Cat being a scavenger!

Lilith1980

Hi all,

I appreciate that cats are probably natural scavengers, but our Charlie's behaviour has gotten worse over the last month or so. It's ridiculous!

We feed him two pouches every day. We were feeding him three for a long time but he kept putting on weight so we reduced it to two because he is an indoor cat and hardly moves from the sofa

I'm changing his food this week to Tesco Luxury wet food as this has a higher meat content so I'm wondering if this would help.

We'll give him his food and he'll happily devour that...and if I am making a sandwich or something he will then come and pester me for food.

One morning I came downstairs to find he had scratched that part of the bin bag which was pertruding outside of the bin, obviously trying to get inside. On one occasion DH has been putting chicken bones into the bin and the cat has jumped up to try and grab them off him :eek:

He has started to jump on surfaces even more now trying to grab food, we tell him off and he goes off in a sulk but it doesn't deter him from doing it.

I just wondered, is this just him being cocky? We've only had him since last September and it's only over the past month that he has got like this. Or is there something else that is wrong?

Also, he sleeps on our bed with us of an evening and would normally come and start climbing over me not long before I got up to get ready for work. Now he's doing it in the middle of the night and making a right nuisance of himself so I'm not sure if the two are linked??

Thanks in advance

mustangsal

Perhaps you could try giving him dried cat food, i know with my indoor tom cat, he likes to have food available at all times, the dried food allows me to do this, as after a pouch has been out an hour or so he won't eat it. I use go cat indoor food, it has less calories so they don't get too overweight, also greens they would get out doors, and helps with smell from the litter tray and fur balls.:T Wade loves it. Cat's are kind of opportunistic, and i don't know many who could resist chicken, but before Wade had the luxury of dried food he was known to steal whole chicken fresh from the over and run off with it.:eek: Nightmare.

Lilith1980

Thanks for your reply.

We used to give Charlie dry food but he would gradually went off it. We were giving him Royal Canin indoor dry food. And if we left his a daily 'allowance' for him in the morning he would eat it all in one go - I saw him do it many times!!

I also bought Royal Canin dry food for sterilised cats and he went off this as well.

We did split the dry food into two portions (one in the morning and one in evening) but it got to a stage where he would flat refuse dry and I was worried about his eating. I did try a mixture of dry and wet but I wasn't sure if I was feeding him too much so I thought it best to stick to wet as he will eat that no arguments and it seemed easier to measure than a mixture of both.

He eats his pouch as soon as it's given to him so it's not that he leaves any and then refuses to eat it after it's been out all day.

He's a greedy b*gger - when we sit down to eat he is there waiting - but he didn't used to be this bad so that's why I'm wondering if something else is up

Pixiechic

Hi,
Your cat sounds hungry to me! If he is begging for food and displaying all the signs of a hungry cat then I would feed a little more food a day. My cat is indoor's now and he has three pouches a day one in the morning, one around 5 pm and one before bed. Sometimes for a change he has dry left out just to nibble on through the day if he is hungry. I am going to start using Orijen dry for that.
A better quality food would probably help as he will get more nutrients that he needs hence he will eat less.
I do think you need to feed him more though, how much does he weigh? Mine weighs just under 4kg which is a healthy weight for him. How old is your cat too? You say that you have only had him since last September but I wonder how old he is. A kitten should have as much food as it wants as it's growing .

To add: Has he been wormed recently? Even an indoor cat can get worms so thats something that could be worth looking into.

Chinkle

Cats are natural scavengers and seem to thrive on the opportunity to eat - I don't think giving a third pouch will make any difference especially if it's causing a weight problem.

Just continue to be vigilant and scold any walking on kitchen worktops. There will be ocassional slip ups. The other day I left some toast on the table went to the kitchen to get something and returned to find missy licking the butter off!

Fire_Fox

Lilith1980 wrote: »

Hi all,

I appreciate that cats are probably natural scavengers, but our Charlie's behaviour has gotten worse over the last month or so. It's ridiculous!

We feed him two pouches every day. We were feeding him three for a long time but he kept putting on weight so we reduced it to two because he is an indoor cat and hardly moves from the sofa

I'm changing his food this week to Tesco Luxury wet food as this has a higher meat content so I'm wondering if this would help.

