Feeding cats is complicated. What do you feed them? Do you use an automatic feeder or do it yourself? How often do you feed your cats? There are a lot of things to consider.
One aspect of feeding cats in mutlicat homes that’s pretty straight forward is whether you should feed cats near each other. The answer is a clear no. Yes, this includes when introducing your cats to each other.
I know, I know. This goes against a lot of the common advice out there. I also understand how much of a challenge it can be in many situations if you have cats that try to steal each others’ food. It’s really important to feed your cats away from each other if you want to avoid causing your cats unnecessary stress and avoid ruining their relationship, however.
Why Don’t Cats Like Eating Near Each Other?
Many people want their cats to eat near each other due to convenience or because we enjoy eating with other people. As humans, many holiday traditions center around food and sharing a meal with loved ones. It’s easy to think cats may feel the same way we do, but cats don’t have the same diet or feeding behaviors as us. We’re anthropomorphizing cats (thinking of them like little humans) similar to assuming your cat is a psychopath.
For a more detailed explanation of anthropomorphism, see my blog on gay cats.
Sharing Isn’t Caring
Cats hunt really small animals like birds and mice. It’s why many popular cat toys resemble, you know, birds and mice. Hunting each tasty mouse requires energy and the cat gets back a certain amount of energy from consuming their catch. If they aren’t successful in catching enough prey, the cat will die.
Similarly, if another cat comes along and steals a cat’s hunt, the cat may have just spent a ton of energy catching their prey only to have their meal swiped. This can pretty quickly result in the cat’s demise if they can’t successfully catch more food. It’s extremely uncommon for cats to share food outside of a mother cat sharing with her kittens as she teaches them to hunt. In fact, one of the biggest factors that determines if cats can live in groups is how much food is available.
Does Feeding Cats Near Each Other Build A Positive Association?
If cats find eating near each other stressful but food is a positive thing for cats, does feeding cats near each other help build a positive relationship with other cats?
Honestly, not really. The idea that cats build a good relationship with each other by feeding them near each other is based on the concept of counter conditioning. Basically, you pair something positive with something the cat has a negative association with (or has the potential to have a negative association with) to help them build a more favorable viewpoint.
Logically this makes sense. However, because cats don’t usually share food, it’s actually pretty dang stressful for them because the other cat could steal their dinner. If a cat spends a lot of time pursuing something tasty and then doesn’t replace at least some of the calories they burned on that hunt, it’s not going to end well for them when they starve.
Eating Near Each Other Just Means They’re Hungry
Even if your cats do eat near each other (Poutine and ‘Zac will occasionally decide to munch near each other even though I always offer them food in completely separate areas), it doesn’t mean they like it. Your cats may be competing over resources and they could be doing so in an attempt to hog resources.
On a simpler level, though, there is a much more logical explanation: your cat just likes eating. They may be hungry or you may be giving them some of their favorite cat treats. Your cat likes the food. Liking food or treats doesn’t mean they like the other cat.
Think Of Your Coworkers
I use a metaphor to help my clients understand this concept. Think of a coworker you don’t like. Unless you’re self employed, chances are you don’t like all your colleagues or you have someone a previous job that you didn’t find pleasant.
Despite finding their laugh repulsive, their stories boring, and their odor to be nausea inducing, you still go to work and are pleasant with them. Sure, you may want to punch them in the face because they have such a punchable face, but you don’t resort to violence. I hope you don’t, anyway.
Why don’t you give in to violence? That paycheck is pretty dang motivating. You might even spend extra time around them if your work has free food for lunch. Neither the paycheck nor all the free corporate sponsored pizza in the world will make you actually like them or invite them over for a BBQ.
Positive Reinforcement Isn’t Always Positive
While using methods that encourage an animal to feel good, these methods can sometimes end up being aversive if not done the right way. If the animal is still really stressed out and you’re forcing them into the stressful situation in order to get a basic necessity of life, is that actually taking the animal’s welfare into account? Not really.
