Am I starving her?!?!?

Just a little background -- I first came to this forum for help with Roxie's weight issue. After lurking for a while and finally posting I found some great information and changed her diet a great deal. I now feed her Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Indoor formula dry and wet as well as Nutro max wet.

My question is regarding our feeding schedule. I feed her 1/4 of a 5oz can in the am, usually anywhere between 8 & 9. Then when I come home for lunch at 1:30 I give her 1/3 cup of dry food. She will then get another 1/4 of the wet at dinnertime, which is usually anywhere from 7-9 depending on my schedule.

She has been slimming down nicely. I think she looks fantastic and is even more playful. She used to be scared to use her cat tree because it wobbled due to her heaviness but not anymore .

Lately she has really been driving me crazy. Starting anywhere from 6-7am she will just cry and cry until I am forced to lock her out of the room so I can get that last precious hour or two of sleep but then she will just sit outside of the door and cry!! She doesn't stop crying until I feed her around 8 before heading to shower... and then she will cry at me when I get out!!

This has been going on for well over a month now, maybe even two months. I had been feeding her less dry (1/4 cup) but bumped it up thinking that may help. I have learned to sleep through it so that is not the issue. I just feel bad leaving her to cry for 1-2 hours. She acts as though I am starving her!

I think I am definately feeding her enough but I could be wrong. Should I add a little more dry at lunchtime? Or maybe give her a 4th meal before we go to sleep? I can't just leave her bowl full because she will gorge herself and we have been making such great progress.

Sorry for making this such a long post but it is driving me nuts! Thanks for any help you can offer!

I call it wet food itis ... try giving her the wet at 6 instead of 8 then you can have some peasce

Originally Posted by sharky

I call it wet food itis

... try giving her the wet at 6 instead of 8 then you can have some peasce

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So I'm not starving her then? You'd never know it from the sounds of her


She is getting enough food though right? So I should basically just bump up her feeding time? I'll have to give it a try tomorrow.

I think you should add in some more wet. I also have an overweight cat and I give her a 1/4th of wet 3 times a day and 1/4 cup of dry at night. And she also has lost weight on this routine. I would like mine to eat a little more wet and get rid of the dry at night but she seems not want to give up that dry.

I can't say I know whether you are feeding her enough or not but I would think as she slims down and becomes more active she would need more food (calories actually).

2.5 oz wet and about 2 oz dry for wt loss seems okay... but how much does she weigh ??? and what should she weigh??? If her ideal wt is 8-10 lbs it is about the right amount via the charts ... you could give a late night meal and see if the morning crazys start later ( personal experience get up and fee been doing it for 20 plus yr s)

Odo's been driving me crazy over food lately too. The last few nights, I found that when I give him a small bit of dry moments before I go to bed, I get to sleep until the alarm goes off rather than have him hit me in the face to wake me up (he knows meowing doesn't work). I had been feeding him 6 ounces of canned food split into two meals as I was trying to keep him from gaining more weight (he was just at the 12 pound mark), but lately he's been sliding back a few ounces so I figure the extra food is okay, and it allows me to sleep in peace rather than wake up grumpy every morning.

This is kinda funny (in a strange way), my cat Roxy, is overweight & I've been having the same dilemma with her!

What I think it is with my cat, is she LOVES the wet food, & begs for it. She does it even if she has dry food in her dish. Maybe that's what your kitty is doing too? Just begging until she gets what she wants?

How much were you feeding her before she started losing weight? Food deduction / weight loss should be done gradually.

Originally Posted by sharky

2.5 oz wet and about 2 oz dry for wt loss seems okay... but how much does she weigh ??? and what should she weigh??? If her ideal wt is 8-10 lbs it is about the right amount via the charts

... you could give a late night meal and see if the morning crazys start later ( personal experience get up and fee

been doing it for 20 plus yr s)

Click to expand...

In March at the vet she weighed 12 lbs. and the vet said her ideal is 8-10. She is a smaller cat so she had that big round belly. I don't know exactly what she weighs now but she looks slimmer and feels lighter, maybe 11ish pounds.

Originally Posted by Jenny82

How much were you feeding her before she started losing weight? Food deduction / weight loss should be done gradually.

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Originally she was being free fed. Even before the vet told us she was overweight we knew she looked it. I stopped free feeding her and slowly decreased the amount of food she was getting. At that time she was only eating dry. Then we went to the vet and he told me just to measure the amounts I was giving her, which obviously hadn't been helping. So I came to this forum and started feeding wet along with her dry after the TCS advice I had gotten.