Cat Doesn't Like Breakfast

[orange&white]

I've noticed off and on that my kitten doesn't often eat very much in the mornings. This entire week it has been really noticeable. I offered her 3 meals before noon today and she didn't touch one bite of food until 1PM this afternoon.

She will polish off a couple of good meals per day; one after work (or around 6 pm) and one late in the evening between 9-10pm. She is eating enough calories and has been gaining a little weight every week. She just turned 7 months old on the 1st of the month.

Does anyone have a cat who only eats in the evening (...or only in the morning) instead of meals spaced evenly through the day?

 

[cat nap]

How is your kitten doing, orange&white ?
(My cats are going to be 2, at the end of this month, but they do tend to eat meals spaced out. Though, I would say that they prefer early morning, late afternoon and night...(versus mid day...when they are sleeping). They do get dry, to graze on, and two wet canned meals per day...so it might depend on if your cat gets wet or dry.

Perhaps your kitten is eating more during the evenings, to hold her over throughout the mornings. idk.

 

[orange&white]

Hi cat nap!

Oh, this kitten is good at making a liar of me. I posted this last Saturday, then she ate a good breakfast Sunday through Thursday. This morning she went back to saying "No breakfast today, thank you", and ate only 1/2 ounce. I just got home for work less than an hour ago and she has polished of 2.4 ounces of food, plus she'll get dinner before bed.

For now, I'm chalking it up to her being a growing kitten. Hopefully her appetite won't be a variable once she full-grown. I do have her on early morning (crack of dawn), late afternoon (after work) and late night (before bed). The only meal she decides to skip is breakfast.

She was born feral and I wondered if the woman who put food out for the colony usually didn't show up until afternoon. Sometimes I would see food out for them in the mornings, and sometimes nothing in the morning.

 

[cat nap]

Ha, ha. She sounds like my cats now. The older they got, the more particular type of food/flavour they would like, or suddenly not like. From the beginning they did not like 'shreds', or 'chunks', and no beef. Now it's still pates, but only certain flavours, and if it's been refrigerated, then it has to be warmed up, with warm water.

I hope your girl kitten, does not become as particular as my two guys and one girl cat.
Interesting, about being born feral. Yes, that could have got her started on a certain schedule. But I'm thinking she's just happy with you, and decides to eat whenever she wants, knowing that the food is always now available.

Sweet. What did you name her? And did you have to do more work on getting her socialized, being that she was born feral?

 

[orange&white]

Yes, fingers crossed that she gets less picky, not more picky. I try to keep her schedule. The saucer goes down on the floor, then it gets picked up off the floor after 45 minutes whether she's eaten or not. For a few weeks, I was carrying plate after plate after plate of food to her every hour if she skipped breakfast (on non-work days). Then I figured out she was doing a good job training me...to be her slave.

Farrell. I named my feral Farrell (pronounced "feral"). lol Not too creative was I.

She was "guessed" at 4 months old when I trapped her. I was supposed to release her, but she was tiny and non-aggressive. The first week I spent a lot of hours sitting on the hard ceramic bathroom floor talking to her and getting her to play. My senior cat helped teach her that humans are pretty cool, and that she should not pounce on senior cats. She has bonded with me very well, and is a shy, skittish domestic cat now. Love her to pieces.

 

[cat nap]

She sounds great. Farrell is a very unique name. (at least the spelling is. And the way you pronounce it is cool.)
To me, it's creative...(but then mine are all named after star trek members...just with different spellings. And no, I'm not a die-hard star trek fan, just a regular one.)

Yes, your Farrell, sounds like she was attempting to train you. I think female cats are very, very smart. And they are just cute enough, to get away with it. Though, I think the males are just as sneaky, or use their cuteness to get whatever they want, too.

She was "guessed" at 4 months old when I trapped her. I was supposed to release her, but she was tiny and non-aggressive. The first week I spent a lot of hours sitting on the hard ceramic bathroom floor talking to her and getting her to play. My senior cat helped teach her that humans are pretty cool, and that she should not pounce on senior cats. She has bonded with me very well, and is a shy, skittish domestic cat now. Love her to pieces.

Amazing. And so good of your senior cat to help teach her. (I too remember my senior rainbow cat teaching the young kittens about not pouncing, or how to act, where to sleep, etc.) It does really help for some cats to have an older role model, and feel more relaxed in the home. Though, of course, I'm sure you had to referee and supervise, when the little one got too rambunctious.

I don't know about the issue with cat food. I want my cats to be able to enjoy a variety of foods, so I like rotating the flavours and brands of the wet cat food. I don't want them to become too fussy, either...so we'll see.
Hoping that your girl, Farrell will enjoy all the food, at all the times you put it down. (though, I do think our cats have their own internal schedule, so good luck in finding what works.) As long as she is thriving, eating, gaining weight, peeing, pooping and playing...then I think all is good.

