Psycho Kitty

[ashleyweaver02]

Hello To All
Not sure if I informed you that I went to see a behaviorlist/vet. He was SO wonderful, didn't even charge me for the visit. To refresh your memory this is Topper, psycho kitty that attacked Shadow, resident cat.
He told me what to try. He said that when Topper and Shadow were in the same room that I am suppose to put on like gardening gloves and when he gets ready to leap for Shadow, restrain him so that he learns to calm himself in that situation (with Shadow in the room). So far this has worked well but it has only been a few days. Last night he got Very testy with me and it took a lot to hold him down but he did eventually calm himself. As a "reward" I slept in his little sanctuary bedroom with him last night. He loves to snuggle me He is quite the little cuddler. I try to trade off nights b/c Shadow loves to snuggle too.
My question is a behavior pattern that I have noticed in Topper. They both have separate feeding stations. The stations are in two totally different rooms. However, the first thing he wants to do when he gets out of his room is go straight for where he knows Shadows food bowl is. I put it up out of his reach now but I don't understand? Is that a territorial thing? Does he want to be "top cat?" Or does he just think that the other cats food is better than his (as is thought between a lot of animals)? SHould I be putting the "Stations" in the same room but in different locations?

http://home.kc.rr.com/ashleyramsey/pets.htm

[catland]

Is he trying to get to the food while Shadow is still eating or is he just checking it out afterwards?

We feed Jan in a separate room because she can be so mean and grumpy to her son Joxer. Joxer eats in the same room with Sid - they don't have issues.

But when everyone is finished, she makes the rounds to see what is left over. We call her the gleaner and we don't worry about it because the other cats are already gone so its not like she is kicking them out of their places.

[ashleyweaver02]

He does both actually. Even if Shadow is not there he likes to make sure Shadow sees him eating out of his bowl. Shadow could care less or at least that is the impression he gives. Topper becomes VERY irritated when he sees Shadow eat out of his own bowl, he wants to get down and then Shadow would walk away so I try to keep them separted especially when Shadow is trying to eat.