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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Hungry or greedy? Cats obsessed with food

7 replies

jobnockey · 19/10/2021 09:46

So i have two cats, one (aged 6) is rather large but has lost weight over the last year. He could probably do with losing a little bit more weight but he's definitely healthier looking now. He has always been very food focussed since we got him a couple of years ago. He's a rescue and we don't know much about his back story so have always assumed he's gone without food in his life before hence being obsessed with where his next meal is coming from.

The other cat (1) we know for a fact has always been well fed and looked after as we've had her since she was 11 weeks old. However you'd think she was a starving stray the way she behaves around food. Always up on the counter trying to get into everything, stealing food off plates - goes completely and utterly nuts at feeding time to the point she has to be locked out of the room. She's currently on the kitchen work top licking all the crumbs and butter off the bread board despite having had breakfast already.

It's like living with a pair of raccoons.

They get the same amount of food despite their size differences as they have such different activity levels. I spread the food out over 3 meals a day. She's a small cat (about 3kg) but looks very healthy - i don't think she's underweight at all. I could give her more food but want to avoid her getting fat like the other one did!

Is she hungry or just fixated on food? What can I do as it's quite annoying behaviour?! Big cat is also annoying around food but always has been. Hers is more recent behaviour and i think coincided with us going away for a week over the summer. She was getting the same amount of food from the pet sitter whilst we were away though, so i don't think she went hungry.

Should I feed her more? They only have wet food, 1 tin of high protein real meat stuff a day and then 100g or animonda carny each. As I said though she's a healthy weight and he's slightly overweight... so i don't know what to do!

OP posts:
TheLovleyChebbyMcGee · 19/10/2021 09:54

Its like humans I guess, I have 3 cats, 2 are food focused and the 3rd doesn't seem to care much at all!

Guess which are overweight?! The 3rd cat is also the smartest who can't be bought or manipulated with treats. Its frustrating trying to make her do anything we want!

jobnockey · 21/10/2021 12:39

Thanks @TheLovleyChebbyMcGee - I guess that's one positive, they will literally do anything for a treat of any kind!

OP posts:
CatsOperatingInGangs · 21/10/2021 12:48

We have a rescue cat that will spend all day convincing you that the humans have never fed him and he’s starving. He’s 6 kgs FFS and and a great liar.
Given the opportunity, he would eat everything and anything in sight. We occasionally forget and leave food out in the kitchen, only to return later to find teeth marks in it.
I’ve never had a cat that doesn’t self regulate their food intake before! The vet says he’s healthy but ideally wants us to get some more chub off him. He only has two pouches a day and a very small handful of biscuits so I’m not sure it possible without starting the poor lad.

jobnockey · 21/10/2021 18:35

Haha this I can identify with.. the sad pitiful meows of a starving (6kg) cat (who's literally just eaten). We took our big boy off dry food and that has helped with his weight. We can't keep it down all the time anyway as he'll just eat the lot. The little one has never had dry food but I'm fairly certain she'd do the same!

OP posts:
jobnockey · 21/10/2021 18:37

Poor starving creature has had to resort to scavenging in the bin

Hungry or greedy?  Cats obsessed with food
OP posts:
TaraR2020 · 21/10/2021 19:04

I think it depends on how much you're feeding them at each meal.

My cousins cat used to get quite frantic about food, but my cousin wouldn't give more because he was giving "the right" amount and his cat was "the perfect size". When he tried allowing his cat to self regulated, it just gorged until it was sick. Understandable given that it was always hungry! Eventually he relaxed and cat gets more food, in small portions, throughout the day, has filled out and cousin doesn't seem to mind. Cat is so much more relaxed about food now.

On the other hand, I've had more than one cuddle-sized cats who would happily eat all day every day and definitely weren't hungry, just furry piggies.

So, you could keep an eye out for any sign of a desperate edge to his behaviour, and maybe try upping their food to see if that sorts it. Or if they're legitimately not hungry, split their food into smaller more frequent meals - they'll never know they're getting the same amount Grin

Lynne1Cat · 21/10/2021 19:25

I've been a cat-owner for 40 years, (only got 1 left now) but always had dry food down, available all day. Then 3 times a day, wet food (pouch). I have always kept to the same kind of times, eg. 8am, 5pm, 10pm. My cat was feral, when I took him in 10 years ago, so used to scoff as much as he could in a short space of time. It took a while for him to realise that he's always going to be fed.

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