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One of our kittens is greedy. Eating regular food she will eat with anybody, but if you give her moist food or meat she'll swat at any other animal that gets close. If you give her something she likes, then you try to pick her up, she'll growl at you, but she's never scratched or bitten me over it.
Is this greediness something that I should worry about? She's never had a fight over it as far as I know, but I remember even at a few weeks old she was the greedy one.
As long as she's not biting or scratching at me, is this something I should worry about? Will she grow out of it?
As a kitten she was a stray. I found her and the other kittens at about 3 weeks old. But her siblings were strays, too, and I haven't noticed this greediness in them.
Just wondering if this is something I should try to correct. So far it hasn't caused any big issues, it's just something I noticed.
My boy kitty is greedy, and very fast. I don't worry about it. I think it is his way of saying he is the top cat in our house. He's always been this way, ever since the day we got him at the shelter. He is the reason all 3 of our cats are separated to eat now. He'd actually leave his food and run and eat my girl cats' food up, then run back and eat his, too. My girls are so polite and would just stand there and let him!
He is never that way with humans/our food or at all aggressive towards us, but I wouldn't put it past him to steal if we didn't keep an eye on our food. He stole food from the dog, too. Our new dog is fed in his crate but if he wasn't, Manny would steal his food, too.
I don't think it helps to put human traits onto our animals. Animals vie for the alpha spot AND it's a matter of survival--the top animal in a pack or colony often gets the best part of the 'kill.' You're providing the 'kill' for the cat and the cat is doing what animals do.
Some animals need to be separated at mealtime. My dog is like that--she is extremely food aggressive and so when there's another animal around, I have to separate my dog from other animals' food at all times or or the dog will eat the other animals' food (and fight for it).
Will your kitten grow out of it? Hard to say. In the world of animals, being top dog or top cat is not a bad thing.
Kittens are like human babies, or any other kind of baby. It's all about them! I wouldn't worry about it. The other siblings were probably used to his being the alpha.
I would not allow it. I believe this type of challenge could lead to more aggressive behavior so I would give her a verbal correction and remove the food to let her know I was in charge. Once I feel she is acting more lady like I will give the food back and try this again later.
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