Hungry hungry kitten.

[TashaLyn]

Jade is 5 months old and this girl acts like she’s never been fed; every time I feed her. She had a rough start. We got her at 12 weeks and was told she was found in a garbage can. She was skin an bone. She’s getting some serious meat on her now. I have 3 other cats who eat adult food and she’s still on kitten sensitive food because she was infested with tape worms and it made her really sick. I feed her in a separate room than the other 3 because she has gotten into their food and ended up vomiting 17 times. I also can’t leave her food readily available because the other 3 will eat it. Jade acts like every meal is her first... ever!!! She scarfs it all down in a matter of seconds. I feed her on average 3-4 times daily and she gets about 1/3 c of food each time. Is this behavior normal for a kitten that had a rough start? Is there a way to fix it? Her vet said she’s eating plenty and gaining weight accordingly so she’s not concerned with her being hungry. Any suggestions?

 

[di and bob]

A kitten should be fed as much as they want until they are around a year old. Their metabolism is so high they consume a tremendous amount of calories to keep up with how much they use. Of course she is going to scarf her food up if she only had food once in a while at the beginning of her life, it is pretty much engrained in her now. If she is near her ideal weight and eating so much, you might want to change her to adult sensitive stomach feed to save on some calories. Keep some deli shaved turkey around to give her as a low calorie treat, it might fill her up some. Canned food also has less calories, less carbs, then dry. Try feeding her as much as she wants of the sensitive formula and see if she gorges so bad she pukes. The if she does, you might just feed her more often, like you are doing now. She hasn't been around food for that long, eventually she will feel that food WILL be available and stop eating so much. It will just take time. A few weeks is not enough time to change her habit. It may take months more. I would feed her a little more every few days until she can eat her fill and leave some. Then it might hold her for longer. All the luck!

 

[LTS3]

A microchip feeder for each cat might help. The SureFeed one is popular. Each cat wears a little tag and the feeder is programmed to only open when that specific tag is detected.

Maybe an "all life stages" food would work for all the cats so it won't matter who eats what food.

Former strays are very food insecure so they tend to eat as much as they can at once and get an upset tummy as a result. Many outgrow the insecurities but some cats don't and sometimes stress causes the food hoarding behavior to come back.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

If you don't want to go with a microchip feeder as suggested above, IF it's possible to feed her smaller meals more often, I'd try that. It might not slow her down, but certainly might stop the regurgitation from overeating. It's very possible this will be a lifelong issue because of her rough start...each cat "recovers" differently. You may eventually need to resort to things like raising her dish, using a slow feed dish, that sort of thing to prevent the regurgitation from overeating or eating too fast. I had to do that with one of mine, along with smaller more frequent meals, and he'll be eleven years next week.

Some people say that canned food is much more satisfying for cats, which might help. Certainly less carbs, more protein would be more filling for them. You didn't mention exactly what you are feeding other then "sensitive food", but you might consider looking at high protein, low carb canned food.at least for some of her meals