Cat left without food for 36 hours, feeding issues

[RedRedWhiney]

I'd rather not go into the 'why' but my lovely girl was unavoidably left without food for 36 hours recently. (The reason why has been rectified and it won't happen again)
She's now become very needy around food. She's never been very food focused, and quite picky. However in the last few weeks since the incident occurred she has been begging constantly and then wolfing down food. There's obviously a reason for this - She's not forgotten she was very hungry. Looking for any advice yo get her back to a normal feeding pattern :(

I would contact the vets for advice

Our cats always have a bowl on dry food that is kept topped up and they can eat any time. We the feed them wet food a couple of times a day. Could you leave dry food out so she knows there is always food there if she wants it? It might just take her a little while to feel comfortable again.

She had a bowel of kibble in the morning. But a medical emergency meant I wasn't home until well over 24 hours later. From her eating patterns I think she would have finished it around 6pm (when I'd usually get home), then her bowl was empty until I get back around midnight the following night.

If I put down kibble now, which she would have grazed on in the day, she's now gulping down in one go

Can you ration her kibble out so she gets her daily amount but in small doses throughout the day? Then try and ignore any shouting and crying?

One of those lick mats, maybe even freeze it so it takes her ages?

I've got a timer feeder and put a few biscuits in each section to pop up through the day / night. This means my greedy boy can trickle feed all day and night and he doesn't keep asking for food.

It might be worth getting her a check up at the vets just incase the change in feeding habit is completely coincidental.

Without knowing anything else about her, depending on her age it could be anything from early hyperthyroidism to simply being due wormer if she is outdoor and hunts.

Otherwise as others suggest, little and often with kibble until she hopefully relaxes again :) Hope she is back to normal soon.

She's 10 abd is completely inside puss.

I mainly work from home so have been trying to time her kibble, but she just inhales it.

My cats would have eaten all the wildlife in the area. I once went away for a rare weekend away leaving them plenty of food and came back to a pile of corpses. It was like something out of psycho.
Your poor kitty though. She will be paranoid for quite sometime but hopefully will recover. Is she allowed out?

@Bestcatmum that reminded me of someone on here who was ill in bed and woke up to a buffet of tiny corpses on her duvet cover and, if I remember correctly, a live squirrel on her wardrobe.

@RedRedWhiney can you just give her more dry food than she could possibly eat for a few days? Unless she'd make herself sick?

I have a couple of extremely demanding, quick eaters and two nervy ones so I don't really know how much any of them eats.

Hope you and your cat feel better soon.

Can you give her some zyklene? It's supposed to relax them you can get it from pets at home

Our cat was born in a barn and not discovered until she was about 9 weeks. When we got her, she was very food focused and would eat and eat and eat.

The vet advised us to feed her a shot glass of dry food alongside her wet food twice a day.

After a few months, she realised thar the food would always come, and she began to regulate herself. She's now 12 and has been able to have food down all the time ever since. Our cat bowls are large and I only top them up once or twice a week.

I would initially keep her feeds small and regular so that she regains that trust.