I have a cat who will be 2 in March, and is very petite. The smallest full-grown cat I've ever seen-- around 6 lbs and tiny in stature. My boyfriend and I took her in about a year ago; she was a stray kitten living in a storm drain connected to the parking lot outside our apartment. It took awhile, but we befriended her and she is extremely cuddly and cute. She is spayed and has all her shots and a microchip.
HOWEVER, she has been, and is still, constantly foraging in our apartment for food. She will steal food off our plates, and sometimes we shut her in the other room while we eat. Once we let her out of the other room, when we think the coast is clear, she'll almost immediately be in the kitchen scrounging on the countertops. And it's worse when we're asleep or out of the house. No matter how clean our kitchen is, she will jump up onto the counters and on top of the fridge to forage during the night. Even when we think our kitchen is clean and she won't go for anything, we come home to find she's knocked things off of the counter to inspect and potentially eat them. She does not eat non-food items (definitely not worried about PICA), but will tear apart used paper towels and napkins if she smells the food on them. Our garbage is covered/sealed and that's not an issue; she doesn't bite at the plastic garbage bag edge anymore, for some reason.
We have a feeding schedule for her; in the morning around 8ish, small snack at lunch, then before we go to bed. (She used to wake us up every morning at 6). We buy dry food because money~, but always have water out. We now use a food dispensing ball that she pushes around because she eats so fast that she inhales her food.
When she eats something she shouldn't, we spray her with water. I also can't help but yell in frustration and chase her around! But clearly this has not been working.
I thought she would get better the longer we have her, but her foraging behaviors are just getting worse. Or maybe just more annoying! How do we curb this foraging behavior long-term???
Do we need more air-tight consistency in her feeding schedule?? Do I need more patience?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/ej26dr/cat_constantly_foraging_for_food_in_apartment/
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