I have a cat problem, My cat is always. He was born a stray, and "adopted" (until he was about 8 months old and started spraying) by the people who lived in the same apartments as my daughter. They kicked him out of the house and refused to neuter him even though my daughter and I offered to drive him to the vet for them. His owners moved away and he lived in the apartment parking lot for about 4 months, my daughter feeding him when he came to her door.
After his owners moved and left him, my daughter had him neutered, wormed and put Advantage on him for fleas and made sure he would use the litter box so I would take him home and adopt him. Well, she talked me into it and I brought him home and totally fell in love with him. We think he's going to be 2 years old next spring.
He was so skinny when I first got him, and I'd never had a pet before so I gave him probably twice the food he needed. When he hurt his paw, I took him to the vet and the vet said he is very healthy, but he needs to lose weight and to cut down his food intake by 20%.
Since I've cut his food intake, all he does is beg constantly. He now gets into the garbage (to lick my old lasagna TV dinners) and we've had to lock up his dry food or he climbs to the very top of the shelf and gets in it. He is always hungry. I feed him a high quality dry food in the morning and a low fat, high protein wet food before bedtime. But no sooner do I feed him, but he starts begging. (Meow, Meow, Meow) He even wakes me up at night for food, which I refuse to give him because the Vet said he could get diabetes or other health problems.
Is he hungry all the time because he remembers living in the parking lot, or are some cats, just hungry all the time?
Cyinda from Seattle, WA
My first thought is that you kitty has picked up a case of worms which unfortunately they can do easily. We have had cats for 20+ years and some of the behavior can be attributed to boredom or neediness. "Mom I need you to play or love me and feed me please."
A lot more serious are the health considerations, underlying diabetes or thyroid problems. With the thyroid their metabolism is jacked up off the scale and they are constantly hungry and will eventually start to break down their fat and lose weight, because they need it to just have enough nutrition to get through the day. Have a thyroid test done, not too expensive and not every vet considers this. We learned the hard way with a cat that almost died.
Another consideration is the type of food. Growing kitties need extra calories from food that is easily digestible. We feed dry food and supplement with tuna packed in water about every other day. Not oil, but water and it mixes with the dry and makes a nice meal. We also give our cats reverse osmosis distilled water which is available at Walmart for about .64 cents a gallon. We do this because one of our cats had a terrible problem with kidney stones and we found out that a culprit was the minerals in water. She is 6 years kidney problem free and is a breed that is renown for kidney problems.
Good luck with your problem and if your vet can't help you consider switching vets. Not every veterinarian is a "cat" person, we learned that they hard way also. You might consider going to a pet chat forum and posting there where others may have had the same problem. It couldn't hurt to ask. (12/31/2006)
By Darlene
I leave my cats' food out all of the time. They eat what they want and then that's it. I have five of them and mine don't seem hungry all of the time by keeping food out for them. Also, my cats are not over weight either. My vet said that because they have access to food all of the time that they know its there when they want it.
Robin (01/03/2007)
By Robin
I'm not an expert on this subject, but part of the problem with a cat who seems to be always hungry might be that as a stray it was hungry all the time. We adopted our cat, Nellie, about five years ago at the age of about two years from a local rescue group. We know nothing of her beginning, but wanted her anyway. She can be sound asleep then wake up meowing and run to her food as if she thinks another cat is after it, that could be the problem with your stray. The cat may not be "hungry" but is eating the food before another cat gets it. (04/28/2008)
By Sam Travis
I too have a very hungry 10 month old cat. We adopted him from a shelter and he was a stray. A big thing with male cats is once they are neutered, particularly shortly afterward, they have a tendency to want to eat a lot more. I have had several cats and with the males, this is always the case. You just have to be really strong and not feed him, get a bin he can't get into, keep all food in cupboards. It's a hassle I know, or if you have a door to your kitchen keep it closed apart from dinner times. As for any older cats with sudden changes in eaten habits, get a diabetes test done. It's very common in cats. But with all cats worm yearly. Good luck. (02/05/2009)
By Michelle
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