Hello everybody, it has been over a year since my wife and I have taken care of our adopted cat pumpkin.  I actually had few questions involving his behavior in the beginning, and everybody at the forum was of great help.  

We have been feeding pumpkin twice a day since we adopted him- 9pm and 9am respectively.  We gave him half of the daily portions required at that time. 

Two things have been happening recently:

1. He starts to meow constantly about an hour before the set time, and won't stop.  he usually doesn't meow at all- sometimes when he is about to jump up somewhere

2. When I give him food, he eats that entire portion up, rarely does he leave some.  If he does, he hangs around for around 15 minutes and gobbles the rest of it up. 

When I first heard him meow so much, I thought he was doing that because the portions I gave him were too little and made him hungry- after all, we are feeding him lesser than what the food packages recommend for a cat old like him.  However, every time we go to the vet to give him a checkup, the vets constantly stress about him being overweight.   Also, every once about two to three weeks, he throws up the entire food he gobbled up.  He is hungry again then, but I am not sure if I should feed him.

Here are my specific questions.

- Why do you think he is meowing constantly, although I am giving him enough food- enough to the point where the vet is saying he is overweight?

- Should I scold/ignore him until the timer is up, or would it be better for him if I give the food to him when he starts meowing?

- What should be the procedure if he throws up?  Should I give more food ?  Right away? Later?

Any other suggestions will also be helpful.

Thanks.

sam

Welcome back, I kind of remember Pumpkin! Love that name. Any recent pictures
$50,000 question: what are you feeding him? Cats feel more satieted with wet food (grain free * or even better, low carb, is recommended); dry food has a lot of empty calories so they eat more food/calories than they need to feel full. Also, low calorie food is usually high carbos/high fiber; again, not what a cat needs. If you need suggestions on what to feed your cat, here is a list.
Is there any way you can feed him sometime between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.? That's a long time for a cat to go without food.
I know: my schedule during the week is such that Ritz goes without food from around 6:15 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. and is absolutely ravenous when I get home. I've considered an automatic timed feeder, but I fed raw and there aren't that many timers out there that would keep food cold for 12 hours.
Like Pumpkin, Ritz throws up about once or twice a week. I've determined it's because she probably has excess acid in her stomach, and can't handle red meat (like beef, venison) on an empty stomach. So I fed her white meat, like chicken, when I get home. She is fine during the weekend when I can feed her more frequently. You could also at 9 p.m. give her some freeze dried treats about five minutes before giving her the rest of her food. (Works in theory, but Ritz would not shut up and usually didn't stop her from throwing up.)
I would wait a few minutes to give Pumpkin more food if she throws up. Ritz always wants to eat after she throws up, so that's how I know it's the food/acid, not because she is sick. My go-to food is baby food (100% meat and broth, no cornstarch), especially when I don't have any food defrosted.
Finally, I forget, what is her background? Ritz and her litter mates and mother cat were abandoned in the streets when they were around four months old; she literally did not know where her next meal was coming from. So Ritz may always have food issues.
* grain free does not mean low carbohydrate. Peas, corn, potatoes, blueberries, etc. are high in carbohydrates, but are 'grain free'.

What does your cat weigh? How many calories are you feeding him? What is his goal weight? How active is he?

Can you try 3-4 meals a day instead of 2? 

I feed at at around 4:00 to 4:30 AM (when I get up to go to the gym before work) - usually figure out a half-day amount of calories as there is a 12-hour stretch. Then at around 4:30 - 5 PM I feed a 1/4 day portion, then another 1/4 day portion before I go to bed at around 10 or 11. When I used to do 2x a day, she would be meowing starting at time we went to bed until 4:00 AM for her breakfast  Now, she may meow before her 4:30 PM feeding but we aren't there to hear it and I kind of doubt it as there aren't people around to try and guilt. Automatic feeders don't matter, as she KNOWS I put the food in there and that I can magically override it or if I won't she will darn well try to break in (this is my experience with other pets I have had too, so I only use the feeders if we will be gone/for convenience of a pet sitter). Plus I fed wet and raw so I need to plan in advance to put meals in frozen for that and I usually don't during the weekday!