 

[orange&white]

The shelter helped name her. When I dropped her off for TNR, I wrote "N/A, feral kitten" in the blank for her name. When I called to check on her they asked, "What's the cat's name?" I said, "She doesn't have a name. She's a small blue tabby feral kitten." The second time I called they asked, "What's the cat's name?" Sigh. I said, "I don't know. I didn't name her. She's not my cat." They came back on the line to give me the update and said, "The name tag on her cage is 'Feral Foster'". I thought that was pretty cute, kind of like the wild homeless cat version of the late, glamorous Farrah Fawcett. So she got stuck with Farrell.

.

I don't know about the issue with cat food. I want my cats to be able to enjoy a variety of foods, so I like rotating the flavours and brands of the wet cat food. I don't want them to become too fussy, either...so we'll see.
Hoping that your girl, Farrell will enjoy all the food, at all the times you put it down. (though, I do think our cats have their own internal schedule, so good luck in finding what works.) As long as she is thriving, eating, gaining weight, peeing, pooping and playing...then I think all is good.

Yes, feeding cats is a real adventure in and of itself! Thanks for the input.

 

[tabbytom]

orange&white cat nap

My boy has spaced out meals from young and as he grows older, the amount and timed meals are changed.

He ate lots when he was a kitten and now he's almost 1 1/2 year old, his time and amount has changed. So I just monitor his daily calories intake and as long as he hit the numbers, it doesn't matter if he skip a meal or two.

Sometimes he can have a 1/4 can per feed and sometimes he eats one can or more of 3ozs and one hour later he ask for food again. If not, you don't see him asking for food for 5 hours even if you beg him to eat

Once he's full, he move away from his plate and if he has not gotten enough, he'll stay on and while I scoop out the food, he is pawing my hand and like syaing 'Why are you so slow in scooping? Hurry up! I'm still hungry!'

So don't worry if your kitty is not eating on schedule

 

[orange&white]

No, no, no, Tom!!! Don't tell me she's going to be wonky with her feeding schedule after she's an adult!

It's really ok if she wants to not clean her plate every meal. I just don't remember owning a cat before that wasn't hungry in the morning.

For dinner tonight, she ate 1.5 ounces of the 2 ounces I offered her, so she ate .5 ounce at breakfast, 2.4 ounces late afternoon, and 1.5 ounces just now. 4.4 ounces is about her average lately, so like cat nap said, as long as she's thriving, it's all good.

My senior cat ate exactly 1.5 breakfast, 1.5 "lunch", and 1.5 dinner...but he's on a diet and thinks I'm starving him to death.

 

[cat nap]

The shelter helped name her. When I dropped her off for TNR, I wrote "N/A, feral kitten" in the blank for her name. When I called to check on her they asked, "What's the cat's name?" I said, "She doesn't have a name. She's a small blue tabby feral kitten." The second time I called they asked, "What's the cat's name?" Sigh. I said, "I don't know. I didn't name her. She's not my cat." They came back on the line to give me the update and said, "The name tag on her cage is 'Feral Foster'". I thought that was pretty cute, kind of like the wild homeless cat version of the late, glamorous Farrah Fawcett. So she got stuck with Farrell.

I love it. 'Feral Foster'...similar to Farrah Fawcett.
So strange, when you first mentioned her name...as Farrell...I immediately thought of Farrah Fawcett, but did not want to say anything, since you might have thought it weird, or did not know who that was. Wow. (I'm 47 female, and my sister is 44, and we both love watching the 'Charlie's Angels' dvd seasons. As a kid I used to watch it in the 1970's. Now, when you watch it, you notice how funny or odd certain things are...like in one episode they had a guy following them in a car for the entire episode, but only noticed 3/4's of the way through...what kind of detective agency were they?? )

I thought that was pretty cute, kind of like the wild homeless cat version of the late, glamorous Farrah Fawcett. So she got stuck with Farrell

 

[tabbytom]

Yea, as long they are healthy, using the litter box and playing and show no signs of any medical conditions, they should be ok.

I won't get too worried if the eating habits change as long as they get the right amount of calories in.

 

[cat nap]

Both of you... tabbytom and orange&white ...sound like you are really good in math.
What's with all this number crunching??
Oh, oh...I better hit the math books. (seriously though, I know that it's a good idea, to keep on to things, especially where our cats are concerned. )

 

[cat nap]

Once he's full, he move away from his plate and if he has not gotten enough, he'll stay on and while I scoop out the food, he is pawing my hand and like syaing 'Why are you so slow in scooping? Hurry up! I'm still hungry!'

Why are you so slow?? (joking)

 

[cat nap]

No, no, no, Tom!!! Don't tell me she's going to be wonky with her feeding schedule after she's an adult!

It's really ok if she wants to not clean her plate every meal. I just don't remember owning a cat before that wasn't hungry in the morning.

