Newly Adopted Cat Now Showing New Behaviors 2 Months In.

[LittleLily]

Hi! My boyfriend and I adopted our cat Lily mid August. She was pretty chill for the first month. She would spend some time by herself but overall was pretty social and affectionate. We went away for the weekend in the beginning of October so like, a little more than a month after we got her. We were only gone 3 days and my boyfriends mom and 2 sisters came every day to feed her and spend time with her.

Anyway, since we came back from camping, I've noticed new behaviors. She now screams outside our bedroom door every night, wanting to come in and cuddle / run around. Prior to camping we shut our door every night and she'd just chill in the living room / have free run of the apartment. Now she screams and scratches from 3 am to 6 am. By 6 am it's "i'm hungry" screams so we feed her, and then she chills out. We've tried to leave the door open, but it just ends up with her walking all over our heads and waking us up.

She's also now insatiably hungry. She cries for food all day long. She gained 1 lb since we got her. She was small and skinny and now looks pretty normal and doesn't appear to be overweight. She gets Fromm Four Star dry kibble in the morning and Sheba wet food in the evening. She cries for food a lot though. She never used to do this.

Thirdly, and this is more recent, but she tries to run out of the apartment whenever we open the front / back door. Thankfully we live on the second floor so when she bolts out, she has a ground level door blocking her from leaving the building. We just chase her back into the apartment. She cries at the front / back door too and scratches like she wants to go outside. Her being an outdoor cat violates the agreement we have with our landlord. Additionally we just don't feel comfortable with it and would worry about her, so it's just not an option.


So yeah, to recap she:
-always seems hungry
-meows like a maniac and tries to pry our bedroom door open all night
-tries to escape / cries at the door

These behaviors are becoming really irritating if I'm being totally honest. I love her, and I'm glad we have her, but I want to put an end to this. We cant be woken up every night. We can't fear opening the door because she literally bolts when she hears the door knob jiggle. I'm starting to wonder if she's maybe addicted to her dry food and thus always "hungry" or has a metabolic issue or something. She was picked up in a park with two kittens so I can see her yearning to get back outside, but like I said that's not really something we're comfortable with. Any help / advice / suggestions welcome!

 

[war&wisdom]

Has she been spayed?

 

[LittleLily]

Has she been spayed?

Yup

 

[Emizawesome]

I would play with her before bedtime so she is tired. Play with her before she eats too and keep it at the same time each day.
She seems worried you guys will disappear again!
Have a routine when you leave the house so distract her with toys and treats and then leave.
Make the indoors more appealing so get a cat tree, cat grass, have a perch by the window.

 

[susanm9006]

I read your earlier posts and this girl was just six pounds when you got her. So now she is seven? If so, that is in the light side, so I would feed her more and see if she quiets down.

Most of the nighttime meowing is because she has learned what gets her food or attention. You can either shut her out of your room until you are ready to get up or shut her out when she starts bothering you during the night. You just don’t want to give in to the meowing or scratching when she is outside your room.

The trying to get outdoors is common with cats who have been outdoors before. Make sure she is wearing a collar with tags and has been microchipped in case she slips out but I wouldn’t let her out. Having a screen door makes it more difficult for the cat to make it all the way out. I would just brush her aside shuffle her feet if she comes near.

 

[sargon]

Fromm is a pretty good food, so I doubt that is the issue. "kibble addction" usually refers to low cost cat kibble, which tends to have animal digest sprayed on it to make it more palatable.

it sounds like your cat has high social needs, and i suspect you leaving on the trip increased her anxiety level. I generally favor allowing cats to sleep with people, but if she really keeps waking you up, you might try creating some sort of space for her in your bedroom (like a window cat per4ch, or a cat bed on top of a piece of furniture), and allowing her there, but not on the bed ( the no bed thing has to be an always rule, of course.)

 

[Etarre]

How old is Lily? Insatiable hunger can sometimes indicate a thyroid issue, although it's usually older cats who develop this type of problem. Of course, hyperthyroid cats usually lose weight instead of gaining it, so it probably is a stress reaction to your being away.

