My Cat is Always Hungry! Please Help!

I have a lovely British Long hair cat. He is over a year old, 6 kg, very healthy happy and playful.

The problem is that he is always hungry! no matter what, whenever we go to the Kitchen he thinks we want to give him food so he comes and wait close to the fridge. His doctor said once that we shouldn't give him more than what we give now, because he has a bit of fat around his belly (not much). so I bought him light dry cat food. 

I give him 40 gr wet food morning, 40 gr evening and and a bowl of dry light food during the day is available for him,

because the dry food is diet food, he doesnt like it that much, thats why all the time he is running after us to get more wet food. 

It makes me feel bad when I see he is hungry. what should I do? could you please advise ....

Feeding only wet food helps cats lose weight.

One of my cats was a couple of pounds overweight and we got his weight down by feeding almost exclusively wet food. Now he only gets a little bit of kibble at night to entice him into his bedroom. He is a "hungry hippo" type too, but I find with his schedule now of 3-4 small meals throughout the day he doesn't act starving so much.
So I'd recommend feeding all wet if you can, and adding an extra mealtime if possible. Personally, I wouldn't leave the kibble out all day for him to graze on if you want him to lose weight. And it doesn't sound like he's eating much of it anyway.

I do not know what "a bowl of dry" means in gr, but I can tell you this:

- light dry food is an awful marketing invention that lowers the calories in kibbles by removing some of the protein (which isn't much in the first place) and replacing it with carbs (grains). As you can imagine, cats don't really thrive on corn and wheat and soy or rice. And they do not keep him full, so he is always hungry.

- 80 gr of wet seems rather too little for a 6kg boy. If the wet food is complementary (like Applaws or Schesir) or full of byproducts and grains, I understand why he is not feeling satisfied.

So, in my opinion, first thing you should do is switch from free feeding to scheduled feeding. Most cats do best on three meals a day, before work, after work and before bed, even if they are not evenly timed apart. Second thing is, if you still want to feed dry, give him a grain free kibble. Third of all, most adult cats do well on 5.5 oz of wet a day, that is a 160 gr can of complete grain free premium wet. A 80 gr of wet should be fine with some dry, anywhere between 20gr to 50 gr depending on the food, the cat's size, metabolism and activity.

I would also like to recommend www.catinfo.org , a site written by a vet who not only knows a lot about nutrition, but also has experience in dealing with feline obesity (not that your cat is obese , maybe just a bit chubby)

I completely agree with IrinaSaK. Cats are obligate carnivores who need animal based nutrition. Light dry food is usually very poor nutrition for a cat, low in animal protein and fat and way too high in carbs. Cats actually seem to feel more satisfied and do well on a high animal protein / moderate fat / low to no carb diet. The catinfo site also has this handy comparison chart of foods. http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf I'm not sure how many of them are available where you are, but it can help you figure out the nutritional profile that you are looking for.

I also agree with going to a scheduled meals and cutting out any free feeding. Here's a great thread on why that is good and some tips on how to manage it. http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264675/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals-and-new-food

You are lucky that kitty doesn't want the dry food, it is sooooo bad for them.

It is probably also making him hungry because it is high carbs.

An average 10 pound kitty will eat about 5-6 oz. of food. Converting to metrics it seems your kitty is on the large side, about 13 pounds. 40 grams food only equals about 1.4 ounces, so he's only getting 2.8 oz. wet food when he really needs about 15 calories per pound at minimum. So if I'm calculating right that means he needs one 5.5 oz. can plus another ounce or so at minimum. Since he doesn't like the dry food, that's why he's hungry all the time--he's not getting enough food unless he eats the dry food he considers "yucky."

Hi all, 

thanks for the advice. Sure, I try to change the schedule from tonight, I hope the kitty will become happier