Aamira stays but need advice

Can't find my other posts on this.  If you read any of them I was pretty disgusted with the cat I adopted.  She was biting me, demanding hours of play, following me to the kitchen, & jumping into my plate of food.  Got the biting & play resolved but had to lock her up to eat myself & even to give her food.  She would grab her dish before I could get it to the floor & spill the food all over.  I took her to the vet two days after I got her & was told that she could not gain weight & should be fed no more than 225 cal per day. 

A week ago I called the original shelter where she came from to get more information. They said she was starving & extremely under weight when she came in.  I guess that explains why she was digging in the garbage disposal for a crumb of food.  My friend,with a lot of cat experience, told me to give her whatever she wants whenever she wants it & to leave food out when I leave.  This is supposed to convince her that there will always be food for her.  My tiny cat ate 12 oz of food at one sitting last night. 

Today we had about as much as well as 1 oz of raw.  Really liked the raw but I am just starting with this,.  She is now acting like a normal cat but I can actually see the lump of food in her body.   Has anyone else had a cat that had been starved & what did you do?  She is very contented & has become, if you can believe, picky.  I am just afraid that after a few weeks I will have a 20 lb cat. Before  I was feeding her a 5.5 oz of Instinct everyday which was about 225 cal.  This is supposed to be enough for a 7 lb cat but she would eat her food in less than 1 minute.

If she was starving before, that certainly explains her behavior around food. Your friend gave you good advice. If food is always available she will learn that she doesn't have to eat all she can for fear there won't be any more. She will eat a lot at first both because of fear of food scarcity and because she has catching up to do for the time when she was starving. Eventually her appetite will level off.

I adopted a cat from the shelter years ago, who they said was about 3 months old. She had been found digging through garbage cans for food. When we took her to the vet he found she was more like 7-8 months old, based on her teeth, but was very small from lack of food. Over the next few months she ate a lot and grew a lot, but she ended up a perfectly normal healthy cat. She was never overweight in her life.

Thank you for your reply!  I am so sorry for your baby!  Every time I think of all the little ones starving it makes me so sad.  I wish I could find  & feed them all!

I work at the shelter where I adopted Aamira & we are not supposed to call other shelters for information & they supply none except medical treatments.  I just said I was an adopter & they never even asked for my last name.    It is a real shame that I have had her for three months & didn't do this earlier.  My vet said she was just a chow hound but I didn't go back to her with my concerns because this is only my second cat.  I gave my first cat whatever he wanted & he kept his weight the same all by himself.  Other people told me most cats were like this & not to worry about it. 

If you read any of my other posts we have had a terrible time together.  The first month she followed me around all day, didn't sleep & was constantly wanting food or play.  Plus, she was play biting me at every opportunity. I actually did not want to come home & deal with her.  I foster kittens & tried similar techniques but she would just keep coming at me.  My friend coached me on all things but nothing worked.  I adopted her too soon after my first cat had to put down.  He was perfect around the house & I told my shelter I was considering bringing her back; that she needed a more active home.  As a last attempt, except for her basic needs, I started ignoring her & locking her up if she continued biting.  This worked & as the human in the relationship I decided how much play was enough.  Maybe all of this bad behavior was her way of trying to get my attention for some food. 

I appreciate that you had a similar experience & that your kitty stopped eating too much.  She came to our shelter just a little under weight which she quickly gained.  We had her at the perfect weight for her size but as I said she has been frantic for food the whole time.  She has done nothing but eat can after can of food for the last three days.  I tried to cut back a small amount but then she was up on the counters again.  She is very contented but I am afraid to weight her as she is bursting at the seams.  I am so happy to hear that your kitty eventually kept her weight down & encouraged that mine will do the same.

Thanks again!