Some cats are just plain awkward...

[arkessian]

Chino now refuses to eat food that he hasn't witnessed me putting into his dish.

More accurately, he'll eat anything he finds in the dish as long as he's seen me add *something* to it.

I suspect he relaxes his standards at night when there's no chance of cajoling/bullying me into compliance but still...

How picky can one cat get?

Comments

[ellarien]

That reminds me of our late Tigger. He wasn't terribly bright, and it was possible to revive his interest in a half-empty bowl just by waving a hand over it in a manner suggestive of adding a treat.

[arkessian]

I do wonder if Chino is in his dotage now... but he's happy enough, so I'm very willing to indulge him.

[twistedchick]

Cats do things for reasons, not just on whims. What is he afraid of having in his food? Is there food that someone gave him that he didn't like or that made him feel ill? Cats also tell whether food is fresh by smelling it; if it doesn't smell right they won't eat it. Maybe Chino wants to make sure that what is in his bowl is genuinely what you're feeding him, which he evidently trusts.

[arkessian]

He eats only dried food; has done so since he was weaned, to the extent that he doesn't recognize moist food as food at all, and will stubbornly refuse to eat it for days at a time, which can be a problem if it has been prescribed by the vet. (He would make an exception for food he caught himself, but he hasn't been hunting for years - see below).

He's a house cat, has been (for safety's sake) for 10 years - two-thirds of his lifetime. He has arthritis medicine on his food once a day -- and he demands it if I'm late dispensing it in the morning. That helping of food disappears quicker than anything else.

Still bemused...

[twistedchick]

Of course it disappears faster -- it makes him feel good.

The late Grasshopper, toward the end of her life (age 20-22) would only eat canned liver and bacon catfood, because it was all she could still smell. The late Simba would not touch anything with fish in it because it made him ill -- but he would hold still and let me give him an insulin shot and then lick my hand in thanks. Pirate Jenny will eat nearly anything, but won't eat canned kitten food (higher fat than adult food) because she thinks it's an insult. But she'll nosh on dry kitten food if there's any left. And Toby will eat almost anything except treats -- he hasn't figured out that they're food so he plays with them.

[adina]

My dad's cats demand that their dry food be "fluffed" before they'll eat it. Pick it up, shake it, put it down again. I think it's attention-seeking behavior, pure and simple, proof that we love them and will do irrational things at their command.

[arkessian]

You may be right, although I suspect he has enough proof in other ways. Or maybe simply there is never enough proof.