Okay, so... background: A 8-10 month old cat recently walked into our apartment on a very cold day and made himself very comfortable. We think he might have been a house cat who got lost for a couple months before he came into our home. He is extremely friendly, very playful, and loves attention. He rubs himself all over us and we have a hard time doing anything anymore because he won't leave us alone. We took him to the vet and got his shots, but haven't neutered him yet. He's a little chunky so the vet recommended we make him lose some weight before he gets neutered so he doesn't pack on pounds too quickly.
So far he's been a good cat, but there are some problems that we've run into and I want to fix ASAP.
- He goes ballistic over food. He jumps on us, claws our legs, tries to swipe at our food on the table. I can't eat without him trying to attack me and we have nothing edible on any surface of our house anymore. He scarfs down food (the first day, he ate a 6oz can of food in a minute) and just always seems to be hungry. Even when he's done eating what we've gave him, he's just following us and begging for more. We left for a couple hours and came back to him ripping a bag of bread apart and scarfing it down. He's always on the stove, trying to lick the (clean) pan. We can't even reward him with treats for good behavior because he goes all crazy and starts biting our fingers. We feed him 4.5oz of wet cat food everyday. (He's around 6 lbs)
- He doesn't pee in his litter box, and never covers his poop. We got this box for him and use A&H Super Scoop Fragrance Free litter. He pees and poops in it sometimes, but other times he goes to the bathtub or to a corner in our basement and pees there. We have the litter box at the bottom of the stairs in the basement. I tried taking his paws and showing him how to cover his poop, but he bites and scratches me when I do that.
- He seems really lonely? I live with two other people, and we have all been taking turns playing with him and petting him, but he never seems to get enough. I would think cats need some alone time, but from the moment I wake up to the moment I sleep, he's there, crawling all over me and begging to be petted.
I'm a first time pet owner and I've been googling and watching youtube videos like crazy lol, but these are the things that I really haven't found answers to. We've been doing a LOT of punishment (ignoring, time outs) so could it be that he's behaving this way out of stress? Or is it just behavior that he learned while he was on the streets? Thanks!
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/ag0uql/firsttime_cat_owner_questions_about_feeding/
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