Poor Jennie...any insight?

Last year around this time Jennie became so voracious about food I brought her to the vet a month earlier than she was due. At that visit, vet recommended increasing her food intake a little. I did, and though she gained weight and is chubbier than I am happy with, it seemed to help.

Well, here it is March again, and Jennie has gone crazy about food. She will barge into any dish, except on Tolly. She acts frantic about it and cries when I take the stolen food out of her reach. She's already too fat, I just can't offer her anything extra.

Her diet is more varied now too, but she still is just going CRAZY about food.

It's not hyperthyroid. She is glowing with health, except for the fact that she is too fat.

So its got to have something to do with the season. I don't know what her life was like before I rescued her, except that she was raising a family of four all on her own at the time, and the vet said judging by the state of her uterus she'd had at least three litters.

Perhaps she used to get pitched out at the change of seasons, and had to scrounge for food then, and it's so deeply embedded she is reacting to an instintive fear.

I just don't know. I feel bad for her, because she just wants to eat all the time. Just now she was going berserk, really berserk over getting into everyone else's food.

Except Tolly's, like I said she won't barge in on him, but she knows he never cleans his dish so she waits........

PS I should add that Jennie will eat anything, given opportunity, any time of the year. She is always skulking around waiting for the other cats to leave their dishes, or trying to snatch food from Mazy's dish.

But not like this. Her behavior has gone way beyond the norm for her, and it happened this way the same time of year last year. She is downright frantic about food.

I just feel so bad for her.

Thank Laurie. Jennie does have one or maybe you could call it two restrictions. She has to be on a grain free low-low fiber diet or she has a terrible time with constipation.

She does steal Mazy's c/d kibble with some regularity, she has a knack for barging in, scooping up 5 or 6 kibble into her mouth all at once, then slipping back to her own meal spot. She then drops them on the floor and gulps them one by one. I know that doesn't help, the weight issue, but I do try to keep track of how much she's stolen and give her slightly less food when it happens.

The Merrick Before Grain cans I have ordered to try with her are significantly lower in calories than the grain free wellness. Wellness cans are quite caloric. (The BG is also slightly less protein though their marketing makes it sound like they are one of the highest by saying "96% meat". Odd, isn't it?)

This is a good point, thank you. There are no mice here in the house, and Jennie does get a fecal done every year and it's always clear. She isn't losing weight either, which she would be if she had a parasite. But it would be a consideration for a cat who is allowed outside.

This is what I am thinking too Amy. I think Jennie has a deep instinct to stoke up this time of year because this is probably when she was getting pregnant in her former life.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can help Jennie counteract this anxiety until it passes? I've just put the feliway diffuser in and will keep it going for a few weeks and see if that helps.

Thanks for your ideas, it is the same advice I give to people, LOL!

I play interactive Games with the cats every day. They have many toys, including cat nip ones, both home made and bought. Jennie doesn't have any favorite toys and she is difficult to motivate to play, but I never give up on her, and can usually get her moving for a few minutes anyway.

Jennie doesn't yowl for food, she just goes berserk if there is any food around. She barges in frantically on the other cats, gobbles hers as fast as she can and barges in again.

This time of year, I often have to shut her in the other room until the rest of the cats finish their meals.

This is how it is at my house too Robin! Each cat has his or her own meal spot, and they know the rotation of who gets fed first: slowest eater Mazy, then Tolly and Queen Eva and lastly, Jennie.

Most of the time this works just fine. But when this time of year comes around, Jennie forgets all her training and manners and just goes berserk. She can't wait at her spot, for some reason she just is compelled to barge into the other cat's food.

So I do sometimes shut her up until the others are fed, and then let her out to get her own. When she is finished (first, even though she started way last) I have to pick her up and put her back behind the screen until the others are finished. It's the only way the other cats get any peace in eating.

Hopefully the feliway will help lessen her anxiety somewhat and in another month or so this instinct to stoke up will pass, like it did last year.

