New cat still hungry?

[Verbena91]

I’ve had a cat before but in my family home growing up so not for years. New cat arrived last week for cat rescue. They told us to feed her 2 x whiskas pouch per day plus dry food as an afternoon snack. But she seems to be always hungry, miaowing for more.

Today in total we gave her 1 x whiskas, some kibble, some Dreamies then a can of untamed salmon. She is asking for more. Should I give her another cab or pitch it is that too much?

for context she is small, aged 2, and no worms or anything as she’s had full vet check up.

I’d give her another pouch. At 2 she will be coming out of her teens so probably hungrier than an older cat. Is she active?

I would leave dry down all day. My cats have each - 1 pouch - 1/2 morning and 1/2 evening. Dry goes down with it and they rarely finish it. If they had no food I would put down more.

If the cat was overeating and putting on weight then it might be different.

I wonder if there is food anxiety. When will i be fed next.

I agree with having dry food down all the time. That’s what I do.

How much dry food did you give?
When mine were that age I left dry food out all day and gave wet food a couple of times a day

OP I would try and transition her off the Whiskas as it’s full of fillers and maybe not filling her up. She could also be anxious she might not get fed again if she came in to rescue as a stray.

We’re possibly unusual but we don’t leave dry down all the time - our boy gets half a tin of Untamed in the morning then the other half at night, and a measured portion of biscuits four times a day/night rather than expect him to self-regulate. We use a timed feeder at night and if no-one is at home for lunch. He was a stray kitten and used to surviving on spiders and dust!

Wow - my 3 all have at least 3 tins/pouches a day plus dry food and they’re all either skinny or a healthy weight. How can you get away with feeding your cats 1 pouch a day?? Mine would all leave home if I tried that.

Mine get four pouches a day and a small handful of dry food.

Half a tin of untamed sounds nothing - they are tiny?

yes we are transitioning into better food hence today only 1 x whiskas and 1 untamed.

I am wondering about a timed feeder too - but do they only work with dry?

Anyway for now I’m going to give her some seconds!

The rescue place said 2 pouches a day plus a dry snack. That’s what we’ve started off doing but she’s been hungry.

Kittens are perpetually hungry ( zoomies, eat, sleep, repeat) Buy wet and dry kitten food with the highest % protein as you can afford as it fills them up a bit more.

I speak in sympathy as a kitten owner. Our new pair turned up their noses at the food they'd been eating with the breeder and scoffed a fillet of salmon between them in fast order as we tried everything in a panic!

Ours is 2.5kg (tiny). Sometimes she will eat 2 pouches, sometimes 1. We leave dry down all the time. Occasionally she will want more than 2 pouches and will have 3. Couple of days later she is sick! (Not furball).

@Verbena91 @whirlyhead our boy doesn’t particularly like wet food, so he won’t eat a whole tin at once and half gets chucked. We’ve tried allllll the wet foods and this is the one he does best with - he’d prefer just dry but I know male cats can get urinary issues so this is the compromise! The dry four times a day (Royal Canin) is good quality and his preference. Does he look starved?

Our timed feeder has a section for ice packs to go under each compartment to use it with wet food, but we only use it for dry.

So she seems to be permananelty hungry! A bit worried I will do the wrong thing so wanted to check again with the cat owners on here. Today she had an 80g tin of Untamed at 7am, followed straight away by a handful of kibble (Purina), then at 11am a pouch of whiskas. I've just been into the kitchen to make a coffee and she is begging again. Is this normal? She is aged 2-3 years. She looks small.

Does the dry food have a feeding guide in terms of how much she should have? We use that as a baseline, but deduct that we also give a tin of wet. It's quite rough and ready, and he also gets a "chicken yoghurt" and a few Dreamies, but it gives a reasonable "calories in for size of cat" guide. We have a scoop that we use which dishes up the correct amount per meal, but got to that from weighing out on the kitchen scales initially.

I think some cats are just greedy though, like some people. Our last girl was a total gannet and would eat her breakfast then beg for food as if she'd been starved. In Covid she ended up getting a bit fat (again, like some people!) because we were at home all the time and she was getting far more snacks. Having the vet suggest she attend cat Weight Watchers weekly at the surgery was a real low.