Is it wrong to feed someone else's cat?

[AhmedUK]

Hello,

I would like an opinion please ...

I love cats, but can't have my own as I travel a lot for work, and it won't be fair on the cat to move it around the country, or when I am working abroad, to leave it in a cattery. Therefore, when I was looking to rent a place last summer, I was looking for one with a cat, and I found one - so I am currently a lodger with my landlady and her cat.

He's a very scared and nervous cat - I could tell he hated me being there. I was travelling a LOT last year, and was away more than I was home, and so I never got an opportunity to bond with him. However, this year I have hardly travelled, and so I have spent a lot of time with him, and we have built up a relationship. He's still nervous, sometimes he can start running away from me, but generally he is much more comfortable with me around - if he is sitting on the floor and I walk past, he now doesn't run off the majority of the time, unlike before.

I think one of the reasons we get on much better now is because I started feeding him. My landlady works shifts, and so he is alone with me quite a bit, and every few hours he comes and demands to be fed.

Now here is the problem - I don't tell my landlady I feed him. My landlady got made redundant and she is now on a much lower salary. She struggles financially and told me once she cannot afford to feed him more than a tin a day. If I tell my landlady I feed him, she might think that I think she isn't caring about him enough, when I know she does. The way I look at it is this way - he loves her. He always will - she had him since he was a kitten and she's the only one he feels completely at ease with. Me feeding him will never result in him loving her less. It does however make him happy, and makes him less scared around the home. That's why I feed him. I will be gone from this place in a few months, who knows what kind of person will move in next, he gets really bored in the flat when my landlady isn't in, so feeding him can't be doing any harm.

Thanks.

[Themogfather]

Please talk to your landlady about it. If you explain your reasons im sure will be fine.
The problem i see is that the cat is going to get used to the extra food so when you leave your landlady and the next tenent will have difficulties. Maybe feed him some treats instead a few a couple of times a day.

[Themogfather]

Just saw your other post about treats. Is that what you mean about feeding?

[Crewella]

Perhaps you could broach the subject with your landlady by explaining that you wanted to make friends with her cat and help him feel more comfortable with you around, and so bought him some treats?

[booktigger]

If by a tin she means the 400 g ones, that is more than enough for a cat. I would tell her though, he is her cat and she has a right to know

[AhmedUK]

Thanks for the replies.

He eats a 85g tin of wet food a day, and he has his dry food all the time, so he is definitely not being starved, and my landlady is looking after him well.

I think he wants to eat more because he might be bored? We live in a small one bedroom flat, he is a house-cat, he never goes out. Because my landlady has sleep problems, she has to shut him out at night. This means that on weekdays he only gets about 6 hours with her during the day - the rest of the time, he is alone. He will come and sit near me at times, sometimes he will even try and climb onto me, but the rest of the time, the only time he wants to interact with me is when he wants food.

I really don't like feeding him without telling her, I justify it by saying she loves him and she'd be happy he was being fed, but it just doesn't feel right, and the only reason I do it without telling her is I fear she might get hurt as she might think I think that she isn't looking after him well, when that isn't the case at all.

It does seem that the majority of cat owners think it is wrong to feed a cat without the owner knowing so I might just have to stop feeding him, or just feed him some tuna now and then and let my landlady know that when I was having my tuna, he wanted some, so I gave him some.

[Themogfather]

You are doing the right thing trying to get to know the cat. Try playing with it using the lure type toys.
Most cats cant resist those or maybe one of the lasar ones.

[AhmedUK]

Thanks, I might get the laser pen to keep him busy because he really does get bored when my landlady isn't around.