Strange eating habits??

[WestVal]

So my cat is too curious for his own good and about a year ago got into an accident where he lost half his tongue. We took him to the vet back when the accident happened and he's fine and healthy now, no worries. The only issues being he has a hard time grooming himself (his habit for rolling around in dust and dirt doesn't help) and that he is a horribly picky eater.

I've tried bowls of all sizes, as I heard somewhere that it can be overwhelming for some cats to eat from deep bowls. So when he would he eat a bit of food, bulldoze through the rest of it and then meow like I'm starving him, I switched to a shallower bowl, and then eventually the plate I'm using now, but the amount of food he pushes off the plate is ridiculous. He seems to only eat and drink from things he knows he's not allowed to, like the other cats bowls (which are the same shape as the bowls we first used with him and they all eat the same kibble).

He's similarly picky about drinking, even before the accident, he's only ever liked to drink water from people cups (which disproves my theory that over stimulation from his whiskers is the issue, since he likes to stick his head in as far as it will go and then whine because he's stuck). He also would rather drink from the toilet than his clean, cold, bowl of water. I've even tried pouring water from a people cup he wanted to drink from into his bowl directly in front of him, and he still went right back to the cup!

He's always been a weird cat but I feel like we're wasting money on food that he mostly just pushes away. Plus its never fun to find your pet resorting to drinking toilet water. My family has had 4 cats before we got him as a kitten and we've never seen the others do this before. Is this an actual concern or am I making a big deal out of nothing?

[Lilith]

Hi and welcome

Poor chap! But I wouldn't stand for drinking out of the bog It's insanitary and however do you clean it? I'd leave the lid down and tell him no. You could always leave a water bowl (or cup) next to it. Mine like to drink out of the pond ... after the recent heatwave it's like pea soup ... cats eh?

The same with plates. I'd give him a deeper bowl that he couldn't push food out of, as he's obviously not fazed by bowls if he's willing to push his face into a cup to get a drink. This is a grouse of mine too; over the years I've built up a collection of soup plates but they still dribble bits over the edge; nowadays I use puppy pads as disposable feeding mats - those cute plastic ones never wipe clean and are never big enough.

Have you ever tried those handsome earthenware Mason Cash feeding bowls for water? I don't know if you can get them nowadays but they're quite cup-like and virtually non-tippable. I discovered them for hens and snakes but find them useful for cats too.

He sounds a character - you've got a right one there! Please give him a fuss from me