Oh, our cats have us so well-trained, don’t they?
We all know how this goes: you feed your cat and they pretend that you haven’t. Daily life is spent wondering if you did just in fact feed your cat. Signs are even made to let others in the house know that the cat has been fed. They display their disapproval with cattitude-like looks glared dead center in your direction.
Or you’re sleeping, like dead asleep sleeping, and they sit on you meowing loudly to get up and feed them. BUT, there’s food in their bowl. You’re half asleep, scratching your head, shuffling back to bed. But not after you’ve given them more food, of course.
Our cats are our master manipulators. And not only this, they train us to feed them when they want.
I personally do not overfeed my cats, and although they might think I’m evil for doing so, it’s in their best interest for me to ration their food intake in order to keep them at a healthy weight.
So, why do people often overfeed their cats? Well, because many cats will pretend as if they’re starving when they’re really not.
Cats seem to train us to feed them regularly at their demands for a few reasons. Your cat is all about cleanliness, and they’re all about freshness, too. If that food has been sitting out, your finicky cat might not want to eat it simply because it’s not fresh enough for their high standards.
There are a few more other reasons, though, for your cat’s demand for food. Think about the bowl that you are using to feed them, and now consider your cat’s whiskers which are embedded 4x as deep as their fur. These wispy receptors on their face are highly sensitive to touch, and your cat won’t want to shove their face deep to get food out and risk the discomfort. Cats are the connoisseurs of comfort, remember?
Additionally, your cat could be demanding more food if you’ve held out on the good stuff, such as a canned topping that goes on their dry cat food. Cats are smart, and they aren’t shy about asking for what they want. Or meowing loudly for it.
But, I will say, although we do not have a cute obsession with fat humans, many of us have an obsession with fat cats. The more to love, some might think. But with feline obesity steadily on the rise, overfeeding your cat is actually doing more harm than good. So, don’t give in to the temptation. Make kitty work for those treats. That way, the two of you will have more time on this earth together.
