Overweight cat obsessed with food.

[wigglybeezer]

Our small neutered female has always been greedy and a bit obsessive , but at the moment she hovers by the food bowl mooching almost all day and scratches at our bedroom door every morning at 4. She is like a wee barrel. I have ordered a refill for the Feliway dispenser as this seemed to help when she was obsessively grooming, any other ideas? She is top cat of two by the way and although here are other cats about who have been known to attempt to intimidate her she is quite feisty about defending her territory ( but very gentle with people, unlike our mad tortie) and there haven 't been any altercations recently.

How active is she, wiggly - ie going out, playing, chasing etc ? Is she an older girl?

She is only 4, she does go out, to meet the school kids passing along our street four times a day for stroking sessions. She doesn't hunt or roam far from the food bowl but she will play if the kids get her to chase a light dot etc. , doesn't happen often though.

She often eats and then brings it back up, better since I switched her to posher dry food.

I had a fat cat who would eat until he was sick, he also bullied the other cats into giving up their food

Could you feed them separately so she only has her portion?

So if you cut down on food, she overgrooms?

I shut her out of the room while the other cat eats.
The over grooming started with a flea outbreak and became a bad habit, she had a baldy stomach and back legs. If she was human she'd have OCD.

I was hoping a cat behaviour expert could tell me why she does it and methods to modify the behaviour.

One thing you could do is make her start hunting for her food. The simplest way to do this is save toilet rolls and use them to build a pyramid. Put kibble in side the toilet rolls so she has to work to hook it out.
More sophisticated cat pyramid toy that they have to pounce on to get kibble. If you exhaust them you can get very sophisticated games for her to work on.

You said that the kids playing 'chase the laser light' with her doesn't happen often - is that down to her or rather how long the family have to spend with her?

A bit like those feeding balls they use in zoos, I hadn't thought of that. Might keep us awake rolling it around at night!

And like zoos, it sounds as if she could benefit from some enrichment - hunting for her food as Lone suggested and a bit more games activity. I would guess she's using easy food as her activity because she doesn't have enough of other types.

There is a fantastic section on environmental enrichment on the international cat care website. Can't link from this device.

She has a whole range of gardens to explore, old apple trees to climb etc. she just doesn't like to venture far from the house when there is a chance someone might feed her ( I think she goes out and about more when we are all out during the day ). I will try some feeding toys though.

Yes - you might need to persuade her at first because she's got into a pattern. I'll see if I can find that section on enrichment that Lone has identified but cant link to.

Is \link{http://www.icatcare.org/advice-centre/cat-care/making-your-home-cat-friendly\this} the one you meant, Lone?

Yes that's the one.

Well we certainly tick the box for a non minimalist home with plenty of cat hiding places. Is it possible she is missing the children when they go back to school, she is always waiting for them at the bottom of the drive? I managed to sort out the over grooming by identifying the trigger, and using distraction and pheromones so I think I just need to be more systematic about making her work for her food and play more.

I'd try that.

She may like all the interaction that she gets from children?

Has she been wormed recently, OP? Could explain the constant need for food and vomiting.

PS - and referencing to what you said about her stroking sessions with the kids - do you have a daily grooming session with her? I know that Seniorboy when he came to me had never had a grooming relationship but very quickly came to love it. Nowadays, he gets quite antsy if he doesn't get it as part of his love-in every evening. (It's such ^concentrated attention.)

Just wondering whether you could substitute a session for some food if she's sitting around waiting.