My cat is always hungry and it bums me out.

[zoes]

Hi folks!

So, I have three cats. Two are a healthy weight with normal appetites.

My third cat is has a much bigger appetite. She is about 6 years old and has been this way since I took her in 4-5 years ago (she was a stray then, and skinny.) She is on the cusp between normal and overweight, but she is petite (still under 10lbs) and I don't want her to get so big that she can't groom properly or move easily. She is also the least active of the three, rarely getting the zoomies, and more of a ground cat with little interest in climbing.

I give her 1/3 cup of grain free kibble in the morning (each cat has a microchip bowl so they can't steal from each other) which she eats immediately, and wet food in the evening which is freely available to all cats, which she eats slowly but is not too keen on. I had hoped she would some day develop enough of a taste for it to eat enough of it to be fuller throughout the day, but that hasn't happened yet. I give the cats a reasonable amount for all three of them, I don't see her eating that much of it, and there's usually a little leftover, so I know she's not ploughing through it the way she does her kibble.

She is healthy, but my concern is more how she feels about it. She starts getting hungry, or at least asking for good, as soon as we get up, which is when we feed in the morning. She is still hungry after she eats her kibble, and watches the other cats' bowls and tries to get into them. In the late afternoon/evening, she will start asking for food several hours before the usual dinner time. She is not easily distracted from her quest for food.

As someone who struggles appetite, I feel this deeply, and I just feel bad for her. I know I'm responsible for their care and health, but I also don't like controlling their environment to the point that they are unhappy for an hour every day. She doesn't understand - she just knows she's hungry but can't access food.

So, does anyone have tips on how to manipulate the feeding schedule, times, frequency, etc to maximize fullness without overfeeding? Or am I overthinking this?

 

[KarenKat]

I totally understand worrying that your kitty is unhappy. I always assume that cats are more satisfied eating wet food, even though she doesn’t seem to enjoy it as much as her dry food, maybe you can try and switch her over entirely? It took our guy quite a while to get used to not grazing on kibble but I think he enjoys it more now. This wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t force the change on him.

You can always try adding a third meal - we actually feed four meals since my fiancé works from home, but if he doesn’t then they get a 6 am meal, a 6 pm meal and a 10:30 meal before we go to bed. It doesn’t stop the early begging for us, but it might help.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Exactly my thinking. Have you tried the tips in this article for transitioning her to ONLY wet food: https://thecatsite.com/c/transitioning-your-cat-from-kibble-to-a-new-type-of-food-canned-raw-or-homemade/ Sometimes it's really a matter of finding the wet food that they really enjoy.

We also feed three wet only meals per day. One when we get up, usually around 8:30 a.m., then around 3 p.m. and again around 10:30 p.m.

So that they are completely satisfied with the wet food, it should probably not be fillled with carbs, which cats don't need in the first place. Meat, meat and more meat is best.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi! Feeby (15+ yo) up until recently had nothing but dry food - free fed. She was a stray, found at around 2 yo and emaciated. Although, she never scarfed all of it up at one time, she would always walk by the dish to ensure there was some in there - so a tad bit different from your girl. She, however, was not restricted and I would put more in her dish if needed. She was given canned food starting 2-3 years ago as one meal, but she still had her dry left out. I do think that she began eating less dry with the canned meal. Now, she eats 4 meals a day of canned, and I still leave some dry out for her - which she rarely touches. I think it has to be a slow process to transition them to more canned, less dry.

Also, I am thinking that if you up the canned food meals, including the morning meal (which is when she might be hungrier) and leave out dry for overnight, that might help. Until you can convince her that she actually likes canned, you can add some toppers to the canned food to help entice her, or even sprinkle some of the dry on top. I would worry first about trying to get her to like canned food more before worrying about her weight. You've got time to do both!!!

 

[zoes]

Thanks for the tips! I'm not fully ready to transition to wet-exclusive feeding. I've tried it in the past and it was terribly stressful, and I lost a cat to fatty liver disease (not due to food transition) and I'm very scared of the idea. None of them like wet food! They like the cheap stuff okay (not that much), but one of my cats is allergic to some cheap ingredient. And currently it would be a challenge financially and with habit/schedule to go full wet - though that's a lesser concern than the rest.

I used to do wet in the morning and they ate less of it. They were willing to wait until the evening to get their "good" meal, it seems, but they get hungry enough to eat the wet food overnight.

Right now she seems hungriest between 4pm-6pm (6pm being her usual feeding time, and she scarfs down her breakfast by about 8:30am) so I think what I might try to do is feed a smaller dry food meal in the morning and feed wet food a earlier in the evening. That way I know for sure she's eating at least something every day, and she has a good option for food in the evening when she's hungry enough. Like I know she's not actually starving when she's hungry - she's a pretty healthy weight currently (about a 3.5 on the scale - she's also just really wideset, like her shoulders are wide, so it's hard for me to tell exactly if she's overweight at all) there's food available and she doesn't really go for it, and if we leave the kitchen for long enough, she just goes to sleep somewhere.

I get an assortment of wet food (all grain-free as another of my cats has allergies.) There's one that I think they (not sure if that includes the cat in question) might like more than the rest, but I can only get them by the case at my local pet store so I hadn't bothered, but it's worth a shot. My only worry is that it's an all red meat-based cat food, though maybe that's not a bad thing.

Thanks for talking this out with me

 

[jen]

If it is the cheap canned food they like, try Fancy Feast or Friskies Classic Pates. (Only!) They are very low to no carb. All the grain free claims are great but just because grain carbs are removed, doesn't mean there aren't other carbs in there which they usually replace with potatoes and peas and things like that. It is ALL carbs, all can make the cats obese, and ALL bad for kitties. Slowly cut back on dry so she is hungrier for the canned.

I would also have her bloodwork checked if you haven't lately. Just to make sure her appetite isn't health related.

 

[zoes]

Good news! For the past 2 days I’ve been giving them a smaller breakfast portion. Tonight? She went for the wet food as soon as I set it down and ate a respectable amount of it (not that much but more than usual).

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

great news

 

[kittenmittens84]

Your mention of the microchip bowl makes me think this might not work, but you can also spread their food out on some sort of big platter/tray/mat so that it takes longer to eat. I’ve found my cat bothers me less about being hungry between meals if he’s forced to eat slower.

 

[zoes]

Just updating this in case anyone comes across this thread with a similar problem.

i started feeding her less dry food in the morning (3/4 of her regular scoop). Whenever she’s hungry in the afternoon (4-6pm,) i give her wet food. I also found she has a preference for red meat over fish and chicken flavours, so I only get that. She now eats her wet food as soon as it’s down and doesn’t look/beg for dry food in the evenings, and the wet food bowl is empty by morning. I don’t why something so simple worked so well, but I’m glad it did!

I’m slowly cutting down on her dry food to shift the balance towards more wet food.

And because I give her wet food as soon as she’s hungry, I don’t feel so bad for her.