What you feed also DOES matter as pointed out above. Jackie eats all grain-free/lower-carb wet and raw, and seems quite satiated on them for the most part. Many of the grain-free/low carb wet varieties (and of course raw) provide seem to have a lot of quantity for the calories, so her meals actually look quite "substantial" even when she does eat them quickly. However, she also really likes her tasty food (now that I figured out what she likes!) so she will try and get more out of me time to time ahead of her next meal...as in everytime I go into the kitchen. I don't give in, as I know she is getting exactly how much she needs in the day even if she wants to eat more, though sometimes I will throw a few freeze-dried treats for her to chase after. She'll follow after me into the kitchen and meow or try and climb up my leg as I am doing something else, and I will give her some head rubs instead, or distract her with a game of fetch, ignore her cries for more food, and when I leave the kitchen she will follow and stop bugging me about it. She's a bit of an opportunist, but she is not hungry. 

I don't have much on the throwing up part. It may be as he is eating too fast, or has allergies. If eating too fast, you may want to consider breaking up his one meal so he can't gulp it...like putting some down and letting him eat it, then putting a bit more down. I am not sure what you feed him, but different "types" of food also take longer. If I feed Jackie raw she will eat it in no time (and be trying to do so before I even put the dish down), but if I feed her some Weruva shreds or something AND add some warm water to it, she can end up taking 15 minutes to lick it, eat the shreds, and usually has a bathroom break in the middle, ha! The Weruva is quite low calorie though, so I need to watch that in her overall daily diet. If that does not work, you may need to pay close attention to what he is eating when he throws up and rule out allergies/sensitivites.

Can you feed 3 times a day? A before work, after work, before bed schedule works well for most people. 12 hours between meals is a long time. Cats are geared toward eating smaller meals more often.

As Ritz mentioned, higher animal protein and fat foods are more satisfying for our obligate carnivores, so if you are feeding a high carb food, that may be a factor. High carb foods can also lead to obesity and diabetes. What is his current diet?

Hey everybody, thanks so much for the helpful and thoughtful replies!

Actually I used to feed her a half cup of orijen per meal before.  (i did half a cup per meal, because he was meowing like crazy!)

Pumpkin was measured to be obese at ~14 lbs.

After that, I wanted to get him some good food, so I got this:

Merrick Before Grain #1 Chicken Dry Cat Food, 11.1 Pound Bag

As with the wet food feeding, I tend to not do so because for wet food, I cannot it store it for more than a day or two-  I tried feeding a portion, but I would usually have to store the leftover in the fridge- and feeding the leftover isn't good, because if left for him to eat right from the fridge, it will be too cold for pumpkin to properly digest, but heating up in the microwave makes it very very hot.  Besides, I don't know how I would change my portion for dry/wet food content now.  

Also, this is a complete side question:

1. Does anybody here have an insurance plan for your cat?  What do you think about getting one?  (pumpkin is 8 years old)  The minimum rates for 100 dollar deductible is asking for ~40 / month.

2. where do you get your cat treated?  Do you go to a vet or a care center?  It is because our vet is charging us 60 dollars for just a general checkup, and after getting one done last november, they are requiring that I get another one again before they can administer the rabies shot that is due for him.  The vet says it is because they cannot administer the shot without going through the general checkup again if we haven't taken him for the shot in a given amount of time.

I know it is for the welfare of pumpkin, but I am not sure if my vet is trying to take care of my cat, or just administer more shots and more tests.  It has been such pattern for a while now- every time I go for a checkup, the vet has advised to get this shot, and this test, and this shot again, usually making each visit bill out to over 150 dollars.  I know that it is to keep pumpkin healthy in his age, but I get the feeling that the vet is taking advantage of this fact, more so recently. 

thanks for your care and opinions!  I will update with a more recent photo of him asap

Regarding cold food: does your microwave have a 'defrost' or 'reheat' cycle. That might make the food the purfect temperature. (Ritz, I swear, she'd eat frozen raw food....)
Regarding your two other question, I would suggest you starting a separate thread. Meanwhile, here is a thread that talks about pet insurance as well as this one.

thanks so much for your post- I haven't thought of using the reheat option- I will see if that will make it better.  Opening any type of frozen can will make pumpkin will race for it as well, but I think his tummy will disagree!

Thanks for the thread searching regarding insurances.

It seems any type of plan that will give a half decent care, covering for basic vaccinations with minimum deductibles (~50) will cost me 50+ per month almost wherever I go.  I guess the next question will be to look for places that give more affordable care than the local vet.  I will start a new thread.