Cat always hungry with new fiber food!

[michelleandbig]

So my 3 year old cat has always been healthy up to a few months ago when he started having episodes of vomiting and not having any stool. Long story short he ended up having a couple of enemas and was prescribed Lactulose for a few days and was put on Gastrointestinal food from Royal Canin. It wasn't doing the job so they suggested we slowly switch to the Gastrointestinal Fiber Response from Royal Canin. We're following the instructions for his weight (13 pounds) and he's literally devouring his food like I've never seen and then begging for more as if I forgot to feed him. Anyone have any ideas?!

 

[red top rescue]

Someone else had that problem with their cat and a similar Royal Canin food, which had nothing much digestible in it.  I will give you a link to that thread as a lot was discussed in it. The owner eventually got him a much better dry food, Orijen, and he had wet food already, and that solved the problem.  It sounds like your cat desperately needs a lot more moisture in his diet as well as some muscle meat   (not just by product meal, rice, corn gluten meal, wheat gluten and powdered cellulose) and his body is telling him he's starving.  I believe that his vomiting and impacted stool were caused by his dry food diet, which is not at all healthy, and not what a cat is designed to eat.  (See www.catinfo.org, which is written by a vet with a thorough knowledge of cat s nutritional needs).  The new dry food you are feeding your cat is still a dry food, and he needs more water, not more fiber.  Cats do not drink enough to fully hydrate on a dry food diet.  This new food is not too different than what the other woman was feeding her cat, and he acted like he was starving too.  Here are the ingredients of your Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Gastrointestinal Fiber Response Dry Cat Food:

Chicken by-product meal, chicken fat, brown rice, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, wheat gluten, powdered cellulose, natural flavors, egg product, dried plain beet pulp, potassium chloride, fish oil, sodium silico aluminate, grain distillers dried yeast, calcium sulfate, sodium bisulfate, DL-methionine, psyllium seed husk, salt, fructooligosaccharides, monosodium phosphate, vegetable oil, hydrolyzed yeast, taurine, choline chloride, L-lysine, magnesium oxide, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), niacin supplement, biotin, D-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin A acetate, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), vitamin B12 supplement, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement], marigold extract (Tagetes erecta L.), trace minerals [zinc proteinate, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, copper proteinate], rosemary extract, preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid.

Here is a link to that other recent thread.  Compare this to what her cat was eating, as listed in the thread, and why the food was actually the problem. 

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/319123/obsessive-eating

Getting rid of the Royal Canin food and replacing it with Orijen solved her problem, which was only that the cat was meat-starved.  I believe your cat is water starved as well, so just switching to a meat based dry food will cure the hunger but he will still have the problems with the constipation and vomiting, so you MUST get him switched over to a primarily wet food diet to avoid future bouts of constipation and vomiting and trips to the vet for enemas.  He will feel so much better!  Please do read the information on catinfo.com regarding the importance of a wet food diet.

 

[Columbine]

I'm guessing the fibre response is a dry food (I can't see a wet fibre response on the RC site, anyway). Dry foods are often much less satieting than wet foods for cats - partly because they're so calorie dense, and partly because of the higher carb content. Cats aren't designed to eat carbs, and so find them far less filling than the same caloric quantity of meat.

You could try using a puzzle feeder/slow feeder to force him to slow down his eating. This in itself could help him feel fuller. Another option would be to make him flavoured water and offer that as an extra 'meal' This has the extra advantage of keeping his fluid intake high - increasing hydration can only be a good thing, especially with a dry diet and constipation history. I'll usually poach some skinless chicken in plain water, and feed the liquid to my guys. They go nuts for it

You could also try offering a little poached chicken breast (or even a sachet of a complimentary food - such as Applaws chicken and pumpkin sachets - go for shreds in broth of some sort) as a little extra treat. Do check with your vet, but this shouldn't cause much of a problem, as it'd be low calorie and easily digestible - and might well make the difference between a hungry, miserable cat and a happy, satisfied one. I did this when my girl was on the RC gastrointestinal wet food - she absolutely devoured it, and would have been pretty hungry if I hadn't supplemented a little. It worked well for her, but the situation was very different to yours (re-feeding a skeletal, starving rescue cat).

 

[Columbine]

Just adding - I absolutely agree with everything that red top rescue said...and that is certainly the first approach I'd try with my own cats. I'm just offering a slightly more conservative option. I can well understand that another radical dietary change could feel scary when it seems like you're only just getting your boy's digestion to stabilise