Cat obsessed with food

Hi there! This is my first post on here and joined specifically to ask this question hoping someone has dealt with or solved my problem.

So I have 2 indoor cats a male and female, both spayed and neutered and both about 5 years of age and have lived together most of their lives. My male cat, Calvin, is well behaved outside of feeding time. I feed them twice a day dry Wellness food and understand cats have routines and schedules and stick to them. Calvin will start meowing, screaming, an hour, or hours, before feeding times in the kitchen. We do separate them when feeding because Calvin will gorge his face with the food then run to try and eat our other cat's food ( I get it survival).

I guess I'm just confused on why after 5 years he continues to be so obsessed, and annoying, about food. When he was younger I thought he would grow out of it, realizing his food supply is consistent and he acts like a starving feral. This is human food too. Anytime we reach for the cat food he starts screaming. He will intentionally wake us up by ripping up papers and knocking over loud objects to get us up and fed. We don't give into this behavior, because it's like a child, why reward bad behavior. So we do ignore him, but this is daily, two times a day. We have been using a water bottle to dismiss his meowing, which is temporary, and I don't see this as a permanent, or positive, solution. He is a normal weight, if not a little husky and am not sure what to do at this point.

Has anyone had this problem...and solved it?

Thanks for reading this long post!

Joey

Has he ever had labs done to have this thyroid checked? It sets off hyperthyroidism alarms going by what you said, but he is a bit young it sounds like. Plus it just seems like something else is going on.

Have you ever brought this up to your vet by chance? And water bottle will probably not help the situation, but make it worse. 

Many medical problems can increase a cats apitite, one of my cats is hyperthyroid - before treatment she would constantly be hungry. My other cat had pancreatitis a while back and initially her apitite increased massively she was always begging for food. So a vet trip maybe in order.

However if this is a long term problem and he is not loosing weight and doesn't seem unwell it may not be a medical problem. Maybe he is just hungry, you could increase the amount you give him. Feed him more than twice per day - use timed feeders if you are out all day. The extra food and routine may settle him down. Obviously keep a check on his weight - if he starts putting on too much you will have to cut back on the food. If he stays at a good weight it is ok to give him more.

to TCS!

Joey sounds like our Mogli, who's been with us since March of 2013 and still hasn't had his "fill". Mogli had IBD and was malnourished as a result when we adopted him from the shelter. We figured he would eventually stop begging and stealing human food, but that hasn't been the case. He gets two main meals a day and two snacks, but is always "starving" and trying to get us into the kitchen to feed him. We just tell him "It's not time yet", try to ignore him and put child locks on our cabinets.

We've had other shelter pets like that, but eventually they started to display normal appetites.

So - no solution, but you're definitely not alone in having a food-obsessed cat!