Is this weird behaviour?

[LittlePenBigHeart]

I feel like I'm always posting on here these days!!!

Our kittens seem to eat weirdly and I don't know how weird it is so I don't know whether we need to take them to the vet.

Dylan is the weirdest - he has cooked chicken for dinner every night and it takes him, like 30 minutes to eat a small bowl of it!! He chews and chews and chews and before he's halfway through the other two cats have finished! I was debating whether something might be wrong with his teeth but he eats his biscuits fine (although he only ate half of them today) and when we took them to the vet a couple of months ago the vet checked inside his mouth and declared everything to be well.

Pepsi has a strange habit of throwing her head back as she eats, like a seagull eating a fish...except she chews afterwards. I'm not sure how normal that is either!?!?

Here's the thing: I have had a LOT of cats in my life. I felt like my knowledge of cats was pretty good but these kittens...it feels like there's something a bit not-quite-right about them. With Pepsi being all wobbly on her feet and a little...umm...slow...and with Dylan with his weird eating and both of their almost constant runny tummies nobody can get to the bottom of...I'm honestly starting to think they're put together a bit wonky! I love them so much, but they just seem to be plagued with troubles!!

[booktigger]

Pepsi could have mild Cerebellar Hyplasia, which can cause them to eat funny, and affects the way they walk.

[Joaobeneditosimoes]

I feel like I'm always posting on here these days!!!

Our kittens seem to eat weirdly and I don't know how weird it is so I don't know whether we need to take them to the vet.

Dylan is the weirdest - he has cooked chicken for dinner every night and it takes him, like 30 minutes to eat a small bowl of it!! He chews and chews and chews and before he's halfway through the other two cats have finished! I was debating whether something might be wrong with his teeth but he eats his biscuits fine (although he only ate half of them today) and when we took them to the vet a couple of months ago the vet checked inside his mouth and declared everything to be well.

Pepsi has a strange habit of throwing her head back as she eats, like a seagull eating a fish...except she chews afterwards. I'm not sure how normal that is either!?!?

Here's the thing: I have had a LOT of cats in my life. I felt like my knowledge of cats was pretty good but these kittens...it feels like there's something a bit not-quite-right about them. With Pepsi being all wobbly on her feet and a little...umm...slow...and with Dylan with his weird eating and both of their almost constant runny tummies nobody can get to the bottom of...I'm honestly starting to think they're put together a bit wonky! I love them so much, but they just seem to be plagued with troubles!!

One of my cats eats chicken very slowly too, all the rest he is very fast. My other cat its the opposite. Eats chicken fast and the rest slowly. I believe it's normal

[LittlePenBigHeart]

Thanks, both.

I did wonder about the hypoplasia a while ago but apparently the 'head-bobbing' thing is a ubiquitous symptom and she doesn't have that. It's hard to describe. She's very fast on her feet if she's running after something but if she's chasing one of the others down the stairs, she loses it a bit and falls the last two or three. If she turns round too quickly, her back legs fall to the side and when she walks, her hips sway from side to side quite a bit. We've taken her to the vet about it because a few months ago she was having trouble jumping short distances (she's much better with this now). They couldn't find anything obviously wrong, but offered to send her for a battery of tests because they assumed it was probably neurological. We said no in the end because it clearly wasn't a degenerative problem, given she's got stronger, and the vet said there's unlikely to be a cure for it anyway. We didn't want to put her through the stress of tests with no advantageous outcome at the end of it for her or for us.

For now, I guess we'll just have to keep a watch on her as far as the movement goes but maybe you're right and the eating thing is related to the movement issue.

In the meantime, we'll just hope that Dylan is, as you say, simply a painfully slow eater!

[bobbys girl]

In the meantime, we'll just hope that Dylan is, as you say, simply a painfully slow eater!

Sorry I can't help with your kitty's 'weird' behaviour. But if it's any help Willow is a slow, cautious eater and if she is not careful Grace, and sometimes even Bobby, will elbow her out of the way and finish off her food. Could you feed Dylan in a spot of his own?