We have a new kitten, a male. He was a "barn cat" outside only cat in a very nice rural area close to us. His mother and relative cats were just well fed, healthy and gorgeous! But when this little guy eats, he makes strange noises... NOM NOM, growl squeak, NOM NOM...etc. We feed him away from the other 2 cats and don't crowd him. I've heard of this, but never really had a cat that did it.

He is "feral" in a sense (an outside only cat), but not in behavior at all. He is loveable and cuddling and never puts his nails out. So these eating noises don't seem aggressive because he is not aggressive. By now I'd have that Neosporin out all day long, and I don't have one scratch! Weez, who is now a year old... had small feet with long nails, and didn't mean to scratch but every time she approached it was oooo
.
I trimmed her nails when she was little, but once she needed to climb the cat poles in our home, she was falling out of them...so I stopped the trimming.