Can't break the bad food behavior

Last September I took in a stray that had showed up outside a friends house. I feel like I have done a pretty good job assimilating her into my house and life. The one fairly typical stray cat issue i just cannot control and have not yet found a good solution for in all my research is how to get her to stop focusing so much on food. Her mind is on food all day...she trips you when you walk into the kitchen, she wakes you up scratching at the door at 3 am, she spends 90% of the day near the food cabinet, she gets moody around the other 2 cats if we dont feed her right away. She's miserable and we're miserable when she's on a regulated food diet, but when we give her full access to food, her weight skyrockets and is SO hard to bring down.

Any creative suggestions? I'm reaching my breaking point with this...

Kimm

Hi and welcome to the site . What do you currently feed this cat? Any canned food? Scheduled feedings? What about calories, do you know how much she is getting. Was she checked for worms when you brought her in? I am assuming so, but intestinal worms could cause her to be very hungry. Some cats are just always wanting to eat. I have one cat that way too. There are cat treat balls you can buy at pet stores and fill them with some kibble. When the cat knocks it around, the kibble falls out. This would keep her occupied and refocus her attention away from the kitchen and offer her something to play with as well. You could also try more frequent small meals throughout the day so she feels like she is getting more, just give her the same amount of food but divided into a few offerings.

Once you let us know what you are feeding her, how much and how often, we would be happy to help.

I love the idea of the those cat food balls...where would i get one of those? I have a petsmart near me, I can check there. I have seen them for dogs.

She was checked for worms back in Sept, she tested neg. She is on Science Diet Sensitive Stomach, which is just what I have been feeding my other two for a couple years because they both had a very resilient form of Coccidia when they were kittens. Just dry food right now. I was told to feed her 1/4 c a day but that just seems outrageously low so I have been feeding her 1/4 c TWICE a day, once at about 4 am (she wakes us up!!) and again at about 5 pm. We were also feeding her a small amount before bed at 10 pm to try to get her to sleep in longer but dropped that. Not sure about the calorie content, the bag doesn't have that info.

Possible diet food so we can feed her more? Wet food to keep her feeling full? More fiber? Spray bottle when she meows for food?? automatic feeder to feed her more times a day?

My 5 each get 1/4 cup of dry 2 times a day plus about an ounce wet food once a day. This satisfies them, but they are not very active. A more hyper cat would need more calories.

An automatic feeder with the dry food amount split into 4 feedings would probably help her, and maybe you could sleep in. I've seen those feeder balls at the big box pet stores, or you can get them on line.

Please don't spray your cat with water when she begs for food. It won't work, she won't understand, and she may start to avoid you. She's not doing it to annoy you. She sounds distressed. All my cats were strays that I got at a shelter. And none of them harass me for food. She may not be getting enough. Or, it could be the kind of food.

Your vet does know about this behavior? There are a number of health conditions that could be causing this.

Robin

Our Jake used to be a complete food hound. He wanted to eat all the time. He would wake my son a few times a night and was only satisfied when he was fed. This was a nightmare. I purchased an automatic feeder that has a timer on it that schedules 2 small night time feedings. I only give me about 1/2 T. each feeding. This has worked wonders for us!! We started with a Pop up feeder, but Jake was able to get his paws under the pop ups and eat it whenever he wanted. Then he would cry for more. The digital feeder is awesome. It was a bit expensive but so worth it. It also works great when we are gone for the weekend. We have the Ergo Systems Auto Pet Feeder Medium. I purchased mine in Nov from Drugstore.com , but it looks like they are out of stock right now. If you do get an automatic feeder make sure you can control the amount of food that is dispensed. Many of the feeders are made for dogs so they dispense 1/2 or more cups of food at a time. I only wanted mine to be dispensed in pieces of kibble. I can control the amount of kibble let out by the amount of time I let the shoot be open. On this machine, it can be done to the second. Each second drops about 3-4 pieces of kibble.

Good luck.

Yeah, I def don't think I want to go any lower than 1/2 c a day. She's very inactive, besides running into the kitchen constantly. I have talked to two different vets about this. The first vet told me to get an automatic feeder but was really unconcerned about her weight gain. This cat came to me as a stray, with barely any fur on her body, a raging ear infection and flea ridden, at almost 12 pounds. I thought she was pregnant! She was very unhealthy yet still overweight, and I didn't feel like that was normal. After the unconcerned vet appt I noticed that she was also peeing a lot more than my other two cats so I took her to another vet to do testing for diabetes and thyroid...both came back neg, but she did have a urinary tract infection. We dealt with that, and the questions about her diet went on the back burner again...

Thanks for the suggestions about the auto feeder, I was wondering how they worked and did hear about cats being able to stick their paws in and get the food out. I will look around, I'm willing to put the money in for better quality if it will help.

