Needs me there to eat???

[AbbyMom]

Yes, indeed. Abby cannot eat without me present. I believe this is because her sister cat, Becky, hates her and once tried to .... permanently eliminate her?

Anyhow, when she gets hungry in the middle of the night, she wakes me and I go downstairs with her and sit while she eats. If I don't, she will lose more weight and I can't have that.

Luckily for Abby, I frequently have sleeping problems these days, so this is just one more thing to wake me.

[kittycats_delight]

Vixen does the same thing to me. She wakes usually around 5:30 or 6:00 for me to go to the kitchen with her so she can have some kibble. Meanwhile there is kibble in the bedroom where we sleep. I don't know why but she has a few pieces with me in the kitchen then she returns to the bedroom and finishes her meal there.

[Mad Mags Moo]

Bubble likes some encouragement when feeding time comes along - she will sit at the kitchen door and wait till food is put down - I then have to say din dins Bubs. Then she trots over and I give her a stroke and say yum yum and she just eats away!!!
Squeak on the other hand needs no encouragement!!!!!!

[Queen of Poop]

I don't have a cat, but my dog Sasha can't eat without me sitting right by her, not all the time, but most of the time.

[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.