Problem with 8 year old Maine Coon

Question
Hobbes is a grumpy, overweight, gorgeous Maine Coon with a severe attitude problem.  The vet has prescribed him 75g of Hills Prescription Diet R/D food per day to try and reduce his weight, but he has been on this for over two years and hasn't lost anything.  He is constantly worrying for food and never seems to be full.  He has become vicious when told he can't have anymore food - he's even chased my Mum and grabbed hold of her leg with claws drawn!

I've been advised to try Innova Evo, but I live in England and I've searched the internet but can't find a UK supplier.

Any advice on how to curb this bad behaviour would be most welcome.  It can't be very nice for Hobbes to be unhappy all day and I really want to do something to help him.

Many thanks.

Answer
Angela,

It is clear to me that Hubbies is spoiled and has never been socialized to people.  At 8 years old, I am not sure he can be socialized very easily.

As to his being overweight, have you had him checked for diabetes?

I would not worry about prescription foods to lower his weight, I would just feed him less.  We feed our Abyssinians and Maine Coons twice a day a measured amount.  We do not allow them to graze!  Once they finish their meal, that is it for the meal.  We have had "complaints" from new cats who have to adjust to our regimen, but they just have to learn to like it!  Also, remember, like people, when you first start to feed your cat less, his system will accommodate the change and his metabolism will slow down to compensate.  In time this will reverse itself.

I would lighten up on the dry food and look more to feeding wet food.  I would encourage him to drink water by keeping his water bowl full, even while his food bowl is empty.

Frankly, his aggressive behavior probably has absolutely nothing with being fed or not. He has probably never been socialized to people.  He needs to be cured of this behavior.  One behavior modification technique that has had good success with dogs, cats, dolphins, etc. is clicker training.  You can check out Karen Pryor's web site:

http://www.clickertraining.com

and see if you might be interested.

Another technique you might look at is how we socialize feral cats who have been rescued and do not particularly like people.  You seem to be attributing human motives to Hubbies' aggressive behavior.  Cats are not people and they do not think like we do, so you may just be aggravating your frustration.  See:

http://www.abyssinian-rescue.com/advice.htm

for an excellent article written by Susan Baker, an Abyssinian breeder who is involved with Abyssinian rescue.  If these techniques work on Abyssinians (as high strung as they are), they should work on any breed of cat. Read the article and see what you think.

What you need to remember is that cats have incredibly tough skin.  If you could watch very young kittens (a week) play with each other you would be appalled at how roughly they play. Kittens need to learn that we soft skinned humans do not do well with that kind of play.  We handle our kittens quite a bit, which they love, and, if they start the biting scratching behavior, we put them down and walk away.  They very quickly learn to play more gently with people.

Please let me know how it goes.

Best regards... Norm.