For dinner tonight, she ate 1.5 ounces of the 2 ounces I offered her, so she ate .5 ounce at breakfast, 2.4 ounces late afternoon, and 1.5 ounces just now. 4.4 ounces is about her average lately, so like cat nap said, as long as she's thriving, it's all good.

My senior cat ate exactly 1.5 breakfast, 1.5 "lunch", and 1.5 dinner...but he's on a diet and thinks I'm starving him to death.

But you did say you wake up at the crack of dawn, and feed her then, before work,...so maybe she just does not run around in the middle of the night, and actually sleeps?
4.4 ounces does sound okay. I'll find that calorie counter I posted before, and then you can input the calories in the food she eats, and see if it's about average. Does she eat any dry at all? and I guess it does depend on the cat's activity levels during the day or night, too.

 

[orange&white]

LOL

I bought a really cool scale that weighs cat food...and cats. Want to get my money's worth.

All the meals get weighed and the leftovers get weighed. The cats (and dog) get weighed on Sunday.

With one growing kitten and one senior cat who needs to slowly lose weight, I'm keeping obsessive track of their food. Plus, I'm just kind of geeky in general.

 

[orange&white]

But you did say you wake up at the crack of dawn, and feed her then, before work,...so maybe she just does not run around in the middle of the night, and actually sleeps?
4.4 ounces does sound okay. I'll find that calorie counter I posted before, and then you can input the calories in the food she eats, and see if it's about average. Does she eat any dry at all? and I guess it does depend on the cat's activity levels during the day or night, too.

She's really good about sleeping all night. I wear her out with a feather toy before every meal.

I feed homemade, so I go by ounces of food as a percent of body weight (there's that darned math again! ). Not sure how many calories are in the cat mixes, and they're all different since I rotate different meat proteins.

 

[tabbytom]

Both of you... tabbytom and orange&white ...sound like you are really good in math.
What's with all this number crunching??
Oh, oh...I better hit the math books. (seriously though, I know that it's a good idea, to keep on to things, especially where our cats are concerned. )

I'm not good in numbers. orange&white is. You see her mentioning the number of ounces? I just looked at either full can or half can or quarter can and multiply the number of cans to get the calories

Why are you so slow?? (joking)

Yea, I'm hungry too and I can't move fast when I'm hungry ........

 

[cat nap]

LOL
I bought a really cool scale that weighs cat food...and cats. Want to get my money's worth.

All the meals get weighed and the leftovers get weighed. The cats (and dog) get weighed on Sunday.

With one growing kitten and one senior cat who needs to slowly lose weight, I'm keeping obsessive track of their food. Plus, I'm just kind of geeky in general.

Oh, that is excellent. I think both you and tabbytom are convincing me to pay better attention to how much my cats eat. I usually just go by how much they weigh, and because they are all going to be 2 years old, but various weights and bone sizes, body shapes, fur etc, I don't usually count calories. (I may have to with the big boy cat Tripp, though,...he's starting to look a little triangle-like when sitting down. Pyramid shape.)
I don't call that geeky...I call it attentive. (The better cat guardian...A+ style...versus a B- or C...in my case)

She's really good about sleeping all night. I wear her out with a feather toy before every meal.

I feed homemade, so I go by ounces of food as a percent of body weight (there's that darned math again! ). Not sure how many calories are in the cat mixes, and they're all different since I rotate different meat proteins.

Oh, wow. You do that 'hunt, prey, sleep' (play, eat, sleep) schedule, for cats, then.
And feed homemade. Yup...definitely an A+ cat guardian.

 

[cat nap]

I'm not good in numbers. orange&white is. You see her mentioning the number of ounces? I just looked at either full can or half can or quarter can and multiply the number of cans to get the calories
Yea, I'm hungry too and I can't move fast when I'm hungry ........

Yeah, I don't think our cats really care if WE are hungry or not. The best is when you're in the middle of feeding them, and still get the complaining meows, or 'hurry up' meows. They want you to be 'bionic' and move like a super-hero.

Okay, since you don't do all those numbers, then I'll just give you an A- score, for cat care. It's still better than me.
At least you keep track, of all the cans. (my memory is bad.) Basically, my cats tell me when they need to be fed. And my labrador mix dog, always wants food.

 

[tabbytom]

Okay, since you don't do all those numbers, then I'll just give you an A- score, for cat care. It's still better than me.
At least you keep track, of all the cans. (my memory is bad.) Basically, my cats tell me when they need to be fed.

I have a little whiteboard which I use to record how many cans a day (total), amount he eats and time of feed. So at least with the timing, I can skive a little

He'll meow for food when he's hungry. And I'll ask him 'Are you hungry? He'll meow, meaning yes. Do you wanna eat? He'll meow meaning yes'. But when he's not, even I'm on me knees begging him to eat, he'll not eat