Former stray rescue cat has serious food issues

I’m not sure if this is the place for this, but I’m SO tired, help.

I adopted a former stray as a 6mo kitten a little over a year ago, making him nearly 2yo now. He was a former stray in the Bahamas, transported to the US. He’s the sweetest, friendliest cuddle bug you could ask for, but we quickly learned he’s got MANY food issues. I’m honestly at the end of my rope (currently typing at 4am because he woke me up after a human food exploit and I’m furious).

The basics: he is fed 3x a day, 5am, 12p (both dry, from an auto feeder) and once in the evening between 5:30-6 with wet food. We have another cat that we feed separately, because this cat will steal the other cats food. Cat 2 is super docile and lets him. We’ve tried letting them have food available 24/7, but he gorges himself and goes food through faster than we can keep up, and honestly, it’s SUPER expensive to try to maintain.

We (husband and I) first learned he was a food hound when we returned home a few months in, and he had decimated one of the hard-sided pastry cases you get pre-made cupcakes in. Plastic was obliterated, and 6 cupcakes gone. Cat seemed to process the cupcakes fine, and the vet said not to worry and bring him in if he started exhibiting any symptoms.

Cat began getting more brazen, stealing food off plates, out of our hands if we were absent minded and slow to take a bite, and even piping hot out of the toaster oven. He’s successfully absconded with chicken wings (I’ve found shards of bone as evidence, he wastes nothing), whole slice of pizza, A RAW STEAK, whoopie pies, I could go on. One time i came home to a bar of soap with bite marks on the stairs. We don’t/can’t leave food out, or if we can’t put everything away (ie: entertaining) we put him down in our tv room with access to his water and cat box. BUT HE’S SO SMART. He figured out how to open the locked cat door between the upstairs and downstairs, he can open cabinets. The OTHER thing is, if we catch him with human food in his mouth, he gets AGGRESSIVE. Growling, ears pinned back, It generally takes me and my husband to get the food away from him. His new trick is to try to jump into the fridge if we leave it open for longer than 5 seconds, no joke.

The most notable issue was when he got into our housemates THC edibles last summer, and somehow ate the remnants of a brownie or cookie. I noticed he was acting off, we quickly figured out what happened and took him to the emergency vet. Ultimately, he was fine, vet said to monitor and bring him back if he didn’t improve in a day or two. For a few weeks following, he was super well behaved, even wary of human food. Maybe a silver lining to a super scary experience? Ha.

Most recent issue, and why I’m angrily typing on my phone: I am a super light sleeper, to the point of insomnia. I heard some rustling in the kitchen, and figured he had gotten into a pile of Amazon boxes that were on the table. More noises, ceramic clinking. He was in the dish cabinet (where I had stashed some everything bagels). I came out to the kitchen to see the bag of bagels on the floor with a hole ripped open, and half a bagel missing, and somewhat hilariously, the toaster oven was opened, and the tray on the floor. I guess Cat likes his bagels toasted. Good to know. I throw out the scraps, secure the toaster, put the Amazon box in the oven (it’s 3 am, idk), and go back to bed. I hear clinking again, he’s back in the dish cabinet. Here’s where I lose. my. shit. I stomp back out, he hears me coming, tries to hide - for some reason this infuriates me more - and I finally resort to using a hair tie to “child lock” the cabinet doors.

Things seem to have quieted down, but I am EXHAUSTED. I hate having to police my plate, to worry about him accidentally getting something that will hurt him, and waking up at all hours because he may get stuck/break something/eat something to wind up at the e-vet again. I get he was a stray, but we NEVER miss a feeding, he gets structured meal times, vet says he’s a healthy weight, we silently remove him from counters if he’s counter surfing, and resort to a water sprayer if we HAVE to. We don’t reward begging, and feed treats at times when he’s being good. I’d never give him up, but I really hate this cat right now - help!

TL;DR: food aggressive cat is ruining my sleep because I hear him trying to eat people food.

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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/kzqzqq/former_stray_rescue_cat_has_serious_food_issues/