Patsy The Anxious Eater

[PatsyTheCatsy]

Hi everyone, I hope some of you might have some insight into how I can help my cat Patsy.
We got her as a very skinny 2yo rescue 3 years ago and she has always had food anxiety - almost constantly looking for food, going on the kitchen surfaces when we're not in the room, stealing food from your plate if you turn away for a second... Recently we've even found her eating food out of the neighbours' bins which is very distressing and cannot be good for her. She is very neurotic and almost panicky about food - like she's starving or may never eat again. This is obviously trauma from before we adopted her but I have no idea how to help her relax.
Unsurprisingly we struggle to keep her weight down. The happiest and most relaxed she is is when she has freely available biscuits but then obviously she just balloons. At the moment she has 50g wet food in the evening and 40g dry split into three instalments through the day. Some days she is relaxed and others she is very stressed about the food.
I really want to help her be more relaxed and happy in her life. Also the obvious health concerns around her being overweight are a big issue too but mostly I just would love her to be happy.
Any suggestions on how I can reduce her intake (or encourage her not to eat elsewhere which I think is the main problem) without just giving her unlimited kibble? Should I up the wet food? Feed her that twice a day?
At the moment she eats Bozita wet food (high quality Swedish) and Orijen Fit and Trim biscuits.

Thanks in advance, very hopeful for a miracle.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I don't know that I can be of much help, considering that Feeby at 15+ yo is still a bit food insecure - and overweight. She was found emaciated and was around 2yo at that time. We obviously let her eat all she wanted to help her gain weight. And, it was dry food that we left out all the time, so she could graze at will. Probably not the best idea, but we did it. She never scarfed much down at once, but she would always check her food bowl (and still does) to make sure there is food in it even if she didn't/doesn't want any at that moment.

Does Patsy eat all the dry that is left out for her each time? If not, take whatever is left over and include that amount as part of the next installment's total. For example, Feeby is given 1/4 cup of dry in the morning, with a second installment in the late evening. If she only eats 1/8 cup of that morning feeding, then all I add for the second installment is another 1/8 cup rather than an entire 1/4 cup. Just a few years ago, I added about 1/3 of a can of wet food for 'dinner', and noticed more of the dry food given to her at night was left over the following morning.

I now feed her 2-4 times a day some canned food (between 1/6 - 1/8 of a can each time - she is a very slow canned food eater), and since I have been doing that she has reduced her dry food intake even more - some days she only eats an 1/8 cup of dry within a 24 hour period.

So, I do think that if you increase the overall amount and frequency of Patsy's canned food installments, but still leave some dry out for her, you will hopefully see her leave more of the dry as she gets more canned, more often. You can watch to see what she does and reduce the dry food amount accordingly.

I am sure other members will come along with some ideas - and, hopefully not be as 'long-winded' as me!

 

[maggie101]

So she doesn't eat out of a bowl at all? Try keeping her in one room and see how she does. Keeping her inside and having regular meals morning,day,and night will help. Outside she has free roam to search for food. My cats are fed 8 am 3-4 pm,8 PM only canned. I do not leave dry out. When she is not eating pull out a wand toy. My cats have whisker free bowls. My cats hunt catch,kill, eat( canned food). So I play with them a wand toy with some attachment,eat, clean themselves, sleep. My 6 yr old likes to play again.

 

[PatsyTheCatsy]

Bumping this to see if anyone else can help.

Thank you to FeebysOwner and Maggoe101, some good tips there for sure.
To clarify Patsy does get meals at home from a bowl, wet and dry food. Since I first messaged we've upped her wet food and decreased her dry, spreading the dry through the day. Generally if we put dry food down (or any food) she will eat all of it very fast and leave no trace. When we were giving her unlimited dry food she would slowly start to reduce her intake but it was still too much per day and she obviously put on a lot of weight.
At the moment I'm concerned that maybe someone else is feeding her because she's really quite chunky and we're not over-feeding her at all. I know that if we force her to stay in the house she will be utterly miserable and I don't want to do that to her.

Any help would be so appreciated.

Thank you x

 

[lisahe]

The best advice that I could offer would be similar to what other have already said, though perhaps a bit more drastic:

-feed Patsy only wet food by gradually tapering off on the dry food
-feed only at set mealtimes so there are patterns for her meals
-four or five small meals/snacks a day is better than just two large meals
-make sure the foods you feed are only low-carb, high-protein foods

We have a cat who's been with us for nearly six years who also continues to have food anxiety. She's never gotten over it, though she does seem to have improved a bit over the last year after years of the the above. Also: her sister was so bad about fishing food out of the garbage disposal and stealing things from the counter that we've had to put certain foods, like bread, out of reach.

I know you don't want to consider this but... since you think someone else is feeding Patsy and know she's been eating from bins (which could cause numerous health problems), it's worth thinking of ways Patsy can be happy staying inside. Our cats are indoor-only but having vertical space -- a condo and a loft they can climb -- plus a screened-in porch/veranda keeps them thoroughly entertained. So do windows so they can watch birds and chipmunks! We have tables or other pieces of furniture with cat beds in front of several windows and the cats love those. They love cartons, too, and we find that moving them around, flipping them, cutting windows or doors in them, or putting toys and blankets inside makes them seem new again. Playing with cats helps a lot, too. (I've seen books about cat games and ways to modify a house for cats; my husband seems to have an intuitive sense of how to do this. I can't believe how well it works!) I know that many people strongly believe that cats should be able to roam but having lost a sweet and much-beloved cat years ago, I would never let another cat out, particularly considering the predators and cars in the suburban neighborhood where we live.

Good luck!

 

[maggie101]

Hi everyone, I hope some of you might have some insight into how I can help my cat Patsy.
We got her as a very skinny 2yo rescue 3 years ago and she has always had food anxiety - almost constantly looking for food, going on the kitchen surfaces when we're not in the room, stealing food from your plate if you turn away for a second... Recently we've even found her eating food out of the neighbours' bins which is very distressing and cannot be good for her. She is very neurotic and almost panicky about food - like she's starving or may never eat again. This is obviously trauma from before we adopted her but I have no idea how to help her relax.
Unsurprisingly we struggle to keep her weight down. The happiest and most relaxed she is is when she has freely available biscuits but then obviously she just balloons. At the moment she has 50g wet food in the evening and 40g dry split into three instalments through the day. Some days she is relaxed and others she is very stressed about the food.
I really want to help her be more relaxed and happy in her life. Also the obvious health concerns around her being overweight are a big issue too but mostly I just would love her to be happy.
Any suggestions on how I can reduce her intake (or encourage her not to eat elsewhere which I think is the main problem) without just giving her unlimited kibble? Should I up the wet food? Feed her that twice a day?
At the moment she eats Bozita wet food (high quality Swedish) and Orijen Fit and Trim biscuits.

Thanks in advance, very hopeful for a miracle.

There was a thread awhile back about someone else feeding her cat
So a collar was put kn her with a note