Here is a link to the feeder that Jake could get open. The price was great, but in the end it didn't work for us.

http://www.petco.com/product/100573/...+2+meal+feeder

Here is the digital one that we have been using since November. It is awesome!
http://www.petco.com/product/14429/E...et-Feeder.aspx

I did look at that petsafe 5 meal feeder. I dont mind having to fill it each day, my concern is really more about getting her fed more times a day. Thats a great price too. I'm tempted to try it, but I have a feeling that if it didnt work for your cat, it won't work for mine. You aren't kidding about the expense of the Ergo system though...I don't know if i WANT to put down 130 dollars! I wish there was an in between, but almost all the feeders are max 3 times a day and min 1/4 c feeding. I want like a few pellets every few hours

I don't think you should go lower than 1/2 cup of kibble a day. I think it may not be enough.

For what it's worth, the kibble all my cats eat is Wellness Healthy Weight. It's not as tasty to them as some other brands, but they all eat it all everyday. I have one on a diet regime, so they are all gettong that, for now, for their two dry meals a day (1/4 cup 2x a day plus canned meal once a day). I weigh them all once a month to monitor their weight.

Robin

I think if I was to feed her 4 times a day it would be 6am, 12, 6, 12am. I could do like 1/8 c feedings, just a small handful. Then maybe a can of wet right before bed at 10 get the canned food in.

Robin - I checked out the Wellness Healthy Weight food...I love it!!! I actually really like that you say it doesnt taste as good. I read a lot of reviews from people saying their cats didn't like the taste but I feel like I could eventually wean my cats into it and if it doesn't taste as good maybe she wouldnt be as obsessed with eating it. And this brand is almost exactly the same as Science Diet in terms of price. Awesome.

We've been looking for new food for a while now...I have so much trouble finding good sales/coupons for this particular Science Diet (sensitive stomach never goes on sale!) and it has been 3 yrs since the boys Coccidia problem so I feel like its time to get them off the Sensitive Stomach. Thanks for the tip!

You can sign up on the Wellness site for their newsletter. It comes monthly and always has coupons for wet or dry food for dogs and cats. I never get the food without a coupon.

Good, I hope it works out for you.

When changing dry foods, a gradual change is best. Add a little (like 1/4 the total) mixed in for a few days, and gradually increase the proportion of new food to old food over a couple of weeks.

My cats only get 1 ounce of canned cat food a day, at dinner time. That's only one third of a small can. And I mix about a tablespoon of warm water into that to increase their fluid intake. Most of them eat it all, most days, within 1/2 hour, which is all the time they get because Claude, my overweight boy, is locked up during this meal. Claude gets Natural Balance Reduced Calorie Formula canned food. He's been losing 1/2 lb. a month on this regime since December, The rest of my cats get regular (not diet) canned food, and though they eat the Wellness Healthy Weight dry food, they haven't lost hardly any weight (and they don't need to).

Wellness sends me coupons through e-mail and snail mail, and I buy at Petco, so get $5 coupon for every $100 spent (with card).

Robin

When I got home and could read the cans, I saw I had given the wrong name in my post above of the canned food that Claude eats. I corrected it.

My cats (except for Claude) eat on rotation canned: Wellness- grain free, Natural Balance (one of these two every other day), BG (may drop this as they don't like it much), Solid Gold, Soulistic (pouches), and Taste of the Wild.

I'm open to trying other quality foods. I rotate because I think it is safer, and it keeps my cats interested.

Robin

Great, I'll check out the Wellness website to sign up.

I like the idea of changing wet foods consistently, that seems like a decent idea and might save on money. I'm heading to petsmart tonight to check out their selection, look at food balls and auto feeders.

This is a great start, thanks for all the helpful suggestions guys!

YES!!! I highly recommend Robin's food, Wellness Healthy weight. I think your kitty needs to feel like she is getting more, but not really much more than you are already feeding. I would also recommend wet food as part of her small meals during the day. The treat ball is at Petsmart, since you are already going there, just ask the employees and they will show you where it is. Much luck and I think the four small feedings a day for her will help tremendously .

If you can afford it, switching to wet may also solve your problem.
Many a begging cat have stopped begging after being switched to a wet food diet, including my own.

I'd consider switching to wet completely, but I'm a bit concerned about the smell. I know a few people who use completely wet and their house always smells like cat food. They leave it down all day though, that might be why. I did read that it should only be left out for 30 mins at the most. Also would not be excited about having open wet cans sitting on my fridge all the time.

I don't think you will have a problem with wet food sitting out. If your cat wants to eat all the time then she will devour the wet meals you serve up . So there won't be any wet food sitting out as I am sure she would finish it all up. There are plastic can covers made for canned cat food for when you store it in the fridge. No smell whatsoever. They are very inexpensive and can be found anywhere that sells canned food.