Not Sure If I Am Feeding Cat Enough.. He Always Seems Hungry?

[Samantha1242]

Currently feeding kitty 1 small can of wet food a day (half in morning, half in evening) and then about 1/2 cup dry food per day in his bowl that he can feed whenever. He gets the occasional temptation here and there (about 5 a day.. yikes. haha). He is about 10 pounds, 1.5 years old, and indoor.

He just always seems hungry. He meows whenever we go into the kitchen and sits at our feet and looks up like he wants more food, despite just eating.. is he just wanting more food because its yummy, or is he hungry?!

 

[LTS3]

What brand of food are you feeding for both canned and dry?

Generally you feed 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. A 10 lb cat needs between 200 and 250 calories daily but some cats may need more or less.

Use this chart to find the calorie content of canned foods: http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf Many big name brands are listed. 3 oz cans are food are pretty low in calories

Try this chart for dry food: http://www.franklinanimalclinic.vet/sites/site-2382/documents/Cat_Dry_Food1.pdf

If it turns out that you aren't feeding enough calories, then increase the amount of food. You may need to add a second or third 3 oz can daily (or a 5.5 oz can plus a little more) along with the half cup of dry food.

If you are feeding enough calories, then maybe your cat just wants attention and has associated meowing with being given food. Try to redirect any attention seeking behavior to toys.

 

[Samantha1242]

What brand of food are you feeding for both canned and dry?

Generally you feed 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. A 10 lb cat needs between 200 and 250 calories daily but some cats may need more or less.

Use this chart to find the calorie content of canned foods: http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf Many big name brands are listed. 3 oz cans are food are pretty low in calories

Try this chart for dry food: http://www.franklinanimalclinic.vet/sites/site-2382/documents/Cat_Dry_Food1.pdf

If it turns out that you aren't feeding enough calories, then increase the amount of food. You may need to add a second or third 3 oz can daily (or a 5.5 oz can plus a little more) along with the half cup of dry food.

If you are feeding enough calories, then maybe your cat just wants attention and has associated meowing with being given food. Try to redirect any attention seeking behavior to toys.

Thanks for the response

Right now I am feeding him Simply Nourish Indoor Chicken recipe cat food which he does enjoy. For his wet food, I have been trying many different kinds but stick to the brands Nulo, Simply Nourish, or Wellness. Thank you for those charts, super helpful. From what I am reading, i believe he is getting around 200-300 calories a day so that should be enough. Ill keep an eye on how much dry food he is actually eating during his free feeds first though. I am starting to think that the meowing is attention seeking or treat seeking from my very loveable, yet easily persuaded to give treats every time the cat looks cute, boyfriend.

 

[Caspers Human]

I am starting to think that the meowing is attention seeking or treat seeking from my very loveable, yet easily persuaded to give treats every time the cat looks cute, boyfriend.

Casper does the same thing. It's an attention-getting behavior.

Watch his litter box to make sure he's his deposits are in line with how much food he eats.

Watch his weight to see whether he's gaining or losing weight.

Watch his food bowl to see if he empties it every day. Adjust the amount of food until there is just a little bit left in the morning when you wake up for your morning routine.

If you haven't done so, recently, have him checked for worms. This isn't much to worry about if he's a 100% indoor cat unless he catches mice that come into the house. My former cat, "K.C.," got worms from eating mice, once.

Casper will often follow his humans to the kitchen, sit there by our feet and look up at us with a cute, forlorn look on his face until we give him a treat. He also wants us to pet him while he eats. He won't start eating until we do.

It's all a learned behavior. He likes to get attention and he has linked the concepts of "getting food" and "getting attention" in his mind. If he's hungry, he'll want us to pet him and dote on him before he eats. If he feels the need for attention, he'll want to eat, too.

You can break him of the habit by only indulging him at certain times.
Each human will feed/attention him once or twice per day. For instance, once in the morning and once after dinner. The rest of the time, he gets a pat on the head but no food.

It will take a while for it to sink in but stand your ground and, eventually, he'll stop "attention-whoring" you all the time.

 

[tico]

It's all a learned behavior. He likes to get attention and he has linked the concepts of "getting food" and "getting attention" in his mind. If he's hungry, he'll want us to pet him and dote on him before he eats. If he feels the need for attention, he'll want to eat, too.

You can break him of the habit by only indulging him at certain times.
Each human will feed/attention him once or twice per day. For instance, once in the morning and once after dinner. The rest of the time, he gets a pat on the head but no food.

It will take a while for it to sink in but stand your ground and, eventually, he'll stop "attention-whoring" you all the time.

I'm in the same situation.

I have an indoor only cat who is obsessed with food. I feed her about 1.5 mini cans of elegant medleys a day (85 g per can). Plus dry, which she eats minimally (she prefers wet). She will eat 2 of those cans a day if I let her.

Any time I walk towards or past the kitchen she bounds ahead of me and jumps on the counter begging to be fed at almost any point in the day. She'll also hunt on the counter for people food, and will eat almost anything.

She was a stray when I took her in this past July and I don't know her previous living situation. She wasn't super skinny, but she's certainly fatter now than she was. She's probably about 11 pounds and needs to be more like 9? She has trouble jumping higher than a couple feet, and the vet said that could have something to do with her weight.

The vet also said something really strange to me when we were talking about diet. She said wet food is terrible for cat teeth and that I should only be giving her dry kibble. What?!?? I've never this, and in fact heard the opposite. I thought high quality wet food was better for them.

I don't think this vet knows what she is talking about? Can anyone confirm this?

Samantha1242 I'm thinking that I'm going to train her to get food with a sound effect on my phone. And lots of taking her down of the counter until the Pavlovian trick hopefully works????

Also, vet said she had tartar or plaque build up (hence the discussion of wet vs dry food). Short of sedating her for a teeth cleaning, how can I help her teeth get into better condition?

 

[Caspers Human]

She has trouble jumping higher than a couple feet, and the vet said that could have something to do with her weight.

How old? Maybe she's just got a touch of arthritis?
I know that I certainly can't jump as high as I used to!

The vet said wet food is terrible for cat teeth and that I should only be giving her dry kibble. What?!??

When I was a kid, my father used to breed hunting dogs. We used to feed them a mixture of dry food and meat scraps directly from the butcher.

Yes, if you feed dogs (and, by extension, cats) too much soft food they can get tartar build-up. That tartar harbors bacteria which make very small amounts of toxins. Over time, the animal swallows these toxins and this will eventually hurt the dog/cat's health.

Regular teeth cleaning is part of the solution but monitoring the amount of soft food that the animal eats is the ounce of prevention that saves the pound of cure.

We never fed more than a half-and-half mixture of meat scraps and dry food, plus we never fed scraps every day.
We fed less meat in the summer and more in the winter. The extra fat helped them stay warm in the cold weather.
I'd guess that we fed scraps once or twice a week in the summer and every other day in the winter.
Of course, the always had dry food and fresh water available 24/7.

There were never any problems with the outdoor, hunting dogs teeth in almost 20 years of growing up with dogs.
The house dog, Tyrone, the Mini Schnauzer, did have to have his teeth cleaned regularly because he ate too many food scraps from the dinner table.

Samantha1242 I'm thinking that I'm going to train her to get food with a sound effect on my phone. And lots of taking her down of the counter until the Pavlovian trick hopefully works????

Just be careful that you don’t end up in a situation like this!