Why your cat is always hungry .

[LouKelly]

Many cat foods are basically just water . Read the nutritional info , often it will say over 80 per cent water . Strangely I've noticed that it seems to be the more expensive ones that contain most water . Cats need lots of water so that in itself isn't a bad thing , but it does mean that a lot of cats are just not easily satisfied with the cat food and so you need to give them plenty of it . Also I've noticed with my own cat , he doesn't sleep well unless his tummy is full . So if he suddenly wakes up and starts fussing me , he's asking for food so that he can go back to sleep . Try a cat food that seems to be substantial . My cat likes Felix original , it seems to fill him , for a while anyway , I have to mash it so there aren't any lumps in it though . Many cat foods are all jelly or all gravy , cats like those but they don't necessarily fill them .

Felix is crap. Also sounds like you’re overfeeding your cat and letting him dictate when it is time to eat. Mine would eat all day if I let them, but we stick to mealtimes and they are all within ideal weight range. They eat a BARF diet and have never been healthier.

Mine have Felix wet food but dried food available any time, but they are skinny cats and old now - it's more about keeping the weight on them. They have always been healthy.

Yes , mines old too , he likes to eat little and often so quite a bit ends up wasted cos he rarely eats a full pouch , I don't mind , it's only cheap and I'm happy to be his slave 😻 one thing I would watch is the dry food , it can cause constipation and even a total blockage , don't give my cat any dry now , if you suspect constipation then put a few drops of olive oil on one of his BACK feet , on the top not on the pad . He will lick it of and will poo within 24 hours , olive oil also helps to get those fur balls up .

We find ours sleep better with a good solid dose of protein. A roast chicken leftovers dinner and they snooze happily for hours.

Having said that, some cats are just plain greedy and food-driven. One of ours would eat all day long if we let him (and he also has form for breaking & entering the neighbour's house and pinching their cat's food from under its nose). We can't leave dry food down because he'd eat the lot in one go.

Felix is not a good quality food.
Some cats like to eat more than is ideal for their weight, mine included.

Pretty much any food in a tin or pouch is crap.
Raw food is best for cats and contains plenty of water.

Cats are like people - some of them can self-regulate and aren't that interested in food, and some will just carry on stuffing themselves with junk food.

I have one cat of each temperament. I am sadly the second sort of person.

Felix is a very junky cat food. You can get your cat to beg less by feeding them a high quality protein food with no grain filler.

However even doing that, both my cats are currently whinging an hour before their dinner time.

Are you worming him regularly?

@LouKelly Have you wormed him recently?

Yes , he doesn't have worms . I've only had him just over a year and he was 14 and an outdoor cat when I got him . For the first six months he barely ate anything but , for the last , I'm glad to say , he's become happier , relaxed and trust us , so he's eating good and is very loving . He lost a bit of weight when I first got him but he's back up to just over 4 kilos now . Basically he sleeps for about four or five hours , gets up and demands food and fusses us for about an hour , then he goes back to bed for four or five hours etc etc etc . Seems like a nice life 😻😻😻 .

I know Felix isn't the best but , there's no point in buying stuff that your cat doesn't like and won't eat . In the first six months that I had him , I bought every single brand of cat food you can buy from any and every supermarket , I promise I'm not exaggerating . Every single brand and every flavour . He would not eat the same thing twice . He was already 14 when I got him so I didn't realise that his behaviour was more about him being unsettled than the food . He's happy now and loves and trusts us but , he still only likes Felix . Who am I to argue , I'm just glad that he eats regularly .

My grandma's cat was fed on fresh cooked whiting.

Well, you’re the one who started a thread telling us all what we should be feeding our cats…🤷🏼‍♀️ I’ll never feed mine Felix (they’d eat it, and pretty much everything else) as it would be the feline equivalent of feeding them pizza and chicken nuggets every day. If it’s all yours will eat then I suppose you don’t have any choice, but it’s still no reason to be telling everyone else that they should be feeding their cats low-quality food packed with random fillers that are of no nutritional value to them and aren’t meant to be part of a cat’s natural diet. They’re obligate carnivores and the ratio of meat (or whatever a ‘meat derivative’ is when it’s at home) to filler that Felix and the like contains is pretty skewed.

I’ll get off my cat food soap box now 😂

My cat is a greedy, lazy lump. The vet said she should have diet food. I spent a fortune on it for 6 months and she lost nothing. So now I give her a reduced amount of Felix and a small amount of diet dried food, but she still is too chubby. She is exceptionally lazy and rarely leaves the house even though we have a large garden. She often wants more food which we try not to give her.

Mine has dried applaws food down 24/7. So he can eat if he’s hungry overnight. It’s not dry solid biscuits like stuff from the supermarket, if you squeeze a biscuit between fingers it’s soft.

Many dried foods are like this. I buy from zooplus. Mine won’t eat any supermarket food, turns his nose up.

He gets wet food once a day in evening as supplement. Again, from zooplus. Purizon, Feriga, applaws, Rosie’s farm etc. Grain free.

Felix and whiskers is often described as the Mac Donald’s equivalent for cats.

Is there a better/healthier wet cat food than Felix that costs a similar amount?

This is like a thread saying, if your kids keep whining for snacks, it's easy just give them McDonald's every day 🤦‍♂️

@LouKelly I don't want to go on- but do you actually worm him? Because you can't know whether he has worms or not....

"Felix and whiskers is often described as the Mac Donald’s equivalent for cats."
🤣by people selling us the expensive alternatives....

My three are getting the Aldi version of Felix As Good As It Looks and Applaws kibble.

I'd like the get them in something better but my oldest cat is super fussy (has turned down fresh chicken and tuna!) but she'll eat that combo and the younger two are doing well on it too. They all get meat scraps too - chicken, fish, beef if I have it. Though my middle cat is very confused by the concept of ham (a rare treat!) 😂😂😂

Middle cat is nearly 7kg at 18mo old but he's big, not overweight - if I fed him as many pouches as he wanted, he'd eat about 12 a day and look like a beach ball with legs! 😂😂

@LouKelly I've had plenty of cats (one which used up their last life aged 25) and none of them ate the same thing 2 meals running. We have a flavour / brand rota so that every meal is different over 3 or 4 days before being repeated. Current cat hates food in jelly, can't stand pate or terrine and knows exactly when chicken cooked on a bbq is at the perfect temperature for a cat to eat. At 18 I'm content (as is the vet) for said cat to enjoy whatever takes their fancy.....

Oh and elderly cats prefer to eat little and often and often eat because they are bored but they don't want to play (cos they are old).

I'm sorry , I don't remember telling anyone what they should feed their cats , just what mine eats .

Yes , I worm him . He's also a totally indoor cat now and has been for the last 15 months that I've had him .

@QuestionableMouse "Though my middle cat is very confused by the concept of ham"

I had one that was completely baffled by a prawn.

We have been to vet today with our new cat for her vaccine and a check over. She is 9 from Cats Protection. He told us the 'wet foods' ie pouches and tins are just water with very little protein. So to feed her 1 pouch a day, any cheap one on offer in the supermarket so she has fluid and then good quality biscuits are her 'food'. Our vet recommends one he sells which we have got for her and will slowly change over from the biscuits she currently eats