Cat food that stops cats yelling for food ALL DAY LONG?

[Yahboosnubs]

Does anyone have any success with cat food that fills them (the cats!) up? I have two Burmese kittens (8 months old) and they yell at me all day long, even after they've just had a Whiskas pouch each. They also steal any food they can, even from my toddler's hand. The vet nurse said they might not be satisfied by their food and recommended the expensive vet produced one (royal Kanin??) and some others that I've forgotten. But I couldn't find them in the supermarket anyway. I tried the Royal Kanin just to see if it would fill them up and it seemed to do so a bit more, but I was still getting yelled at quite soon after. I now don't know if it's genuine hunger or because they're bored or what. They do go out - no cat flap but I let them in and out all day. They've been neutered (both boys) so I don't want them to put on weight. They have a Whiskas pouch each morning and night and some dried food here and there, just a smattering. Any ideas? Thanks.

[MumnGran]

duh. Just realised this is an old thread.

[MumnGran]

They are hungry. A pouch morning and evening is not sufficient for a cat.
Please put down dried food for them to free graze on through the day, in addition to the pouches. You will life is a lot quieter!

[RussianBlu]

If you want to raw feed, then you can also get powders that you sprinkle onto the meat to give you the extra nutrients. Try giving them a few brewers yeast pills to crunch on each day as well. Raw feeding means they need very little water to drink.

[RussianBlu]

I second the not giving dry food.

[RussianBlu]

Porta 21 appears to be yummy on the occasions I have given it.

[Edendance]

I would definitely consider leaving dry food out all the time, they will not over eat but will take what they want when they want or need it. Wet food can be given as well if you want to!

[kimthomasandaimee]

Foods like Whiskas and Felix will never properly fill up a kitten because it's only around a 4% meat content so they need to constantly eat more and more to get the nutrients that their growing bodies require.

I feed raw. I get my raw from two different companies.

• Natural Instinct.
  
• Honeys.
  

I also make my own raw but you can't just feed raw meat alone. You have to get the meat~bone~organ ratio correct or you're cat will end up with serious deficiencies. That said, you would find on a raw diet that your kittens will eat significantly less.

I also give a raw chicken wing twice a week and supplement his diet with Mice and Chicks which I purchase from an online Reptile supplier. These come by courier frozen so I just defrost and warm up when required.

The other option is to go for a high meat content wet food. These include ..

Lily's Kitchen
Grau
Animonda Carny

These are the main three that I use anyway and you can get them all from the Zooplus website.

When they are a little older good brands include:

Macs
Feringa
OmNomNom

Which can be bought from the Happy Kitty Company.

I don't give any dry food at all. I don't believe it's healthy as it's moisture content is so low that it's too hard on a cat's kidneys.

[MaryonJeane]

Just passing and thought I'd add my bit, even though this thread is old, in case this solves the problem for someone else - as it has for me. Our two cats (one moggy, one Oriental Shorthair) were driving me crazy by constantly asking for food and tripping me up by winding round my ankles every time I went within twenty metres of the kitchen - a nightmare because I work from home. I nearly always ended up giving them more food, and as a result, they both put on too much weight. Then my Oriental was diagnosed as being pre-diabetic.

I knew the answer had to be in the food - but they were eating a variety of food and it was all good stuff, as far as I knew, because I was careful about sourcing it (no horrible additives or fillers, organic where possible, no grains, etc.). I then came across the idea of feeding BARF (yes, I know...) which is basically raw meat (Bones And Raw Food), including the offal and bones and other disgusting bits which cats normally eat in the wild.

What can I say? Problem solved. The cats now eat 'normally' in that they eat when they're hungry and don't fuss about food any more. They do come and ask for food in the evenings if I've become absorbed in work and it's an hour or so beyond their feeding time, but they simply ask rather than fawn and fuss. Both cats have lost weight and now are just right; their coats are gleaming and they've got plenty of energy.

I'm gutted that even the expensively-sourced catfood I've been feeding for years has some hidden things in which simply encourage cats to become virtually addicted to the food (just like human fast food). It wasn't simple, as a consequence, to change the cats over to raw food (it took about three weeks) because obviously there wasn't the same immediate attraction in terms of smell etc. If I'd known there were companies out there providing raw food for cats and dogs, delivered frozen to your door, then I'd have been feeding the cats this from the start and not what turns out to have been over-priced and damaging rubbish. (The great thing is that the raw food works out cheaper, too - although not if you usually feed supermarket brands, presumably.) Never again will I trust packaged catfood (and some of the brands, such as Iams and James Wellbeloved, turn out to be testing on animals, as well!)