Our first cat used to react very badly when we had catsitters who were unable to come feed her on her regular feeding schedule. She would gobble her food and then throw up all over the apartment. Was Lily fed on a different schedule than usual while you were away?

 

[LittleLily]

Fromm is a pretty good food, so I doubt that is the issue. "kibble addction" usually refers to low cost cat kibble, which tends to have animal digest sprayed on it to make it more palatable.

it sounds like your cat has high social needs, and i suspect you leaving on the trip increased her anxiety level. I generally favor allowing cats to sleep with people, but if she really keeps waking you up, you might try creating some sort of space for her in your bedroom (like a window cat per4ch, or a cat bed on top of a piece of furniture), and allowing her there, but not on the bed ( the no bed thing has to be an always rule, of course.)

We would love it if she'd come up on the bed and snuggle / sleep! However she's in full play mode when she comes in throughout the night. If she's not trying to play with us, she's playing with something in our room and making a ton of noise. That's good to know about the kibble. We did a lot of research before settling on that one because of its high quality. One night we tried to leave some kibble out before bed so that she'd eat that if she got hungry around 2 am or something, in case that was the cause of her howling all night, but as soon as we put it out she wolfed it down. We're following the feeding guidelines on the bag + wet food in the evening so I don't think we're under feeding her. I am very conscious of over feeding her and want to avoid that as much as possible. She may only be 6/7 lbs but she's a small girl with a small frame and looks healthy.

 

[LittleLily]

How old is Lily? Insatiable hunger can sometimes indicate a thyroid issue, although it's usually older cats who develop this type of problem. Of course, hyperthyroid cats usually lose weight instead of gaining it, so it probably is a stress reaction to your being away.

Our first cat used to react very badly when we had catsitters who were unable to come feed her on her regular feeding schedule. She would gobble her food and then throw up all over the apartment. Was Lily fed on a different schedule than usual while you were away?

Lily is 1.5 years old! When we were away we think his sisters may have actually over fed her, so it's funny that you mention that. It was only for three days though so I would think 3 weeks later she would be re-adjusted to her regular feeding schedule / amount.

 

[Kflowers]

You might try an automatic feeder set for 2 am or whenever she gets most interested in eating. I've never used one, but there might be one you could set for two different times and divide the food between them.

 

[LittleLily]

You might try an automatic feeder set for 2 am or whenever she gets most interested in eating. I've never used one, but there might be one you could set for two different times and divide the food between them.

I want to get an automatic feeder! My boyfriend isn't convinced we need one and thinks we need to just stay firm and wait it out so that she isn't dictating to us when she eats lol. I see where he's coming from but I told him he can get up and feed her at 5/ 6 am if that's how he feels and he has agreed but I still wake up to her yelling so what's the difference -_____-.

 

[Kflowers]

The thing is when you're really sort of small, you can't store much food so you get hungry more often. My guess is BF never wakes up hungry during the night cause he has room to store a good sized dinner. {Please note, he wouldn't need to be fat to have the capacity for that.}

Yes, it's amazing what some people who swore they'd wake up to do something managed to sleep through.

 

[LittleLily]

The thing is when you're really sort of small, you can't store much food so you get hungry more often. My guess is BF never wakes up hungry during the night cause he has room to store a good sized dinner. {Please note, he wouldn't need to be fat to have the capacity for that.}

Yes, it's amazing what some people who swore they'd wake up to do something managed to sleep through.

Hahah! Yes I totally get that as I'm more of a grazer myself. He also has the luxury of sleeping through the night even if the sky is falling but I have wicked bad "mom ears" from years of nannying so I pick up every little thing, including our cat meowing even if a fan is running in my ear. It's the worst.

 

[Kflowers]

so been there.

 

[Notacrazycatlady]

Have you considered a puzzle feeder? There are a variety out there, I'm looking at them for my two (researching) right now so I can't help with any recommendations beyond giving her an activity and access to food that she can't just gobble down.