Why is my cat always hungry?

Fire_Fox

I_am_mad wrote: »

Hi thanks for all the replies. When we got her from the rehoming place they said nothing about her appetite and I forgot to ask. She was found as a stray so I am thinking that she is used to searching for her own food which might be why she is hungry.

When she gets her food she eats it all in one go so I fear that if I left biscuits out for her in the day she would just keep eating them until she was sick I dont think she would leave anything for later on. The rescue centre said not to feed her biscuits as they tend to give cats diarrhea, we started on go cat biscuits but then moved onto Iams after a friend recommending them, what biscuits does everyone else use? She is a lovely cat but is getting on my nerves when all I can hear is the kitchen cupboard banging!! I have had to tie it shut.

She has toys left out for her but then she never plays with them, she would rather sleep than play. As i suspect she has never learnt how to play as she has has kittens very young, she is only 2 now. She has been neutered yes but I am unsure as to how much she weighs, she has a very tiny frame. She goes for a poo twice a day and they do actually smell really bad, they are formed ok though I think, she did have diarrhea when she first came to us but now it has settled.

Thanks again and I hope my information can help anyone who can give me advice.

Just to confuse you I am going to respectfully disagree with some of the other posters. The rescue is correct, dry food gives many cats diarrhoea or loose and smelly stools, that includes premium brands such as Royal Canin. This is because the feline digestive system has not evolved to eat grains. Diarrhoea flushes out the beneficial bacteria in the gut, your cat may therefore benefit from a probiotic supplement (e.g. LactoB). The fact that your cat had diarrhoea on Go Cat and loose poops on IAMS could suggest she is struggling to process the high grain content of the food. However part of the problem may be that you have chopped and changed the food very quickly - grains require different enzymes than protein does.

Cats are obligate carnivores so they MUST eat meat, yet most biscuits contain high levels of carbohydrates in the form of grains. According to this 'bible' of nutrition, domestic felines have NO nutritional requirement for carbohydrates. I also don't agree that cats naturally graze, actually they hunt and eat meals at least twice a day, particularly at sunrise and sunset. If your cat is very small then she may be younger than two and still growing or she may have been malnourished in the past, so it's not a good idea to restrict food. The fact that she is begging suggests she may need more food or a higher quality of food than you are offering. This is an excellent article on feline nutrition, scientific and not angling for you to feed any specific diet http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm

As far as what to feed, I am assuming you are looking for value for money as you are posting on MSE? For growth and satiety you would be looking to use foods that are calorie-dense (not all jelly/ gravy/ water), contain high quality nutrients (animal not plant-based). Read the ingredients, it's quite an eye-opener: Zooplus and Ocado websites are helpful for this.

In general tins are cheaper per kilo than pouches. If you are on a budget choose a food based on meat derivatives or meat meal, not corn, wheat or vegetable derivatives. Butchers Classic in large tins or Tesco Claude pouches have less water, no grains and no additives and are cheaper than Whiskas. If you are happy to pay more for a premium product - look at the named meat or meat meal content and price per kilo. The best value wet is Bozita (online only) - pate is often given the paws up, the chunks in sauce (gravy) go down well here too. Bozita is ~90% meat and only £1 per 360g tetrapack. :money:

You have not explained why you want to feed dry food when the rescue advised otherwise, is it cost or convenience? If you do want to use a dry food, again look at the meat content. Go Cat contains just 4% meat, IAMS is better (26%), Royal Canin refuse to divulge how much meat their food contains!! The highest meat content foods are MOST Hills Science (~50%), Applaws (80%), Acana (65%), Orijen (80%) Porta 21 sensitive ONLY. These are more expensive - tho some come on offer regularly - but the feed rate is much lower than Go Cat and IAMS because it is not all ending up in the litter tray!

IMO it really is worth getting diet right: my last boy went from three smelly poops to one not smelly overnight when I changed foods. The day he was PTS the vet commented how well muscled he was, despite being indoor. My new kitten-cat is one to two years of age and only 2.3kg: she can pack away 100g of high meat content food three times a day yet has not gained weight in the three weeks I have had her. This is as much as my 6.5kg boy ate! :rotfl: Both cats have been greedy ex-strays so I do not free feed.

spike7451

Does she drink water?..My Daisy will not drink any fluids so she gets her fluid from the wet food,so maybe your puss is the same.BTW,Daisy is always starving too!!lol

Pigget

Sounds a lot like my cat (an ex-stray) when we first got him!

They're simply not used to having a safe, regular supply of food.
We have had our cat for a year and a half now and I would say that he has settled into his feeding routine only over the last 6 months or so.

You have already been given some fantastic advice regarding feeding, follow it! We feed our cat Bozita and Orijen. Remember to introduce a new food gradually if you decide to do so.

We have a set routine for our cat which means he gets fed at the same times every day. It may seem a bit rigid but it works for us. This means we have bought an automatic feeder if we're having a late night or are on holiday to cover his late night feeds (someone will feed him his other meals!)

He has his main feeds first thing in the morning and at dinner time, but we also give him a few grams of biscuits last thing at night to help settle him.