I buy from www.naturalinstinct.com/ and www.barfpetfoods.co.uk/ - both jolly nice people!

[cozietoesie]

Oh no - the cats normally ruled the roost and ate what they wanted with impunity. It was just this one occasion which was so out of character that it's remained in my memory.

[GemmaTeller]

cozietoesie I can't believe my boxers haven't gone for /snapped at the boy cat over his cheekiness with food.

Female dog walks off in a sulk and male dog actually comes to get one of us to move the cat!

[Jayne266]

Satiety support food is design for that reason you can get it from your vets or online.

[cozietoesie]

The only time I ever saw a spat between one of our collies and a cat (The Lodger) was over a bone. Normally, they resignedly allowed cats to eat from their bowl if they turned up but one evening I'd just semi-stripped a still warm leg of lamb (it was a most 'generous' bone)and the collie clearly thought it was so unutterably delicious that when The Lodger made a move towards it, he snarled and made a swinging head movement. The Lodger jumped back 4 ft and beat a hasty retreat.

You've all been warned.

[GemmaTeller]

Our young one is definately a greedy guzzler of food, he can down a whole pouch in three bites while keeping one eye on the other cats food and has been known to try and get something out of the dogs dish while the dogs head is in there! (female boxer dog sulks and walks off!)
We have to feed young cat first, let him out then feed elderly cat and also keep him out of the dogs way if they have bones (we have actually seen him gnawing on the other end of a large bone one of the boxers was gnawing on!)

[cozietoesie]

Yep. In my experience, cats have different metabolisms and you have to judge food provision by their individual needs.

[GemmaTeller]

We have a 15 mth old neutered male who is very active (climbing trees / over on the field mousing etc) he gets a full pouch in the morning and again in the evening plus a handful of treats every time he comes back in and whenever he 'guides' us to his dish or the fridge .

We also have a 16 yr old cat who has half a pouch in the morning and half a pouch in the evening plus a handful of dried 'treats' when she asks for them. If she tries to eat a full pouch she is sick. She sleeps most of the time, has arthritis and doesn't go out much. We give her extra when she meows near her dish or wants us to follow her to where the cats dishes are (in a room nowhere near the dogs) but have found a lot of her meowing is old age and wanting to be picked up for a cuddle.

[QueenStromba]

My tiny, elderly house cat eats 2-3 pouches a day plus some biscuits.

[tabulahrasa]

Oh I knew it was two each - I wondered if it might not be enough just because mine are adults and tiny and they get through about 100g of dried food between them on top of that.

I have mini cats, so I assume that average size kittens would need more.

[cozietoesie]

Don't worry Yahboo. I think most people realized it was two pouches each (well two subject to Greedy Guts muscling in on his brother!)

[Yahboosnubs]

They do have two pouches each a day by the way, if that wasn't clear, and did share another one at lunch time before the vet told me not to give them that. I haven't been starving them! I think it's the content of the Whiskas pouches that isn't filling enough so I will buy some Royal Kanin so that at least I know they're eating quality stuff. One brother is definitely the dominant one with food and he will finish off the more vocal one's, so it's partly the latter's own fault that he's hungry - he lets his brother eat his food! Good tip about the treat balls. Thanks.

[coffeeandcream]

I would also recommend the treat balls, fill with dry food and they have to work to get the food out, keeps mine occupied for ages!

Never buy Royal Canin from the vet, it is hideously over priced. DH buys all our stuff (including frontline and worming pills) online.

Are your kittens 'grabby' with food? My two eat really fast and whoever finishes first tries to steal from the other. Maybe they are panicking about losing out to each other

[EvenIfYouSeeAPoppy]

My 10mo indoor moggies get a pouch each morning, noon and night plus access to dry food ad lib. They don't seem overweight. I as at the vet with the bigger one a couple of weeks ago and I think she would have said something had he been too heavy.

My guess would be they need(ed) more food.

[cozietoesie]

I've certainly found treat balls well used in the past.

[sashh]

If you know they are getting enough food put some dried food in one or two of those treat balls.

They then have to work to get the food (like wild cats do) so it feeds them and keeps them busy.

[chickydoo]

I have 5 Bengal cats, they are lean by nature.
They all go out, a couple are really adventurous, the others more home bodies. They have 3 pouches a day each, plus a handful of dried food. This seams to be the minimum I can feed them, I think 4 pouches is too much, they are hungry cats though.
I sometimes give them fresh chicken or fish as an extra.
I think Op, your cats need a little more to eat.

[cozietoesie]

Ah - that's good that you're seeing some improvement. Well done.