Aggressively (?) asking for food

[Christos]

Hello everyone! We took in Ginny about a month ago. She was a stray cat, the vet estimated she is about 6 months of age. We neutered her, got her vaccinated, did all the health related stuff. The first few days she was sleeping outside but once we got everything checked by the vet she was let in. She is just a burst of energy at times, running around, playing, generally being very active, we do have an extensive garden and that helps. She is also cuddly and comes to us to play and cuddle quite a bit, sleeps in my wife's lap almost every day. The problem is the food. She is aggressive in seeking to be fed. She will just try to climb on my legs, reach to grab me (although not being really scratchy), meow like crazy and bang the door of the room we keep her food in. We generally keep a routine where we give her a fixed amount of food daily, filling up her bowl twice, roughly the same hours of the day. Any ideas on how to tame this behaviour?

 

[ArchyCat]

Thank you for the rescue!

She is still a kitten. Cats (most) are not fully grown until they are 12 months of age. Plus, kittens are hyper active. And she also probably has food insecurity from nor eating regularly while a stray. So, growth and activity are consuming a lot of calories.

She should be fed kitten grade food until grown. It has extra calories, protein, and minerals to support a kitten's growth and activity levels. I suggest that you provide free feeding of kitten kibble 24 hours day. That should help her food insecurity. Plus feed her canned/tinned kitten food morning and evening.

Again, thank you for her rescue! And provide updates! Please!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Ginny needs more food than you are giving her. At six months old, and not knowing what her food situation was before you took her in, she probably has a combination of needing more for her age and feeling food insecure. How long does it take her to go through the food you feed her twice daily - and, how much exactly is the over all amount? Normally, a kitten of that age is 'entitled' to eat to their hearts content. You can always back it down later.

Pics of your new girl when you get a chance!!!!

 

[susanm9006]

I agree with other posters. She is a growing and obviously hungry kitten. She needs good quality wet kitten food at least a couple times a day and good quality kitten kibble available 24 hours a day. Once she is around a year you can cut back.

 

[Christos]

Thnx everyone! The vet suggested 80gr daily of dry food (she prescribed the type of food also). She said that she thought she was a tad overweight and we needed to be careful with that. Somedays she doesn't ask for more, other times she raises hell . Truth is she is never edgy - beyond the kitten hyperactive hyperenergetic state - when there is food in her bowl. In the beginning we were on a routine of splitting that into three meals daily amd then switched to filling up tlher bowl with - almost- her full amount and just topping up so that it was not empty.

 

[susanm9006]

Her anxiety around food is certainly also related to being a stray and going without and free feeding should help with that. At six months she should weigh around six pounds. If she is indeed a tad overweight then I would feed her wet food more often as it is higher in protein and lower in carbs. And if she is feeling more satisfied on that then she will eat less of the high carb dry - and most dry is high carb.

 

[lollie]

I think my cat ate four wet meals a day, in addition to free feeding dry when she was a kitten. They’re little eating machines at that age. It slows down once they’re about two.

 

[kittenmittens84]

In addition to the other suggestions, you can also try feeding her more frequently. Not necessarily changing the amount of food given in a day, but splitting up into more meals. It keeps them full longer!