Cat is Always Hungry

Hello, everyone.

I have a 8 month old female kitten and she is always hungry. I feed her and when I come back to her, she is doing her, 'I'm hungry.' meow at me. She is constantly licking her dry food bowl, or wet food plat. Am I not feeding her the right about of food?

Her dry food is Fromm: Game Bird and she gets a cup size of 3/4 since she is around 6 lbs. For dry food, it's the Iams: Grain Free wet food. She only gets a can of that. She eat twice a day. Breakfast at 9:00 am and dinner at 7:00 pm.

Is she eating too little, or does she need more food?

I know with kittens your supposed to feed approx 3 times a day.
Maybe wet food for breaky and dinner and leave dry food out during the day for her to pick at while your out.

I can't leave dry food out for her to pick off of. She will eat it all in one go. I can't have her eating feed. I told my vet she eats twice a day, and they didn't say anything a out 3x a day. I did that until she was 6 months old.

I've read ur supposed to feed kittens more often because they are growing.
When I first got my girl (2month old) I only fed her twice a day for the first 2 months I had her and I still feel guilty about it, so good luck to you.
If you've visited the vet and he's told you its ok then why are you asking about it?

I am asking if she needs a bigger portion size, that's all.
Like I said, can't have dry food sitting out because she will eat it all in one go.

My opinion, an 8 month old can eat more, actually as much as they want basically, their high energy burns it off and at this age there is no need to worry about kitty getting fat. It's possible that she will grow in to a large cat too.

I would try increasing her food amts, hopefully curbs that hunger for the most part.

There's no harm in doing this. If after a few months you notice tummy getting too big for her size then you might need to cut back, but I'd go for it, let her get satisfied.

Just a suggestion, but if I were you, I would take her to the vet.  This could be diabetes or thyroid or just a hungry kitty, but it sounds a little extreme, to me.  Just make sure she is ok medically.  

I agree with Catwoman.  Kittens and young cats whom play much, are moveable, and are growing, do need quite a much extra.   Also, remember, no low fat variations. The food shall be rich in proteins and fats.  Quite a much fat.

So, should I feed her three times a day again, or just increase her food amount, or both? I was just not feeding her much since Fromm is high in calories and thought she'd get fat.

My cat had a bit of a health problem, bad diarrhea, but for some reason, Fromm kind of restarted her system. When I took her to the vet, she had gained 3lbs in like in a month and a half. The vet just warned my mom and I about it the calories of her food, so that's why I was feeding her the amount I described. Though if she's gonna burn it off, then, I guess it shouldn't matter.

Thank you, everyone.

StefanZ said:

 
I agree with Catwoman.  Kittens and young cats whom play much, are moveable, and are growing, do need quite a much extra.   Also, remember, no low fat variations. The food shall be rich in proteins and fats.  Quite a much fat.

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Setting aside the question of what the cat needs to eat because of the past diarrhea problem, I wonder if it's the high carbs in the Fromm food that are contributing to the weight gain: the Game Bird food is 30% carbs (dry matter), which is pretty high. Kittens really do need lots of calories but StefanZ is right about proteins (meat proteins) and fats being what they need.

I would definitely increase daily feedings: feeding small meals (they get five a day, which is easy for me because I work at home!) has been a huge help in keeping our always-hungry cat from demanding food. As for how much to feed. That's much harder because individual foods and activities can vary so much. But apparently your cat isn't overweight, right? You didn't say which Iams wet foods you're feeding but might it be possible to increase that -- particularly if it's fairly low-carb? -- while decreasing the dry food a little? A wet food with high protein (and the filling moisture/water that comes in wet food) could help satiate the cat more than the dry food. Lots of people find it's easier to manage a cat's weight on wet food: even our always-hungry cat, who's now four, can eat nearly as much as she wants on a wet-only diet. Beyond that, as our vet's always saying, cats most need protein, which you're going to get the most of in canned food without grains or other carby fillers.

My kitten eats Iams: Grain Free Chicken breast and Chicken Breast with tuna.
http://www.iams.com/cat-food/iams-purrfect-chicken-breast-recipe

SebNari96 said:

My kitten eats Iams: Grain Free Chicken breast and Chicken Breast with tuna.
http://www.iams.com/cat-food/iams-purrfect-chicken-breast-recipe

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This looks like good food, but more so for fully matured cats.

The protein and fat are pretty low for a growing kitten.

General guidelines for kitten food is basically any grain free canned food specifically for kittens is fine, choose according to what you can afford, try to stick to pate, which is not only grain free but won't contain guar gum which the gravy type uses. Kitten formulas will all have higher protein and fat content, just read labels looking for the better but affordable options.

If cost is not a factor, I love Royal Canin Babycat kitten for the first year, canned and dry.

This food is loaded with all the things needed for growing kittens.

I would feed an additional meal to your kitten. If kitten seems hungry shortly after a meal, then increase the amt fed as well

I've been looking for at wet food. I have a year old cat as well and my mom and I don't want to buy two different types of cat food. We would life them to be on the same thing. We definitely don't want to take my kitten off of Fromm.

I was looking at Wild Calling for my cats, but maybe it's not for the best? Should I wait and give it to her till she is a year old?
http://wildcalling.com/products/cat wet food is all the way down to the bottom

Wild Calling foods are very protein-rich and low-carb. If your cats like them, that would be a good one to feed. Wild Calling -- and also Hound & Gatos, a very similar food -- seem to be love-it-or-hate it foods. Our cats won't eat Wild Calling, though they do like Hound & Gatos lamb.

I agree with @catwoman707 about the Iams, it's kind of low-calorie for a kitten, with a lot of the calories likely being in the tapioca.

So, Wild Calling will be good for my kitten? She has had it in the past and actually ate it. She isn't a picky eater.

SebNari96 said:

So, Wild Calling will be good for my kitten? She has had it in the past and actually ate it. She isn't a picky eater.

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I think it's very decent food: it's caloric, with the calories coming from protein and fat, and there's nothing carby. Those would be my priorities for feeding a hungry kitten. If it agrees with her, I'd definitely feed it!

LisaHE said:

I think it's very decent food: it's caloric, with the calories coming from protein and fat, and there's nothing carby. Those would be my priorities for feeding a hungry kitten. If it agrees with her, I'd definitely feed it!

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Thank you!!
I'll make sure to get her some Wild Calling and feed her well!

SebNari96 said:

Thank you!!
I'll make sure to get her some Wild Calling and feed her well!

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Fingers crossed that it works. What is this cat's name, by the way? And which one is it in your avatar? Is it the one that looks Siamese? (I ask partly because we have two Siamese mixes and they're such great cats! )

Yea, the Siamese mix. People believe she is a pure because of her markings, but her mother is a medium haired black cat. Her name is Inari and it means 'rice', in Japanese.

Inari's a beautiful cat, @SebNari96! I especially asked about Siamese because both our cats have some oddities with their stomachs, as it sounds like yours might. One cat barfs if she eats foods with potato (not a common thing but there you go) and the other seems to sometimes have minor nausea. When we adopted them, the vet told us that Siamese and mixes tend to have digestive problems... and they quickly proved her right! That's all the more reason we feed them high-protein, grain-free foods without the carby stuff: that's our vet's general recommendation for all cats but especially for certain types of cats. Like Siamese.