Feeding cats near each other falls under this category even if you gradually move them closer and closer to each other because cats don’t like eating near other cats. Your cat may eat their food, but still be stressed out the entire time. Not only is it pretty unfair to the cats involved that you force them to do something really unenjoyable to do something that is biologically necessary, it’s not going to help the cats become buddies or tolerate each other.
Cats Don’t Learn What To Do With Each Other
While you shouldn’t feed your cats near each other even if they get along, it isn’t going to do as much to help your cats become buddies when introducing cats to each other as other methods. Passively letting them eat in close proximity won’t help the cats learn what to do with each other. Eventually you need your cats to learn to figure out what to when bored with each other, but at first they need a bit more support.
As appealing as it can be to just set food out and let the cats become BFFs, successful introductions usually require a bit more involvement than that. In other words, you need to be doing something with your cats to help them at first. This helps prevent a fight in the first place so while it may seem like a lot of work, it’s less work than having to fix their relationship.
How Should You Feed Cats?
If feeding cats near each other isn’t a good idea, how should you feed them? I hope the answer is obvious, but cats should be fed separately.
Ideally, this means in separate rooms with a door closed. Even if your cat doesn’t like this, it’s only temporary and you can let them out after everyone finishes their meal. Using a food puzzle to slow them down will buy you some time if your cat usually inhales their food.
If you don’t have a separate room to do this, feeding the cats with a barrier between them helps them not feel as stressed out by the other cat because they can’t see them while eating. This is part of the reason why feeding cats on opposite sides of a closed door has never made sense to me as a way to introduce cats, actually. The door blocks them from seeing each other so aren’t they just learning to love the door?
Alternatively, you can feed the cats on different levels. We typically feed cats on the floor and near the wall, but cats may prefer eating in an elevated spot and away from a wall so they can make sure no one comes along to steal their lunch. It’s not weird at all from your cat’s perspective to feed them on a cat tree or a table.
Free Feeding Separately
If you free feed your cats, you can easily feed them separately. Instead of just one large bowl of food, set out a few in different rooms. Even giving them the option of having separate bowls to eat from in the same room is a better idea than a single large bowl. If there is tension between your cats, you’ll likely see a decrease in it with this one small change.
Use Tech If Needed
If this is still difficult, consider using a microchip activated pet feeder that only allows one cat to eat from it. You can even get automatic feeders that only open in response to one cat’s RFID tag. These can be great tools if your cats have separate dietary needs.
In other words, there are many creative solutions to feed your cats separately. I have yet to encounter a situation with a client where they genuinely could not feed the cats away from each other. If you need some personalized suggestions, set up a session so we can talk.
What About Introducing Cats?
I hope this is also obvious, but when introducing cats you also should be feeding them away from each other and away from a door. In fact, the American Association of Feline Practitioners no longer recommends doing this as part of a cat introduction in their most recent set of guidelines on intercat tension. You can feed them a meal away from the door and out of sight from each other after a meeting, but not during a meeting.
In a few cases, you might use food in a very specific and targeted way to help cats get along. If you’re doing clicker training, for example, to help your cats, the benefits of clicker training can be very helpful and can overcome the stress of the cats eating nearby if done in a very careful way. That’s a bit advanced for today’s post so if you want to learn more about it, set up a session.
Your Cats Want To Eat Separately
As strange as it may seem, cats aren’t social eaters. Forcing them to eat near another cat is not an enjoyable experience for the cats. It’s not a good way to introduce cats and often won’t work as well as it’s claimed. When I introduced ‘Zac and Poutine, I used play using the Cat Dancer and Wiggle Wand almost exclusively. We did some clicker training, but play was ultimately more effective. They now get fed separately including from separate automatic feeders in separate rooms.
While it may seem more convenient to feed cats in one place, you’re risking territoriality, food aggression, and general stress for your cats by doing this. Feed them separately and you won’t end up with a worse situation in the end.