We'll give him his food and he'll happily devour that...and if I am making a sandwich or something he will then come and pester me for food.

I wonder if you have cut his food down too much, removing a third of his daily calories is a hell of a lot - that is way more than I'd suggest for my human clients. Is he losing weight and is he losing weight at the safe/ slow rate recommmened by your vet? You probably already know this but Go Cat is only 4% meat it is mainly composed of cereals, an excess of which in both humans and felines is associated with weight gain! :eek:

Lilith1980

Hi all, thanks for your replies.

He's certainly not losing weight, in fact he feels heavier recently!

Right well the food we're feeling only has about 4% meat in which is why I'm changing to Tesco as this has a minimum of 45%.

When we got Charlie in September he weighed about 6kg (he's about 4 years old as we got him from a rescue centre) so we were measuring food out to feed a 5kg cat to try and get him down to this. But he just seemed to get bigger and people have commented that he has got bigger since we got him.

Maybe on the new food he will be less hungry due to the higher meat content? But is it worth taking him up to 3 pouches a day on the new food seeing as the cereal content should be lower and also the pouches will be 85g whereas the ones we give him now are 100g?

And regarding the worming, he was due for de-worming and I did it a week or so ago but no sign of improvement yet.

Lokolo

My cat has started getting put off by cat food. She eats any sort of human food. She started eating a banana the other day!

Poor things getting old too.

Sunnyday

Just a thought, could you try feeding half pouches at a time?

When our previous cats used to eat pouches they had half early in the morning and then half an hour or so later then similar around dinner time and again later. They also had dried food available 24/7 and water too.

If he does get hungry he can eat the dried as its always there and as the food is given more often but in smaller mounts he may feel as though he is getting more IYKWIM

Our current cat will let us know when she is hungry but eats a similar amount and shes not a very active cat. She is a tad overweight but not very much and she will lose the weight in summer when she goes out more and don`t forget that he should have a winter coat atm that will make him seem bigger than usual.

HTH

SD

Claire_Bear

Improving his food will lead to him eating less and feeling fuller due to the higher meat content so hopefully if he's more satisfied by his cat food he won't feel the need to go looking for human food. I'm not sure if it's true, but it might be because he's a rescue cat and used to be a stray. Our cat is the same - she's about 4 years old and from a rescue, she was abandoned after her owners moved away and was living on the streets for a while, so might still have the attitude of scavenging what she can. Or it might just be that the chicken bones smell so good - our cat did exactly the same thign recently with ripping open a bin bag! Even if she still has food in her dish she'll go after what's on plates etc Personally when you switch food I'd keep him on the same amount that you're currently giving him as like you say he'll feel fuller anyway, so giving extra food on top of this might not be very good.

We also got our cat last year in November, so about the same time as you got Charlie. She definately got cheekier the longer we had her! At first she was shy and nervous so wouldn't dare misbehave, but now she's firmly got her paws under the table so doesn't mind begging for food or scavenging for scraps. We've managed to train her out of this for the most part though, it just took quite a while. I think with Charlie going up on worktops you just have to be really persistent, put him on the floor and say NO firmly. Or shut him out of the kitchen for a little while when you're preparing food.

Sorry for the long post

Fire_Fox

Lilith1980 wrote: »

Hi all, thanks for your replies.

He's certainly not losing weight, in fact he feels heavier recently!

Right well the food we're feeling only has about 4% meat in which is why I'm changing to Tesco as this has a minimum of 45%.

When we got Charlie in September he weighed about 6kg (he's about 4 years old as we got him from a rescue centre) so we were measuring food out to feed a 5kg cat to try and get him down to this. But he just seemed to get bigger and people have commented that he has got bigger since we got him.

Tesco Luxury appears to have reduced in price recently. :money: It's so difficult to get feeding rates right, often the don't specify what activity level the amount of food is for - in humans you can double the food intake of a very active person from a sedentary one!

Noah (indoor male) is 6.5kg and eating a lot more than two pouches equivalent so perhaps I am overfeeding ... Has Charlie had any blood tests to check he hasn't got any medical issues which are causing weight gain? Gaining weight on a third less food doesn't sound right.