# cat is always hungry



## raiden031 (Feb 16, 2007)

I have two indoor cats. One of them is mildly overweight and the other is much more overweight. I actually thought the mildly overweight cat was underweight because he is rail thin (but has skin sagging underneath him, and the vet told us he was overweight).

The bigger cat is 14.7lbs, and while overweight, he is not bulky. He is a large cat (stands tall, long body), but looks built proportionately. Anyways the problem is that he harasses us for food all the time. We were told to feed him like 1/4 cup once a day or something (maybe it was 1/2 cup but I am not sure). We feed Purina cat chow dry indoor formula. He bugs us in bed at 6:00am and by 6:30am I'm downstairs feeding him. Then I felt bad for him because every evening he was following me every time I walked into the kitchen and going for the food cabinet so I had to divide his feedings into morning and evening feedings. 

Anyways I feel like each cat probably gets 1/2 cup each feeding (1 cup per day each cat), and my wife is staying at home now and he starts harassing her for food as early as noon most days. So he spends all day waiting for his evening feeding. Why does this cat eat so much and why do the vets act like its a simple thing to feed him properly and keep his weight down when we have to deal with him begging for food non-stop?


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## Mom of 4 (Jul 29, 2006)

The rail-thin cat, with saggy pants. How much does it weigh? It is normal for some cas to have some loose belly skin., but not if is full of fat.

I switched my cats to wet food for weight control. I did a lot of research on feeding cats, especially with regard to diabetic cats (my son's cat is pre-diabetic) and decided that I needed to get them on wet food. You still have to check out the wet food, but most of it is higher in protein than dry. And protein is digested slower than carbs. It's more calorie dense, so they eat what looks like a smaller portion to get the right amount of calories. Per my research, cats need 15 to 25 calories per pound per day. An active cat needs more than a cat who never moves. And you may need to adjust the amount for different times of the year as their activity level changes. And as they lose weight and become more active.
This one of the websites that I used:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm

It took several days to get my cats to switch to wet - they loved their carbs. And the bigger issue of finding a wet that agreed with them. I had to make a spread sheet to keep up with who would eat what. The more expensive, "better" brands didn't agree with my cats.

As for the cat being hungry in the middle of the day. You can either divide the told amount of food for the day into three meals or split breakfast into breakfast and lunch.


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## Smirkitty (Apr 19, 2008)

I'm a little worried about a rail-thin cat, even if the vet says he's overweight. The saggy belly is *not* an indicator of on overweight cat, MANY cats in good health and of appropriate weight have the flap of belly skin that wiggles when they walk.

Here is a chart that shows cat body conditions:

http://www.placervillevet.com/feline body condition.htm

When viewing your cat (walking or standing) from above, you should see a slight indentation for the waist. You should be able to feel the ribs when you palpate (slightly more than petting) but they should have a covering of muscle/fat over them. 

Re; your vet's feeding advice, if it *was* 1/4 cup once a day, that seems like a VERY small amount of food. Getting 1 cup per day seems a *little* on the high side, but your cats are larger than mine, I think. Like people, a cat with a larger build will want more food, since the food has more body to support.

Switching to a high quality wet food will improve the health of your cats, because a cat's body is not designed to eat dry cereal. Cats on dry-only diet will rarely drink enough water to compensate for the fact that their food contains almost no moisture.

I don't feel only-wet, I do about half and half. So my guys get 1/4 can each, twice a day, of a good quality wet food (Natural Balance, Wellness) and then they get 1 cup of kibble for both of them (split into two bowls, they don't share well) left out during the day to nibble on. The kibble we use in Natural Balance. 

We only learned of the benefits of wet food after joining this forum and doing some research based on recommendations. When we were selecting both the wet and dry foods for our guys, we looked at palatability (best diet in the world does no good if the boys won't eat it), ingredients (meat listed first, and not a meat by-product, with carbs and grains being as low on the list as possible) and price.

I would check out the chart posted in the link to see where your cats really are in the range of body conditions, and then give some thought to what you are feeding them, and then find the appropriate amount. Purina is not the worst there is, but its really not very good, as it is mostly fillers and cereals.

Doing a search on cat nutrition here will produce a plethora of results, most of which will be useful to you.


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## ~Siameseifuplz~ (May 6, 2007)

Hi and welcome! First things first, 1/ twice a day (so 1/2 cup total per cat) is the usual recommendation. Either split it into two meals or three meals. the next thing is what you feed. Dry food is full of carbs, ESPECIALLY the food you feed which is high in grains. Cats don't really feel full from carbs, they need fat and protein and will keep eating until that is satisfied regardless of the amount of carbs in what they ate. So A food with tons of carbs and little protein and fat makes a fat kitty, and on a meal schedule makes a hungry kitty (because his meal is giving him more than enough carbs but not enough protein and fat to feel full). Dry food has 25-50% carbs when a cat's natural diet has only about 2% carbs! Wet food has a carb amount under 10%, the better ones with few or no grains, fruits and veggies have 2-3%, much, much better.

Purina cat chow is an awful food, I used to feed it too. There are many good dry foods, although dry food alone is not healthy for a cat, they need a good amount of wet food. I have started to do 50% wet and 50% dry and will continue that until I can afford to give them more wet.

So I would do maybe half of a 5.5 oz can for one meal and then 1/4 dry for the other meal (for each cat) and see how they do on that. Wet food is one of the best ways to get a cat to loose weight, it's cutting carbs. because cats don't use them for anything except to get fat!

Check out this site: http://www.catinfo.org/
obesity: http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm

^^^^^ On that site check out Molly's story and Bennie's story

Good luck, for food recommendations either ask or look at the nutrition section.


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## raiden031 (Feb 16, 2007)

Thanks all for the advice. Looks like everything seems to point to adding some wet food to the diet.

And to those who asked about the other cat who is rail-thin...I just looked at his papers and his weight is 12.6 lbs. That surprises me because of his build and how light he feels to pick up compared to the other cat. He must have all of his fat in the pouch which is probably why the vet said he's overweight.


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## Smirkitty (Apr 19, 2008)

His build and how he compares on the body condition chart are so much more important than his actual weight though....


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