How much should a cat eat???

[Desley (booktigger)]

I'm afraid I am just rather harsh when it comes to meals, they get fed at a certain time each day, and that is it, if they really are hungry, there are biscuits down (only one with weight issues, but at 18, I dont see that changing much). I think mine have stopped fussing now, they know it wont work!!

[Ela]

I think as long as any medical conditions are ruled out we have to seem cruel to be kind and that is not overfeed. The more we relent the more they will want and as we all know that is doing no favour to the cats.

You will just have to be strong and ignore their pleas. If they ever have to go in a cattery or anything like that they will have to get used to 2 meals a day.

[Hippykitty]

I don't think that F or V are ill: they are a glowing picture of feline health. However, worming may be in order, but will be MURDER!!! I've been trying to deflea them. Sprayed P and S with frontline spray last night because only have two spot ons left. Managed to squirt one on Victoria when she was eating, but I can't get near Fred, he seems to know I'm up to something. Will have another go later.

The older cats may be a bit ropey, healthwise. But they are ancient. Polly is nearly 22. Less than perfect health is to be expected. I don't think anything's wrong with their thyroids, though Sam's kidneys may be a little wonky - she's drinking lots.

I'll get some worming pills for Sam and Polly and Profender for Fred and Vic (NO WAY can I give them pills and live!).

Any ideas about training me not to feed on demand and them not to demand? (Hope that makes sense.) I'm so used to reaching for a can of cat food when given a plaintive meow. 

[Rosella moggy]

I have had Charlie for 8 months, he came to me as a stray and it is only now he is not hassling continually for food and raiding bins etc.  Might have something to do with previously not knowing where the next meal was coming from

We have similar problem with Noni MM and HK.  Just checked and Noni came to live with us on 10 May this year. I'd guess it took her a good 3 months with us and 1 month previously with JS before she finally got the hang of grazing rather than polishing everything off that was placed in front of her.  However she will be 2 years old in 11 days time so not quite still in growing kitten mode like Fred and Vic.  Noni is also I'm afraid to say very definitely fat (no not curvy as Sue likes to call her )rather than "Lynx like". She is however still very beautiful.

[shecat]

errrr, mine have only eaten one tin a day each.  Until I got a lodger, and they are conning him.      Every time I come home he is in the kitchen feeding the starving cats, who have never been fed in their lives

Lodger has now been trained, cats get fed in the morning before i go to work and the remainder is fed when I come in from work.   My cats are disgusted with me, their soft touch doesnt work any more.

[Janeyk]

If there's other medical problem (like thyroid) sometimes this happens.  Even when we adopted Byron 2 yrs ago (she was 22 then) she ate like it was her last meal for a few weeks (so fast often sicked it back up), then she just settled down.  Schui was the same, he had had a home but was straying for a while they do settle down eventually.

[Maddiesmum]

I have had Charlie for 8 months, he came to me as a stray and it is only now he is not hassling continually for food and raiding bins etc.  Might have something to do with previously not knowing where the next meal was coming from

[Desley (booktigger)]

When was hte last time they were wormed HK? Guidelines are one tin per day per cat, so they are eating a lot more, they might be tricking you though, and fussing/playing with tehm might distract them some of hte time.

[Hippykitty]

I've always fed cats on demand. With Polly and Samantha, this has usually amounted to just over a can per day for the pair. Since having Fred and Vic (part of a feral colony trapped last year) they want food ALL THE TIME!! Everytime I go into the kitchen, all four hover round my feet, brush my legs and meow for food. Fred and Vic get particularly affectionate at these times, which is great. However F and V are becoming HUGE. I don't mean fat, they seem to be growing into a pantha (Fred) and a Lynx (Vic)!! Sam and Polly, being old ladies, just pick at what they want, then walk off.

Between them, they're polishing off between three and four cans per day. Max, a huge maine coon type moggie I used to have, only ate one can per day. He was the size of a small dog - a Yorkie, maybe.

Samantha and Polly were originally a stray and a feral, respectively. Sam turned all my bins over for months before realising that food came out of cans, not bins.

Am I having the same where-will-next-meal-come-from problem with the recent settlers? Or are they just pigs? Any ideas about training? Unfortunately, I've been trained by all the cats I've had to feed when meowed at.

Ratbags!!! 

Anyone interested in the progress of F and V: since learning to use the cat flap in my bedroom, they are settling down amazingly into happy domestics. It's taken nearly a year (much less if you count from when I decided to keep them) but they're gorgeous, especially Fred, who's madly in love with Polly. She's pleased to have a toyboy at her age.