Cat with huge appetite

BrideOfRecession · by **BrideOfRecession** » Fri Jan 13, 2022 10:28 am

Hey everyone, bit of an issue with one of my two kittens. They are from the same litter, both girls and about 5-6 months old. One of them has a huge appetite. She is constantly looking for food. Crying all the time like we have never fed her, even just half an hour after we have. She eats so much food. I feel awful cos she is just meowing all the time. We bought KiteKat last week and some whiskas pouches, the hungry cat ate everything. The other was a bit more fussy and only would eat the pouches. The hungry cat will even eat the dirt when I am sweeping, seriously - she is just a great big hunga! The other one just eats when its out, doesn't go looking for it at all. Should she be this hungry? I feed them a good few times a day, small amounts - it all adds up to about two pouches each and then dry food out all the time for them to nibble on. But hungry cat will eat extra, even pushing other cat aside so he can get his grub too! We have had to start feeding them separately so skinny cat gets his proper portion. She is getting fat around the tummy while other cat is actually bigger in size but not tubby IYKWIM. HElP ME!

SaraD08 · by **SaraD08** » Fri Jan 13, 2022 10:49 am

silly question but are they both wormed? This maybe causing her to be hungry..

also have you thought about changing them to a higher quality food... kitkat and whiskas etc arent great (sorry no offence intended) if you change to a higher quality food then they will be getting better nutrition so possibly be less hungry.. higher quality food you will feed them less... as they will need less quantity due to higher quality IYKWUM

http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/dry_cat_food

here are some good cat food.... im not a cat owner so i cant recommended a brand..

best of luck... :o)ll

ps... post some pics :wv

disney08 · by **disney08** » Fri Jan 13, 2022 10:58 am

I would second the recommendation to get a better quality food than kitekat, it might help fill the kitty up a bit better. Royal Canin is great and they have a wide variety of foods to choose from. We didn't have our cat when he was a kitten so I dont have any experience of their kitten-food types.

If you are worried maybe get your vet to check her over, will put your mind at ease.

Are you sure she is hungry, and not just meowing for lots of attention. We fed our cat a lot as he always sounded hungry, but he got quite fat. He's on a diet now and still meows a lot but sometimes all he wants is to play a game or get petted. Loosing the weight is proving hard though so we will have to go to the vet soon for some suggestions.

BrideOfRecession · by **BrideOfRecession** » Fri Jan 13, 2022 11:12 am

They were both at the vet before Christmas, de wormed and all that, told they were in perfect health. They are not mad on the dry food but I will buy a bag of that premium stuff today as compared to the premium wet food it is cost effective, don't know how much difference that would make though as they only nibble on it. Maybe a premium brand will go down better though and they might end up liking it more than the pouches. The wet food, I'd love to buy but it is so expensive. It would cost us 50 euro a week which we just don't have. All of the cats I have had since I was a kid ate Whiskas and it never did them any harm or left them hungry.

Thanks for your help.

ETA - yep def she loves attention and that sometimes distracts her but not for long, she will run up to the bowl and start meowing again for a feed.

disney08 · by **disney08** » Fri Jan 13, 2022 11:45 am

BrideOfRecession wrote: All of the cats I have had since I was a kid ate Whiskas and it never did them any harm or left them hungry.
.

We've had lots of foster cats and they were all mad on Whiskas and Felix and they grew up to be healthy energetic things. And they were never left hungry either. Maybe your new kitten is just a bit different

Royal Canin do a variety called "Exigent" - one is highly aromatic and another is highly flavoured, to appeal to fussy cats I think. Maybe if your cats aren't mad about dry food this might change their minds a bit? Pet shops sell it in small bags for about €5 so at least you wouldnt be too much out of pocket if they don't like it. We buy larger better value bags for €30.

Just re-read your 1st post - it's strange your kitten eats dirt! ...though ours loves to eat flies... gross.

BrideOfRecession · by **BrideOfRecession** » Fri Jan 13, 2022 11:52 am

disney08 wrote:
BrideOfRecession wrote: All of the cats I have had since I was a kid ate Whiskas and it never did them any harm or left them hungry.
.

We've had lots of foster cats and they were all mad on Whiskas and Felix and they grew up to be healthy energetic things. And they were never left hungry either. Maybe your new kitten is just a bit different

Royal Canin do a variety called "Exigent" - one is highly aromatic and another is highly flavoured, to appeal to fussy cats I think. Maybe if your cats aren't mad about dry food this might change their minds a bit? Pet shops sell it in small bags for about €5 so at least you wouldnt be too much out of pocket if they don't like it. We buy larger better value bags for €30.

Just re-read your 1st post - it's strange your kitten eats dirt! ...though ours loves to eat flies... gross.

I'll have a look for it in my pet shop - thanks Disney.

BusyDee · by **BusyDee** » Fri Jan 13, 2022 9:32 pm

Ah when did you get them BOR? I assume you never found your other cat?

