compulsive eating in a 10 week kitten

[whitetulips]

Help, we have had our kitten for a week, she was left outside the RSPCA in a box with her litter mates aged about 4-5 weeks.
She has adjusted to us well, except that she is always hungry, and is stealing our older cat's food whenever she can.
We are feeding her a mixture of biscuits and kitten meat 3 times a day. She was vomiting when we first got her, but that has settled now after a few days of bland food. She has been checked by the vet.
She is also crawling all over us if we eat anything.
I do not want a cat that is always on the scrounge, and do not know how to deal with this.
Our older cat is used to having biscuits in his bowl all day, but this is proving impossible at the moment. Any tips gratefully received.

I think it's just a matter of time. You've only had her a week, and she is very young.

I think you and your older cat might have to accept that, for a while at least, the biscuits on tap aren't possible. It won't kill him, and it will only cost him a few grams, if that.

When it comes to the kitten's behaviour, it goes without saying that you give no scraps from the table or plates on knees (depending on your normal teatime habits), and you will have to be quite hard-hearted at times about this, but she will soon get the idea. Also, if she is jumping up on you, gently lift her onto the floor, with a firm "NO!" but it won't happen overnight.

We found that giving ours their tea literally as we are about to sit down for ours helps with the begging too. Is she definitely having enough food - she should be eating small meals about 4-5 times a day. A pain, I know, but one of those timered feeding dishes can really help with that, if you are out during the day, like us.

Stick with it - I think training a cat is FAR easier than training a dog, even if dogs are supposed to obey the pack leader!!

I agree with everything that Meow says, but I also think that she's still using stray habits - she eats as much as she can whenever she can in case that's the only meal she'll get for ages.

I'd suggest that, when you feed her, you put her food down for a few minutes and let her eat a bit, then lift it onto a surface for a minute or so, then put it down again and so on. You're not depriving her, just helping her to get used to taking her time as she eats. She is such a baby - she would still need lots of snuggles and reassurance even if she'd had an easy start and in fact, she had a rotten start! Give her a big hug from me, please.

PS You are feeding her kitten and not adult cat food, aren't you? Just that adult food won't have the calories in it that she needs.

Worms

Sounds like totally normal kitten behaviour to me, Bodycolder, rather than worms. Unless she's wiping her bottom on your carpet too, tulips!

My cat did do this with worms!And no bum wiping I agree though still a baby and probably comfort eating and just being kitteny Sooooo cute!