My cat begs to eat constantly!!

I got a cat a few months ago that was in foster care for the first year of life. She was fixed shortly before I got her (her belly was still shaved).

When I got Kiwi she was a very petite cat for a year old, weighing only 5.5 lbs. In the last two months, she has "bloomed" to 9 lbs, and looks heavy around the middle.

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Kiwi starts howling at me to get up from the moment my alarm goes off... no snoozing aloud! She howls at me until I get out of bed and go feed her. We feed her 2/3 cup of good quality dry food twice a day(which already seems like too much) , and she will not leave the bowl until she has eaten every bite. Anytime you walk by the bowl she's begging. If you take a nap and get out of bed again, she wants to be fed again.... even if she just ate two hours before.

She is a very playful cat... and cuddly and seems relatively happy, with the exception of her food obsession....

I'm wondering if she was so petite to begin with because she was housed with many cats in foster care, and maybe had to fight to get enough to eat (I'm imagining a big bowl of food and 8 cats around the bowl). I'm worried that she eats it all because she's paranoid it won't be there later.

We switched her to a weight control food (Nature's Recipe) which she still gobbles down like nobody's business.

We're wondering if it would be comforting to her if we kept the bowl filled? Wonder if she would lose that obsession with food if it were always available to her? Or if she would just put on a ton more weight. I certainly don't mind her being a normal weight, but I don't want to put her health at risk.

Any advise is appreciated.

Thank you,

Jenny

Answer by Kate
Hi
i think you have hit the nail on the head. i think this obsession could be because she is afraid the food won't be there later. this is common with cats who have had to fight for there food early on.

however the worst thing you can do for her is to make food available all the time, this will simply encourage her to eat it all and this will cause excessive weight gain.

The best thing to do is to check on the box of food of how much she should eat every day (i would recommend going back to a normal cat food) weigh this out and give her three to four meals from this amount throughout the day at regular intervals. yes she will beg at first but you have to be strong and not give in, sher is not hungry this is just a bad habit. After a while she will get used to the routine meal times and should settle down.

Also make sure she has been wormed. If not then this could be the reason why she is so hungry all the time and may account for the swelling around her middle.

I have a couple of pages about cat worms which you may find of further interest here

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-worms.html

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/worms-in-cats.html

best wishes Kate

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