He never, never, never gets treats or eats human food. This may sound harsh, but he can't comprehend why he is getting this random food at a random time and it sends him mental!

On a more practical note, we have plastic child locks on his food cupboard door to stop him getting in. Try padding the door to stop it knocking.

As for the constant miaowing, we ignored it - its not cruel, he wasn't hungry (infact he put on weight )

We also bought da bird and played with him before his dinner and his late night biscuits so he associated exercise with food, but also so he would sleep at night and not constantly tap us on the head with his paw or bang on the wardrobe door

From experience, you'll just need to perservere.

rainbowgal

Hi there, just seen this post. One other thing to think about is a thyroid problem which my cat was tested for after being constantly hungry and still being skinny. We went through the whole changing foods, worms etc business before we realised this was the problem. Eventually we got her checked out and had her blood tested. She is now much better. Just a thought!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

rainbowgal wrote: »

Hi there, just seen this post. One other thing to think about is a thyroid problem which my cat was tested for after being constantly hungry and still being skinny. We went through the whole changing foods, worms etc business before we realised this was the problem. Eventually we got her checked out and had her blood tested. She is now much better. Just a thought!

Yes, one of mine was like that - a bottomless pit of hunger, throwing herself at the fridge everytime someone so much as looked at it. she was having 8 meals a day by the time the vet agreed to test her thyroid function (as she was 'too young to have thyroid problems' before that point :mad:)

One course of tablets changed her overnight and she then had one lobe of the thyroid removed - she's still got her eye on the offchance of munchies, but that's hardly surprising as she used to be fed so frequently, but she isn't a pain anymore.

Buttonmoons

One of mine is a lazy moo, and she just wants to sleep and scoff, only thing getting her moving is a laser pen, and even then it's short lived, got her one of those track circuit things, and she did play with it but she managed to bust it with her fat bum and the ball is lost somewhere........(probably under a sofa, or eaten lol)

The male cat won't touch any wet food, I leave biscuits down for him all day and he just grazes, doesn't stuff himself, he is sick a lot cause he cant help but eat stuff he shouldnt (innanimate objects)

Fat cat (i say fat shes only 4kg but is tiny) just mooches by the food cupboard all day meowing at anyone who walks past, so I just close the door on her as she bugs me with the constant whinging, even though there is food in her bowl, its not the right flavour for the day so she is back at the cupboard......

spike7451

Buttonmoons wrote: »

One of mine is a lazy moo, and she just wants to sleep and scoff, only thing getting her moving is a laser pen, and even then it's short lived, got her one of those track circuit things, and she did play with it but she managed to bust it with her fat bum and the ball is lost somewhere........(probably under a sofa, or eaten lol)

The male cat won't touch any wet food, I leave biscuits down for him all day and he just grazes, doesn't stuff himself, he is sick a lot cause he cant help but eat stuff he shouldnt (innanimate objects)

Fat cat (i say fat shes only 4kg but is tiny) just mooches by the food cupboard all day meowing at anyone who walks past, so I just close the door on her as she bugs me with the constant whinging, even though there is food in her bowl, its not the right flavour for the day so she is back at the cupboard......

You've nicked my Daisy!! Give her back...!!:rotfl:

She's the same so I now give her a bit of a pouch at a time during the day whenever I go into the kitchen..

Buttonmoons

Oh no I'm not getting into the habit of doing that with her, she'd be back at the cupboard every 2 seconds :rotfl: If you ignore her licking her lips and staring you out, she eventually goes off in a sulk and you get an hour of peace from her eyes boring into you.

GlynD

We have two cats. A 10 year old and a one year old. They're both fed the same way. Every morning each gets a fresh pouch of wet food. Two bowls of dry cat food are put out and two bowls of water, these are topped up if necessary but that's rare. We also put a bowl of water in the garden. In the evening they both get invited onto the sofa for treats which give them quality time with us. The treats can be anything from "bought" cat treats like Whiskas; sliced ham, sliced chicken, sliced turkey, leftover chicken or fish. Once a month maybe we split a tin of tuna in oil and put it out for them. Sometimes they jump on the kitchen sink to get a drink from the tap - we turn on the tap for them as it's so important for cats to drink, especially when eating dry food. The two of them are glowing with health and have shiny sleek fur. They also get a malty hairball preparation from a tube several times a month and they love the taste of it and our fingers feel like sandpaper after they've finished licking it off.

All the dietary advice in the world wouldn't change us from this regime. Cats are grazers and shouldn't be restricted to mealtimes.

gettingready

Fred is always hungry - despite being the fattest of my 6, he is almost round now.. never touches dry food ever - no way.

But was seen jumping into the fridge if it gets open, jumps at me when smelling bacon/raw meat, cat have a whole raw chicken wing/spare rib in under a minute down to the bone and finishes off all the other cat's dishes from wet food.

Used to feed Animonda but down to classic now (crap job, crap money) and from taste of the wild/orijen down to go cat - sigh....

With 6 cats and a dog to feed....still - all cats are fine but Fred is just somethng else....greedy greedy cat....