9 month old male - hungry or cheeky?

[MrsBrill]

I took the cat to the vet yesterday for a check up and asked the vet about feeding. She said his weight is fine (can't remember what it was) but if he continues to gain at the same rate as since his last check-up, he will be on his way to becoming a rather tubby puss. She recommended that I cut down from 3 pouches of kitten food to 2 a day, but let him graze on dry food (he does this anyway).

This is only day 1 but he has been constantly pestering me for food since lunchtime, when he would normally have had his second pouch. I've just caved and given him half a pouch, and will give the rest later (he tucked in but has wandered off without finishing it all so maybe that's a good indication..?)

However, according to the box (Felix kitten) I should be increasing, not decreasing the number of pouches that he has as he gets older.

Help...I am confused. Am I inadvertently starving him? Or is he just a chancer? Any advice gratefully received.

He could be confusing thirst with hunger maybe. When he pesters for food you could give him some cat milk.

Does he have a lot of toys to keep him occupied? There's a Dreamies mouse thing that you can buy - when they play with it and roll it round the floor the treats fall out. You could try one of those.

Thanks! Good idea, I'll try cats milk (he used to have it but went off it, but might be worth trying again)
Actually that half a pouch seems to be keeping him happy.

Can anyone advise on what a cat his age normally SHOULD be having?

It varies depending on the food. Higher meat content and they need less (also better for them as cats don't need all the cereal fillers in foods).
Our lad is about a year older than yours and a greedy bugger too. He gets exactly the same amounting food each day. If we're around he demands food so he gets it spread across more meals otherwise had keep annoying us for food and weigh about 10kg!
He's due his boosters so hoping the vet is happy with his weight.....

Ha! I work from home and he accosts me every time I leave my study! He's usually waiting outside the bathroom when I come out of there too I'll carry on giving half a pouch at lunch time and see how it goes. He's definitely in no danger of wasting away any time soon

We've got 2 🐈 and every tjime someone goes into the kitchen, there they are, hopefully brushing round our legs. There's me, DP and ads so potentially they could have at least 9 meals a day each. So greedy!

Cats in general are greedy opportunists, and boy cats even more so!

I'm very sceptical of the recommended amounts on the pouch boxes. I have a brother and sister - if I fed The Boy what they recommend he would be even more overweight than he is today. His teeny tiny sister could eat the entire lot and still lose weight, she burns so much off in anxiety.

I've always fed to gut instinct. You get a feel for when they're crying because they're hungry as opposed to spotting an opportunity. Leaving a bowl of crunch down has always worked for us - if they're really hungry, they'll eat it. If they have a full bowl and are still crying for more food, they're usually bring opportunistic 😼