Outdoor Cat- Eating habits

Hello Everyone,

Visiting this site after a long gap of 10 months.

I wish to know about eating habits of cats that stay outside. My  2 yr old cat Molu is totally an outdoor cat. He but comes to visit me once a day early morn or late night. And till about 8 days ago he had been eating well his food that I fed him He has been coming home to meet me, hug me and to eat for the past year. But now he do comes home, but stays only for 4 minutes or even less, is not eating anything, only drinks water and after a hug goes back outside in the dark cold night. I am worried as he has stopped eating. And I also wonder what does he eat outside. One night I stalked him and saw that he travels about half kilometer from my house and goes towards the main street and enters a big house. Also I saw that in that area there were few stray cats and he has made friends with them. Most probably he lives among them. But what is he eating. No human here is going to provide any animal any food. So how is he or other cats surviving. I am worried that he travels from so far each day just to meet me and goes back without eating. Thanks.

Is the big house you saw him enter inhabited? If it is, somebody there may be feeding him. If not, it may be infested with rats or mice he's catching. Does he look ill and/or underweight?

In addition to hunting, many cats living exclusively outdoors will scavenge, e.g. pick garbage cans outside restaurants or steal food from dogs fed outside. They may also go into homes with cats and eat their food. Years ago we took in a feral cat that had survived by hanging around grocery store parking lots and stealing food as people loaded their cars.

Thanks Jcat. Yes people live in that big house. It has a garden with big trees. It doesn't seem my cat is ill. He was limping few days back as might have landed in some concrete and his paw was hurt but next day he was again back to his toes. He is also not underweight. Here in my area no one is having cat as pet so he is not getting any cat food. Many times I watched him during day time too either he is sitting above a roof or terrace of a house or following other cats.

Infact one of his friend cat followed him one day and reached my house at night and saw me giving him food and hugging him and taking him in my lap. She was looking through the window. After this that cat comes alone to my house and meows at my door and asks for food. And I have started feeding her too. She also after eating goes away.

I asked the vet about my cat not interested in eating and he gave me liv 52 drops to give him and a booster dose of minerals and vitamins which I have started giving 1ml once a day. I just want that he eats so that I am satisfied and not worried that he goes hungry. Also earlier he used to stay for two three hours with me but now only for few minutes. I am worried maybe one day he stops coming to me then? I love him very much more than my own child.