Greedy Old Bugger(sMoggy)

[BuggersMuddle]

Curious about how much people feed their cats? BuggersMoggy is around 16-17 years old to our knowledge and is certainly at least 15 as a minimum.
He's an active cat and a mouser, but not so much at this time of year.

Anyway, he's started grouching for more food in the last couple of months and there's no obvious reason for it. He's just short of 5kg (healthy weight as he's a very long and tall cat) and was previously on 3 pouches a day plus dried food left out (occasionally 2 pouches if he wasn't finishing his food, but 3 most days).

He now seems to want 4 pouches a day, which just seems an awful lot frankly with biscuits. He's regularly wormed and flea treated, so no concerns there. Not sure if he's eating less of his biscuits (hard to tell).

Just seems really odd that he's suddenly wanting loads of food at his age and a time of year when he's more likely to attack the duvet than a passing rat.... Don't know if I should be concerned or just feed him more as he's always self-regulated pretty well?

[RubbishMantra]

I would take him to the vet - could well be thyroid related at his age. Or sore teeth/gums - which may be why he's showing a preference for wet food?

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

Harry (11) has two pouches a day and, if he worries for food in between, a sprinkling of biscuits.

I agree with Mantra, it's worth a check up at the vet. Harry had to have another dental at the end of last year and the only reason we knew he had a problem was becuase he started leaving his beloved dry food.

[BuggersMuddle]

Didn't consider thyroid. Teeth seem fine (I gave him fresh biscuits this morning and he has been munching).

I suspect because he strayed for a short period, he's always been big on 'food security'. By that I mean, he needs food available at all times, even if he's not munching it or he gets antsy, so we do leave food out.

He's not descending ravenously or anything, but he is definitely more demanding. So far only 3 pouches today. I will keep a closer eye over the weekend. He's due an MOT at the vet soon anyway, so no harm if we get it in a little early.

[RubbishMantra]

Watch while he's eating, esp. biscuits, to see if he's shaking his head from side to side. That's a good indication of painful mouth. Even if he doesn't do this, (cats are experts at hiding pain) still ask your vet to give his mouth a thorough check.

My 6 year old boy needed a dental recently, he'd lost some weight, which I attributed to other reasons. Happy to say he's back to his pleasingly rotundness cobby shape.

[BuggersMuddle]

Thanks rubbishmantra - I didn't know that about the head shaking.

They can be hard to read and he was left on a feed a few times over the holidays (never for more than a couple of days and neighbours keep an eye), but we had a few trips and he does get a bit clingy after that so it's hard to judge whether he's still wanting reassurance or unwell.

He's definitely doing stuff he didn't do before:

• jumping on dining table when we can see to steal milk (he did it before if DP left cereal bowl, but he waited!)
  
• leaping on dinging table seats to mewl when we're eating regardless of meal
  
• jumping on the laptop and being a general swipy pest (no claws) when he wants dinner
  
• licking the damned butter last night because I left it out, which included some attempt at the wrapping....
  

It's really hard to tell whether he's old and cantankerous; badly behaved because we do let him away with a fair amount (because old) or actually unwell. I've said to DP that we really need to enforce old boundaries (re: dining table etc.) to help with this. I'm not about to get too excited about dubious titbits though because they are not that regular and he is not a youngster.