Needs me there to eat???

[Catty1]

Maybe they think we are their mom/dad cats/dogs? They feel better when eating that way because we will scare off the mean monsters that will eat all their food!

[RedHedd]

Mishi likes having me watch him eat. I'm grateful it's not all the time and he does eat on his own, but when I come home from work he will meow and meow until I follow him to his feeding station (a corner in the bathroom) so I can watch him eat. He also does this in the middle of the night, but he doesn't wake me up for it; instead he follows me when I have to go and happily chomps away while I watch.

[Lizzie]

If he eats enough when you are not with him, why are you indulging him? Or are you worried about his appetite? I say this, of course, as the guardian of a herd/tribe/clowder who loses quite enough sleep over various cat problems and so would not get up to sit by a cat who wants my company while he eats - unless he was sick, that would be a different matter. There have been times when I've been up for 3 days straight caring for a sick cat. I can't remember what it was like to care for only two cats, I guess then I might have done what you are doing.

I don't think your cat would be capable of waking me up either. I'm so used to having Luke, Dagda, Darcy and Cattulus racing around during the night that I sleep through almost anything - which does worry me. I woke up the other morning to find that they'd knocked over a large, 3'x3', mirror in the same room where I was sleeping and I don't even remember twitching.

[Catty1]

Oscar just started this recently...so I think if I do the earplugs and ignore him, he'll get it. He "pretends" to start getting into trouble to get my attention - things he NEVER does...he just might be smarter than I give him credit for sometimes!

Will give it another go tonight....

[gini]

Years ago I adopted a wild rescue kitty named Patches. She was only six months old, but she would not eat unless I was there to "cover her backside"
Her caregivers were from a rescue group and they may well have protected her so that she got enough food and the habit was formed.

She eventually became confident enough and realized that she had no competition so she stopped this behavior.

I think it must have come as a result of her being a tiny thing that never got enough food in the wild or her litter mates beat her out of her position.

[Catty1]

Well, I have done the earplug thing for two nights now...Oscar does not wreck anything (calling my bluff, the scamp! ), and he now waits til I get up. He WILL not starve....my meatloaf boy!

[fragrancehound]

Actually my dog, Boboo, is very similar. She will not eat her food unless I am there with her in the kitchen. I will put food down for her and she will look at it and then walk away. Once I sit down to eat she will the eat too.