ANDRE BEGIN

There is one weird foible about Ivy the Wonder Cat that has been a bit of a mystery for some time. It’s the fact that there can still be food in her bowl and she meows for more.

At first, in being ever-so-eager to please as her humble butler, I was inclined to just add more food to the bowl, as per her instructions. Perfectly natural reaction for a first-time pet owner, right?

Over time, I’d notice that even after adding food, she’d eat a little, step away and return a few minutes later meowing for more, even though I could plainly see food in the bowl.

I wondered if this tendency (or was it anxiety) toward a less-than-full food bowl could be a throwback, psychologically speaking, to the nine months when she was observed as a stray, fending for herself, eating out of garbage cans, likely in survival mode?

You would think that after eight years with me, and steady food, shelter, attention, toys, walks and having a servant at her beck and call, those survival instincts would have relaxed.

I guess trauma can have that effect not only on humans, but in sensitive pets too.

But after too many mornings of scraping out unfinished bowls of dried up wet food, a colleague inspired a change in my response.

She suggested that when her cat meowed for more food even though it still contained kibble, she would just shake of the bowl a little to redistribute the kibble to fill in the gaps at the bottom of the bowl. In doing so, her cat would settle and then continue her meal.

In following her suggestion, when Ivy would ask for more but the remaining food was still abundant, rather than automatically topping up the bowl, I would ask Ivy if her food needed “fluffing up”.

Then I’d take the bowl of wet food up to the kitchen counter, add a few drops of water, stir it up to cover the bald patch in the middle of the bowl and return it to Ivy who usually dove right in.

Success!… For a while.

For some reason, that approach wasn’t quite good enough for her recently which made watching her daily calorie count even more of a struggle.

At her most recent visit with the vet, I discussed her habit of alerting me to the allegedly empty food bowl that really wasn’t. The vet suggested that if there is food in the bowl, to not fall for her begging. She suggested I just give her more attention instead.

Easier said than done, I thought to myself, trying to dissuade the one-track mind of a cat that seems to be continuously hunting for more food.

Just the same, I did indeed spend more time with her, just hanging out together at the food bowl, knowing that she does seem to enjoy having me on “lookout” for predators while she is dining. I guess old habits die hard.

It was while hovering over her like the secret service that I started paying more attention to the bowl itself.

I wondered if the issue was the way that she eats which pushes the food outward to the point of slowly climbing up the outer walls of the bowl. When the middle of the bowl is empty, does it truly seem empty to her?

For a cat who can pick up on the scent of squirrel or chipmunk poop from the opposite end of our property and pursue it enthusiastically, this seems a little far-fetched.

On the other hand, could it have something to do with seeing her reflection at the bottom of the bowl?

Having tried non-metallic bowls in the past, I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference but it’s worth trying again.

Either way, I revised my standard operating procedure for “fluffing up” her wet food. I didn’t just mix the remaining contents with water, but I made a concerted effort to drag the food away from the sides and form it in the shape of a hamburger patty in the middle of the bowl.

To my great surprise, Ivy seemed content to go back to the bowl as if I had added more food.

It then became a new hobby for me, building up the cat food into all kinds of different shapes and patterns. We’re not quite at the point of sandcastles of cat food, but we’re not far.

Frankly, I don’t think it mattered much to Ivy as long as it was in the middle of the bowl.

Since that change, her food intake has actually dropped by about 1/4 of a can per day, with very little leftover at the end of the day.

All it took was shuffling and reshaping the food that was already in the bowl.

Who knew?

Throughout the “empty” food bowl drama, I couldn’t help but take note of the throwback to childhood and what our parents used to tell us about finishing what’s on our plate before asking for more.

Wasn’t this just another full circle moment in the world of parenting?

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Have a great day,
André