# Insatiable Appetite



## eherrera31 (Sep 10, 2009)

Please help. My cat is a little over 1 year old and has the biggest appetite. I've taken her to the vet and she was healthy but overweight (because I hadn't taken her off of kitten food). I put her on a diet and she lost the weight, but she is obsessed with food. She'll try to find food on our counters to eat (some loaves of bread have been lost this way). She'll eat food from the sink. She'll knock the trash over to look for food. She'll eat ANYTHING. This has always been a problem. When she was around 2-3 months old she actually jumped on a plate of food as I was eating it. 

**Warning** This is GROSS.

She has even gone through our garbage and eaten condoms from it. I've seen them in her litter box and once one was hanging out of her butt and I had to pull it out (when company was over!) I lied and said it was a "bag. 

What should I do??


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

What kind of food are you feeding her and how much? She may benefit from a high quality food as higher content of protein and fat, rather than carbs...which just cause cravings for more carbs. Protein and fat are more satisfying so they eat less.

As for your other problem, you need to find a way to keep her out of the garbage...put a tight fitting lid on it, put in in a cabinet etc. Or at least wrap things she tends to eat in a way that she can't get at them. Never pull anything out of a cat's butt....it could be wrapped around her intestine and pulling it could do serious damage. Just cut the end off and watch for the rest to pass.


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## RachandNito (Nov 21, 2008)

I am having this same issue, though not to the degree you are suffering. Chica is down for eating anything from all the different food groups. In fact, she'd choose a bowl of strawberries over a bowl of cat food _any_ day. Is your cat like that? Chica has stolen entire steaks and ribs off plates. The only solution that has worked for me is to either lock her out while I am eating, or make her wait on the floor and reward her for sitting there. We're to the point where she sits on the floor staring and mewing, and I have to give her tiny bits and pieces to keep her satisfied otherwise she'll be climbing all over me again. I try to look at the bright side... she's extremely cute with a dainty little meow.

I might recommend, as crazy as it may sound, some training for this extremely food motivated cat. Read up on clicker training- you'll be amazed at how fast the very food motivated cat can learn. And it's not as hard as you might think, it just takes a lot of patience and persistence. 

Definitely follow doodlebug's advice as well. A high quality low-carb food is much better for the cat. Securing your garbage is a must also.


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## eherrera31 (Sep 10, 2009)

I feed my cat Science Diet Nature's Best Chicken and Brown Rice Dinner. I give her 1/4 of a cup in the morning and 1/4 of a cup in the evening. On Saturdays I give her Science Diet Adult wet food (I know that's probably over kill on the information). I've tried to time it so that we eat at the same time, so that she won't bother me when I'm eating. Once she notices that I'm eating she'll walk away from her food bowl and beg for my food (an improvement since the days she jumped on the plate). 

Thanks doodlebug for the advice about the trash can. I've gotten rid of the waste baskets but need an upgrade on the kitchen trash can.

AND YIKES ON THE PULLING THINGS OUT OF HER BUTT PART OF IT!! I pulled gently but I did it more for her comfort than the intestines bit of it. Thanks for the information. 

RachandNito my cat DEFINITELY will choose strawberries over cat food. She'll choose just about any human food over cat food. Except for apples. For some reason she's not into apples. CONDOMS she'll eat, but not apples. 

Training hmm?? I never thought of that. She is the type. She plays fetch now with her stuffed monkey, so that's definitely an idea.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

Science Diet isn't a great food, too much of the protein comes from grains, which are carbs. Something like Wellness, Innova, Eagle Pack, etc would likely satisfy her better. Also, wet food is more filling. Do some reading in Health & Nutrition, especially the sticky at the top of the page and these sites:

www.littlebigcat.com
www.catinfo.org


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## RachandNito (Nov 21, 2008)

If you want some more information or training tips, you are free to PM me, eherrera31. I've taught my cat to sit, wave, shake, high-five, touch something, lay down, roll over, sit up, and circle. The best part is, once you really get them used to the clicker, and once they learn about three tricks they start to learn even faster than dogs. Cats are very smart, you just have to know how to make them think that the training is worth it.

Haha, I haven't found any fruit Chica won't eat. She will gnaw on an apple core all day long if you let her. She's crazy over bananas, and it totally game for eating just about any other fruit. Strangely, she doesn't like cooked peas, but if you put her in the garden she'll pick pea pods and eat them right then right there. That's so weird your cat eats condoms... wonder what the heck she's thinking! She's also quite obsessed with lettuce. Once, she and her brother went along with my mom to visit her preschool class. They tag-teamed the lunch table and managed to get a sandwich on the ground. My mom noticed and yelled at them so Kovie quick grabbed the turkey out of it and Chica grabbed the lettuce, and NOT the other piece of turkey :lol:


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## Jadedea Jade (Feb 3, 2009)

i feed my cat evoderm. it still has some grain in it but its towards the bottom of the ingredient list.

azores likes to eat plastic. ive caught her licking the trash bag, fishing out plastic out of the trash bin, and when we go grocery shopping she loves to scurry her butt in a plastic bag and lick it all day. she eats plastic so much her poo comes prewrapped lol.

we now hide all trash bags (sometimes i let her lick it) if she tries messing with the trash bins she doesnt anymore because i scared the crap out of her by using the "mom is really pissed off deep throaty oh crap i better stop before she kills me voice" (thanks mom for doing it to me, now i can use it on my cat......). i simply say no and give her the evil eye and she runs away.

my cat loves plastic!!! lol


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## KarlLovesKittens (Sep 14, 2009)

Jadedea Jade said:


> she eats plastic so much her poo comes prewrapped lol.


I'm sorry for off-topic but this made me laugh so hard! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Jack&Harley (Nov 2, 2008)

Our kitten Pepper has an appetite on her as well. But for human food, which as the person who watched her be born and watched her mother raise her and helped, she never saw people food until she came inside to live with us. Her brother is the same way--he lives next door. It drives me insane. I'm hoping that with the new diet change in our house to raw that her cravings will be fulfilled. But meanwhile she's learning that she can't grab from our plates. I put her on the floor or push her back and say no and snap my fingers (thats what our adult males know to mean mommy or daddy wants us to do something). She's getting it slowly.

I have trained one of my males as well and I think I'm going to work on training her I got a great book cat training in 10 minutes I think it is.

Leslie


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