Rescue Kitten seems to feel the need to eat all food in sight

Hi everyone! 

I'm unsure as to where this post should go, but I think this would be the best place for it to go. If not, please feel free to move it. 

My kitten (he is 7 months old - 8 months on 12/6) seems to feel the need to eat all food in his sight. He will eat his wet food and my 14 year old's wet food, I've had to separate them while feeding wet because of this. He will eat my 14 year old's dry food (a mixture of adult Blue Wilderness Chicken Hairball Control and Halo Grain Free Wholesome Chicken) but he will not eat his kitten food (Blue Wilderness Kitten Chicken formula) unless he absolutely has to. 

He will also try to eat our food too. One time I was making stuffed peppers and he actually sampled the raw ground beef. He also likes red sauce, carrots, apples, potatoes, chocolate, pizza, rat food, rat poop, and many other things. 

I do not think this could be a case of feline pica because he doesn't chew on things like wood, plastic (unless he plays with a bottle cap), hair ties, incense, candles, pens, our hair, etc...

So can anyone explain to me why he feels the need to eat everything that is food. lol.

I think it could be because he was a shelter kitty, and was housed with more that himself that it's just a mentality that if he didn't try to eat it all he wouldn't get any food.  

amandad said:

I think it could be because he was a shelter kitty, and was housed with more that himself that it's just a mentality that if he didn't try to eat it all he wouldn't get any food.

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I think you've hit the nail on the head here. Sometimes it takes rescue cats a little while to adjust to the fact they're no longer going to be short of food. It's particularly evident if the cat was starving/very short of food before it arrived at the shelter.

Your kitten will still have a bit of growing to do, and that could well be another factor in his voracious appetite! At almost 8 months I wouldn't get too hung up about his rejecting the kitten food - especially if it's only the kibble he's refusing. A mix of kitten wet food and adult kibble should be just fine.

Do please be careful about what human food he's allowed to eat. Chocolate is poisonous to cats, even in small quantities. There are many other human foods that can hurt (or even kill) cats too, so it's really important that you're careful here.[article="30181"][/article]

Rat food (or rat poop!) won't be too good for him either, so makes sure that's well out of reach.

Lastly, you might want to get him seen by a vet - its just possible that his out of control appetite has a physical cause.

Columbine said:

I think you've hit the nail on the head here. Sometimes it takes rescue cats a little while to adjust to the fact they're no longer going to be short of food. It's particularly evident if the cat was starving/very short of food before it arrived at the shelter.

Your kitten will still have a bit of growing to do, and that could well be another factor in his voracious appetite! At almost 8 months I wouldn't get too hung up about his rejecting the kitten food - especially if it's only the kibble he's refusing. A mix of kitten wet food and adult kibble should be just fine.

Do please be careful about what human food he's allowed to eat. Chocolate is poisonous to cats, even in small quantities. There are many other human foods that can hurt (or even kill) cats too, so it's really important that you're careful here.[article="30181"]Common Foods That Are Harmful To Cats  [/article]

Rat food (or rat poop!) won't be too good for him either, so makes sure that's well out of reach.

Lastly, you might want to get him seen by a vet - its just possible that his out of control appetite has a physical cause.

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Thank you! 

Yes. He is already very huge (about 2 or 3 times as big as the first night we brought him home) but still has a bit more to go. I wouldn't be too concerned with the kitten food that he doesn't like but he has been this way since we brought him home and started to transition him. I don't blame him though, his kitten food is bland (yes, I tried a piece) 

Yes. Theobromine. I am careful. We found out that he liked chocolate because be pounced on my birthday cake (that was chocolate) and ate a small bit of it before we were able to get him off of the table. He ate a piece some of our friends pizza and spaghetti one time, but hasn't tried to since though. Thank you for that link though! I looked at it briefly a few weeks ago.

Yes, our rats like to hide their food and "throw" some out of the cage (plus it's very possible I may drop a piece or two and not realize it fell on the floor - even though I do check not that I know he likes to eat rat food). Their poop also gets whisked out by their tails from their levels. I try not to let Lincoln in the room when I go in there to check on them (and our hamster), but he slips by my feet sometimes. I always try to stop him from eating the rat food and poop by picking him up and picking it out of his mouth, if he hasn't already eaten it by the time it takes to process, pick him up, and get it out of his mouth. I also try to vacuum as much as I can in there, but I have to be careful with the rats since they have very sensitive respiratory systems and dust irritates their systems very easily. The "critter room" door is always shut when Lincoln is out and about because he's knocked down Jade's (our hamster) cage before. 

Lastly, we have taken him to the vet. It was part of our adoption agreement to take him within 14 days of adoption date. Plus he had an Upper Respiratory Infection and we wanted to make sure it was gone after his antibiotic round from the shelter so we could introduce him to our 14 year old cat, our rats and our hamster. He was given a clean bill of health (his stool sample came back negative for any parasites) though he was prescribed a round of FortiFlora because he had tummy issues at the shelter and his poop was still very pudding-like/melted tootsie roll-like (though that could have been from the antibiotics). He's been fine since except for one time when he had a tummy ache because for some reason Wellness Healthy Indulgence pouches do NOT agree with him or our 14 year old. 

Thank you again for your reply. I was pretty sure that his "shelter mentality" was still in him but I wanted to make sure I was thinking the right thing. Also, my boyfriend's cat is the same way (she was a shelter kitty) and she is 17 years old now and is still like that even though she is fed the correct amount of food daily (though they do not feed wet to her). 

It sounds like you're doing great with him. He's lucky to have found such a great mom

Columbine said:

It sounds like you're doing great with him. He's lucky to have found such a great mom

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Thank you! That makes me feel so much better! I've had a total of 9 cats (Lincoln is my 9th) in my lifetime. From the time I was about 6 or so.