I just feel so bad for her. Otherwise she is perfectly happy content cat: she loves to stretch out on me

It has been tried. I tried Jennie on pumpkin when her constipation issues first began.

I have not had a cat yet who would eat pumpkin, or food mixed with it.

But...for what purpose? Aren't squash and sweet potato starchy?

Here's what I have been thinking about today, after I read your post and started thinking about starch.

I just ordered some Before Grain to try. While comparing the ingredients it occurred to me that all those fruits (and the carrots, that drives me crazy, carrots in cat food) in the Wellness aren't much different than just adding a bunch of sugar to the food.

Cats don't need fruit, and all it does it convert into sugar when it's digested. And you know what sugar does? Sugar makes the body release insulin, and that makes the body HUNGRY!

So..I'm thinking this Wellness she's been on for the past three years has been the worst thing for her. Yes, it has controlled her constipation issues, but I really am thinking the fruit may be the culprit to her hunger. I know Wellness is very low in carbs according to the lists I've seen, but...I'm going to see how she does on the Before Grain which does not contain any fruit or vegetables. And I think I will try her on more of Queen Eva and Tolly's foods too.

Looks like I may be phasing the Wellness out, after all, now that I've thought all that through. It makes sense don't you think?

So that may be a long term solution for Jennie, even if it doesn't stop her March cycle of instinctual need to stoke up for an impending pregnancy and litter, it may help her for the rest of the year. I hope.

Thanks for your reply and suggestions. I don't know where you got your ingredient list but below are the ingredients for the Wellness grain free canned chicken and the wellness grain free canned turkey. the Beef&chicken she gets contain the same fruits and veggies as listed here also

Wellness grain free canned chicken:

Chicken, Chicken Liver, Turkey, Chicken Broth, Carrots, Natural Chicken Flavor, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Zucchini, Cranberries, Blueberries, Guar Gum, Dicalcium Phosphate, Carrageenan, Ground Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Taurine, Iron Proteinate (a source of Chelated Iron), Beta-Carotene, Zinc Proteinate (a source of Chelated Zinc), Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Cobalt Proteinate (a source of Chelated Cobalt), Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Proteinate (a source of Chelated Copper), Folic Acid, Manganese Proteinate (a source of Chelated Manganese), Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Biotin.

Wellness grain free canned turkey

Turkey, Chicken Liver, Chicken, Chicken Broth, Carrots, Natural Chicken Flavor, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Zucchini, Cranberries, Blueberries, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Ground Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Taurine, Iron Proteinate (a source of Chelated Iron), Beta-Carotene, Zinc Proteinate (a source of Chelated Zinc), Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Cobalt Proteinate (a source of Chelated Cobalt), Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Proteinate (a source of Chelated Copper), Folic Acid, Manganese Proteinate (a source of Chelated Manganese), Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Biotin.

..and so on.

Carrots have no nutritional value to cats and convert very quickly to sugar. I pick them out whenever possible. Cats make no use of the antioxidants in cranberries or blueberries.

They may seem like minute amounts to a human, but when this is what a cat eats for every meal, the cat is getting more fruit, veggies and sugar than she needs, and cats are tiny compared to humans.

In addition flaxseed as a source of omega oils is not all that great either, cats need omega oils from fish.

The more I think about it the more disillusioned I am getting with Wellness, though I did think she was doing well on it.

I don't really like your suggestion to feed her something she doesn't like in order to decrease her appetite. Cats will starve to death rather than eat something they don't like. This is because a cat can only go a few days without food before the liver fails.

And besides, I want her to enjoy her life and her food. What fun is life if you are forced to eat something you don't enjoy day in and day out?

I realize I took the thread slightly off topic talking about her diet and changes I am thinking of making, when my main issue was her change in behavior from "always hungry" to down right voracious every year around this time.

Thanks! I love my Jennie-Jennie

Yes, feline nutrition can be a bit daunting, and of course the bottom line is, will the cat eat it.

Thanks, I know, those toes just slay me! And she loves to show them off, that front legs stretched out position is her "Ultimate contentedness" position.