acting like he ha snever eaten..

Hi all, I have been having trouble with my Buddy cat.. He acts like he is starving to dealth.. I feed him morning an night, but he still acts like I don't feed him.. Our Vet Dr. Pepen said he needs to loss weight so I have had him on a diet for a while.. He is 18 lbs now and the dr. wants him at 15 or 14 lbs.. Any suggestions would be awesome..

When he acts like this I feel like I am a bad mommy!

Cats will gulp their food, and if they have lived on the street for any length of time, they will eat anything and everything you put in front of them.

I would invest in an automatic feeder and set it to dole out small amounts of kibble thoroughout the day. Our cats are sometimes the victim of our own eating patterns and habits. They really have small stomachs in reality. My vet is famous for saying "Feed the cat, not the bowl."

Hissy, Buddy was not on the streets.. And Buddy is over weight he said "my vet".. Dr. said he should be at 15 or 14 lbs! Bud Buddy acts like I am starving him to dealth!

Well then, the mommy has to be strong and be firm about sticking to the diet. Just go about it gradually like Hissy suggested (feeding him often but in reduced amounts) so Buddy may not be aware that he is dieting and hopefully will lose those extra pounds in no time.

Thanks all.. I will be talking to the vet tomorrow and also I will be looking into a automatic feeder.. I hope this helps..

I talked to the Vet this morning.. They said the food i am giving him is a weight control and I should be giving like 1/2 cup morning and night.. And do this for about a month or two and bring him in to weigh him and see if it is working or not.. So I will go ahead and try this.. We will see.. No wounder my poor babys where starving.. I was under feeding them!!! grrrr

Could Buddy have a case of worms in his tummy? Just a thought...

cateyes, I took him to the vet.. And he had to open him up and it was a large hair ball and he had some string in his intestions.. So, he is all better now..

Hey all, We went to get Buds staples out today! His area looks awesome.. It healed great and everything.. He was such a good boy.. They also put him on a diet cat food.. So, The dr. said he want's him to 16 lbs.. So we will see if we can get him down to that.. Then after a month being on this diet he want's to see Bud back in a month.. He's such a brave soul kitty! He's my hero!!!

Having similar issues with my Oliver. He tanked up because the Walmart brand Maximum Nutrition stuff I fed him for 18 months had like 20% fat content and I was feeding him almost a cup a day (and he's active but not active enough to burn that off). He developed a pouch, and when my friends started calling him "Cartman" (in reference to the South Park character who's 'pleasantly plump') I knew it was time to make some changes. That's when I discovered that his old food was fatty, so I got some of the Purina special diet stuff. He likes how it tastes, no problems there.

Here's the trick to annoying behavior -- FEED HIM IN THE EVENING! Even wait until bedtime. then he won't bug you for more by morning, then if you work during the day you're gone while he's all moody over not being fed, then by the time you get home he's about given up on eating...

ALSO, don't feed him much can when dieting! Oliver gets a snigle can when I get through a bag of food (about a month's time). It's a treat and a surprise. No table scraps.

Consider this a time where you need to exercise your owner's-rights and do best for your cat (and not necessarily what your cat thinks is best ).

I have food out for my cats 24/7 so they can eat at free will. There is no weight problems. I do have 8 cats and they can keep each other company and play a lot. One thing to consider when feeding and I have found this out about 8 years ago. I used to feed my cats canned food. Sometimes I would mix it with dry. I had one cat that always acted like she was never fed and she was over weight. I now feed my cats Eukanuba dry. If you check the nutriton levels, it's not so much as the fat content you need to worry about, but the amount of protien compared to the fat. The Eukanuba dry has a fat content of approx 22% but the protien level is approx 34%. Most canned cat foods only have a protien level of about 8-12% with a high fat and moisture content. So in the end, your cat may need to eat more, because they are lacking the protien they need. If you are giving them all canned, they will be getting way to many fat calories. With the higher protien foods, the eat less. Even though the fat content may be high, they are eating less of it, because they are getting all the protien and nutrion they need from the higher quality food.

I certainly would not withhold food from any of my cats, they get dry food three times a day, it stays down for about an hour then it gets taken up. They also get canned food in the evening. None of my cats have a weight issues. The only cat I ever had a bad weight issue with was Dunkin- a near victim of drowning and abuse, most of her stomach muscles were stretched during the abuse and her back legs were wrecked as well. She had no control over what we called her swag belly and her sidesaddle walk.

Withholding food from cats all day to stop a behavior issue, is really not the answer.

MA I agree I free feed Loki dry - he only eats when he is hungry because he knows it's there when he is. He dosen't try and glup down as much as possible only because he could not get any if he were hungry.

When I first got him he would act like he was starving and never had any food. It tokk about 3 months for him to realize that food would be available anytime he is hungry.

Poor Dunkin Did someone try to drown that cat? I just can not believe people sometimes.

Hey all, Well, Buddy does have a BIG pouch... So, the Vet put him on a prescription food.. He is acting a lot better now.. I feed them in the morning.. When they wake me up.. Bud would wake me up at 6:00 in the morning and would not give up until I feed em.. So, last night was the first night I gave him the new food and he didn't wake me up until 7:30! I was so happy.. LOL.. So, they will be feed again around 6 or 7 tonight.. The vet has told me to do all this.. Bc fat cats can become Diabetic!!! And I don't want my bud to become that..

I would keep the food down 24/7 but bud would eat his food & jesses food.. So, now I have to put them in different rooms.. So, I am hoping he will lose weight!..

I don't understand why people are saying that wet food is bad for diets... from my understanding the best way to lose weight is with canned food.

Take for instance.. eukanuba weight management is 30% protein (dry), and the wet food I'm feeding my cats is 45.5% protein (remember you have to use dry matter analysis!)

Whats the deal?

Hmmm, I have never seen a canned cat food with that high of protein levels. (What brand do you feed?) Not even canned food that is made for a wild cat like Amber. There are canned foods for exotic cats and they do not have that high of a protien level. Both the canned and dry food would be considered dry weight. I know there are dry foods out there, that are like the Atkins diet for cats. My vey has it. It has a very high protien level and has less carbs.

woodsygirl, Your black cat looks jus like my buddy! Hehehe.. I also will be going to MD Sometime in April! I have never been there.. But some family is down that way! hehe

Amberthebobcat,

Many canned foods have protein levels that high, it's just that you have to take the moisture level into consideration and calculate the dry matter analysis with a dry matter formula. You can't just look at the labels and compare them because the moisture varies so much, you have to do the calculations in order to get the right numbers to compare the two foods (I really wish someone would make them label things differently).

Hills has a really good interactive calculator and explaination of dry matter analysis and comparing wet and dry foods since the labeling is so difficult and different between the two. They have an example on the page as well, it's pretty fun to just try it with a couple of different foods to see an actual comparison

Here's a link to the page and the calculator:

Hills dry matter calculator

The cat food I am feeding my cat is Lamaderm, she has poultry allergies and it's difficult to find food for her. She's also overweight, so I'm giving her canned food in an effort to help her.

Ilovejb- I always wanted a black cat, and I was so happy to find Mynx at the animal shelter 7 years ago... he's such a snuggly sweetheart, though he's very territorial. I hope you enjoy your MD visit.

woodsygirl, Yea, Bud is the oppisite of your kitty.. He doesn't like to cuddle or anything.. LOL.. I will try to have fun!