My cat will just not shut up and it’s driving me mad!

[Cynthiaramsey]

This is actually having a negative impact on my mental health now because I work from home and it’s very distressed and frustrating to hear your cat crying all day long every day.

From the moment she wakes up. DP has to put her outside when he leaves for work at 5am because otherwise she wakes me up with her shouting. When I see her sat on the windowsill to come in my heart sinks lately and I feel awful for it! It’s just that I can’t take another day of her constant meows. I feed her 4 wet pouches a day plus dry food and she is overweight. I wanted to try and tackle this by putting her on diet food and have the royal canin one but it’s not working because she eats too much of it to make a difference. The meowing is relentless. As soon as she’s finished eating she’s back to meowing at me again. People say leave dry food down all day but I can’t because she eats the whole bowl and still wants more. She doesn’t graze.

things I have tried:

• ignoring the screaming in hopes she will eventually stop (she just doesn’t, it’s constant)
• playing with her and cuddling her and seeing if those are the things she wants instead
• vet check. Perfectly healthy and up to date with vaccinations, flea and worming
• switched her to a high quality high protein food. Although expensive I am willing to take the hit if it works. But it doesn’t
• I’ve recently changed to royal canin obesity control (she isn’t obese but she is overweight) in hopes that it would be more filling?

My male cat is not like this at all. He is twice the size of her and doesn’t eat anywhere near as much!

Please help, what can I do?! I can’t take every day of constant crying anymore. I want her to be a healthy weight and I’m trying my best to try and get it under control but her appetite is out of hand and I just want to be able to work from home or read or watch a movie with DP without the constant meowing. Im unable to enjoy my cat and unable to enjoy my time in the house. I love leaving the house to get away from the noise 😢

That’s what I’ve been trying to do but the constant meowing is becoming impossible to live with

Oh dear! 🙈😂

What do you mean by moving food? Do you mean changing to different types?

I can’t go down to 1 litter box because I have 2 cats. All three of them stay in the same space, I never move them around

My cat was like this but she was old and unwell, craving our attention.

It drove me mad but she died 2 months ago and id give anything to have her back.

When adopting from a shelter they will often only home two kittens together as they need company. Based on what you said re neighbours cat, it sounds like she might be bored and want cat company and be compensating with food. Maybe get another kitten so they can entertain each other?

How about a dry food feeder on a timer that gives her a little bit every hour or something? Something like that must exist!

I've got a cat who yells constantly too, it's so draining. Mine wants either more wet food (big bowl of dry food always down) or a cuddle, and I wfh too. I wouldn't mind, but 'cuddle' means trying to sit on my head / knocking my glasses off / scrabbling around and clawing me by accident when he falls off me, then getting all riled up and bitey when I try to de claw whatever part of me is being perforated.

This is fab advice thanks so much!

I've got a tortie like this - she's now 5 and does my head in, she doesn't even eat much but she talks and bumps me constantly, throwing her self off the sofa top onto me, she is definitely on the spectrum as she won't make eye contact and will not be picked up but she is a pain in the arse, my older tabby cat is totally chilled - cats are just weird.

I’m going to look at automatic feeders along with some puzzle mats as these sound good and might keep her entertained.

im sorry but I’m glad it’s not just me then and my cat isn’t broken haha. Think it’s also a shock because my other cat isn’t like this at all.

Is she insured? If so you may he covered for a behaviourist. One of my cats is like this but it's his breed, we are his 3rd home because he's needs so much attention

She’s still young, hopefully she’ll grow out of it.

The dry feeder from Catit let's you set any time and number of portions to dispense via an app. It's really useful if get home late etc. You can also dispense manually.

@1984Winston what's the breed?

Have you watched any Jackson Galaxy videos on how to play with your cat?

I thought I had a cat that didn't play, or just did 5 minutes and gave up.

It turned out I was absolutely useless at playing with her. When I did it his way, she was so much more engaged and energetic.

Oh and yes to a lick mat as has been suggested. They do get all excited if you spice things up a bit. Can you move a chair or her bed etc to a new place. She may get excited checking it out and it might be stimulating.

Can recommend some electric toys too to watch and chase like the robotic fish. It did give me a break when mine was younger and they come out each summer now.

@AnnaMagnani haha yes I had the same experience. It ended up being a workout for the cat and myself.

He's an Oriental, high maintenance but worth it

Puzzle feeder for sure. Get a few different types, and rotate them!

Thank you for all the suggestions, they are really helpful. I have ordered a puzzle feeder from Amazon and will have a look at some of the other things as well. I don’t like the thought of her being bored, I thought it was just greediness and now I feel awful that she might just be bored. She does play with me and go outside so I assumed she was getting enough stimulation. Thanks everyone

Might also be worth trying a high quality, high meat content, food such as katkin
Filled my girl up much more than high street foods
Apologies if already been mentioned

Ahh no I haven’t, but I watched Jason galaxy videos when I was introducing my cats and they were so helpful! I will have a look tomorrow, thank you

Has she been checked for thyroid issues? Our cat had hyperthyroid - constantly eating, and when he became ill with it he never ever shut up. It was so distressing as he was clearly unhappy and until we discovered what was wrong, it seemed impossible to help him. Ask the vet to test her.

Yeah tried that 😔 that’s what she was on before I put her on weight management food

Did the vet do any blood tests?
What breed is she?

Instead of just feeding her from a bowl, try doing "hunt, kill, eat".

So, before her meals, play with her - get her to chase a flirt pole around and hunt it, or use one of those mice toys where they have to chase and "catch" it.

After a good play session, let her "win" the toy and then feed her. It gets out that natural predatory behaviour that they would have in the wild and is one of the best ways to satisfy them.

Jackson Galaxy has loads of information on it if you look him up.