Do you know does the hungry one only eat the wet food or does she eat the dry nuts too? If she is only eating the wet food then that might be why she is hungry - there's not really a lot of substance in it and doesnt keep them filled for long, you could try adding a small bit of wet food to some nuts and gradually reduce the amount of wet food and increase the amount of nuts - my 3 will nibble on nuts all day but if they dont get wet food at least once a day I will know all about it!!

Other possibility is she could have hairballs in her tummy from grooming herself. This will fill up her stomach leaving little room for food so will be hungry constantly, one of mine suffers from them, you can get a paste to give them and it kinda sticks the hair together in their tummy and helps them to pass it. You can get it in the vets.

by **too soft** » Fri Jan 13, 2022 10:16 pm

cats are funny creatures we have 2 and they are both greedy.the stray cat we took in will eat everything used to eat bread but has got clever now and wont eat it we wormed both and the stray cat isnt as hungry but the house cat is gone mad for grub so its a hard one try the royal canine we feed the dogs this and the cat is even tooking into the dog nuts.i thhink the more you feed them the more they want they devils but ya have to love them

lolabelle · by **lolabelle** » Sat Jan 14, 2022 6:51 am

One of ours is like this. She gulps the food down so fast that sometimes she vomits.the whole lot back up. :duh:

We do things a bit differently. We leave dried food out all the time and just give them wet once a day. We buy premium wet like Royal Canin and divide a pouch between them. It encourages them to eat more dried food.

BrideOfRecession · by **BrideOfRecession** » Sat Jan 14, 2022 11:48 am

Yup - we got two new kittens there before Christmas, Loki and Cleopatra. Lola never came back unfortunately.

Ok - was down at the pet store yesterday and priced a few things. The wet food is so expensive! The dry is expensive but def not as bad as wet. I am worried they won't take to it though. MIght try your idea Lollabelle and give them one premium wet pouch a day and then the dry the rest of the time. It won't be so expensive then. Thanks everyone for your help, great advice as always.

BrideOfRecession · by **BrideOfRecession** » Thu Jan 19, 2022 10:30 am

Quick update - I found a website called www.zooplus.ie and it had so many brands of cat food to choose from so picked one called BOzita, it's made in Sweden where there are strict laws on the ingredients of cat food so it is high quality but not high priced. ALso bought some premium dry food and loads of other things (oops!) but it will keep us going for ages. HAsn't arrived yet but I can't wait for them to try all of their new things!

Girl From Mars · by **Girl From Mars** » Thu Jan 19, 2022 8:58 pm

BOR we had a similar situation with our cat, had her on whiskas pouches and she couldn't be fed enough! When we brought her to the vet for a check up she said she was underweight- we couldn't believe it! We explained how much she'd been eating and the vet said because of the low quality of the wet food it was just going through her and she wasn't getting the nutrients she needed. Vet recommended Royal Canin and we haven't had any problems since.

Just so you know if the food you've got is a dry food they have to be gradually moved on to it over the space of a week or so as it can mess up their tummies to suddenly change it. Good luck with the new food but if you change your mind on the brand I wouldn't hesitate to get the Royal Canin, they've a lot of varieties and in the long run it works out far cheaper than the pouches, it's just the initial outlay seems big but it last ages.

by **kitty092011** » Fri Jan 20, 2022 9:05 am

We have both our girlies on Burns chicken and rice dry food and they love it. The older cat has a huge appetite and is a tiny little thing but eats like a horse, the Burns food seems to satisfy her, we tried everything for her and she just saw them as treats but always went back to the Burns food. The younger cat was so fussy when she strayed into us but took to Burns food straight away, she loves getting up for her little nibble during the night. All the other foods we tried seemed to make her hyper, she was literally bouncing off of the walls. We buy Burns from our vet and the bag which costs €11 lasts almost 3 weeks for the two of them. You should look up the Burns website it makes for interesting reading.

MrsAH · by **MrsAH** » Fri Jan 20, 2022 9:13 am

We have a similar problem with our cat who is minute! She eats non stop and cries for food. Turns out she has IBS (Irriatable Bowel Syndrome), just like a human. She doesn't absorb food as well as a normal cat hence the need to eat more. It's a double edged sword though because she gets 'backed up' and then needs a laxative, and sometimes steriods if it's really bad.

Since she was diagnosed, we have changed her food, and she gets a weekly dose of laxative and she is doing great.

Does your cats tummy look bloated at all?

BrideOfRecession · by **BrideOfRecession** » Sun Mar 11, 2022 4:34 pm

OK guys, I got some really expensive high quality food, both wet and dry. The cats have been on it for over a month now but there is no change in Cleo's appetite. She meows all the time, constantly looking for food. We think she must be eating at a neighbours house too cos we have strictly restricted her feeding but she is still putting on lots of weight. Mrs AH - she is not bloated just fat, I'm afraid. We have a cat litter tray which she uses regularly so we know she is not constipated. We don't know what to do - I don't want her to be overweight so young, it can't be good for her. She also just got spayed so we are supposed to reduce her feeds even more but I feel so mean cos it's like she is starving all the time. We really don't know what to do...

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