only problem with that is that Smudge is my housemate's cat. I tend to pat Elf first; she pats Smudge first.

[swellen.livejournal.com]

Ah. Tricky. Of course they both think they're top cat because... they are. Okay, in that case I have no suggestions. (And given that, after 6 months, my older cat STILL hisses and growls when the younger one comes too close to her, you might not want to listen to any of my suggestions anyway!)

[nimthiriel]

Well, I'm going to make en effort to pat Elf first as well. I'll also be taking their food bowls away after 20min, so that there's no "grazing" happening, which is when the problem of Smudge taking Elf's food occurs.

Hopefully these two measures will soon fix the problem!

[1c2k3p4p5c.livejournal.com]

I take it Elf is still on a special diet and Smudge no longer needs to build up his weight. May I suggest you designate a specific supervised "dinner time", after which all food will be removed. They will soon adapt. You may recall having to stand back lest you be bowled over by the animals when the timer sounded at 5.45pm every day. One reason for that was Ko-Ko's tendency to be demanding food at all hours of day and night. He soon adapted to the new regime - as will your two cats.

[deird1]

You may recall having to stand back lest you be bowled over by the animals when the timer sounded at 5.45pm every day.

Yes, I remember. That's why the cats are well aware that I won't get up and feed them until my alarm goes off - and normally they don't ask in the mornings. But the last few nights, Elf's been really hungry...

[zeborah]

I used to feed my cat when my alarm went off in the morning. It only led to her picking up my cell phone (which I used as the alarm) and dropping it, repeatedly, in an attempt to make the alarm go off. Nowadays I don't feed her until I've had my shower, and I can generally sleep in until 10 or 11 without her complaining.