Cat food - too much? Too little?

lady_marmalade

In the past I've fed my cats dry food like Royal Canin - I leave enough out for them to graze as and when they fell like it. Now I've got another cat, an ex-stray tabby, just over 6 months old now. Right from the start he's demanded wet food so I give him and his adopted sister a pouch of Felix each in the morning. I've now noticed that the hungry fella has started eating the other cat's food, indeed he'd pushing her out of the way to get to it. So I'm wondering is this a stray thing? Or is he genuinely hungry and I'm not feeding him enough? There's plenty of dry food which he'll eat at a push but but he's just after wet food the whole time. What to do!

Saruman

Did you worm him? If he has worms (likely if its a stray) then he will eat non stop.

anyway forget about demanding... keep putting down dry food and he will eat it when nothing else shows up.
Try Purina Omega tasty. Thats what my cats eat and they miss it if i have to get them something else.
They were brought up on wet food but i got them out of that habbit as soon as i could.

lady_marmalade

Saruman wrote:

Did you worm him? If he has worms (likely if its a stray) then he will eat non stop.

anyway forget about demanding... keep putting down dry food and he will eat it when nothing else shows up.
Try Purina Omega tasty. Thats what my cats eat and they miss it if i have to get them something else.

Yeah, he's been wormed. I'll check out the Omega Tasty. I give in to him cos I'm worried if he doesn't like the food I'm giving him, he'll go somewhere else for it!

SMK

One of my cats was a very fussy eater and he would turn his nose up to his food and I would go searching for another brand to give him and he would eventually turn his nose up to that and so on. Then I stopped changing the food, if he turned his nose up to it, that was his hard luck. Now he always eats what he gets! I used to give him wet food several times a day cos he was always demanding it and he didn't eat must of the dry food. I started cutting back, put up with his meowing for wet food and now he just gets 1/4 of a pouch in the evening and doesn't look for it any other time and eats a lot more dry food. If your original cat was not used to getting a pouch in the morning she's probably just not hungry or interested enough to eat it. The kitten knows if he's persistant enough with you he'll get his wet food!! Time to show him who's boss!!

Madge

Is giving them wet food a bad thing? I have 2 cats and give them 1 or 2 pouches each a day

SMK

No, I don't think wet food is bad for cats at all - I have read that this is a more natural diet for cats rather than dry food. My reason for cutting down the wet food is cos one of my cats like it too much and developed a bit of a weight problem!!

Ruu_Old

lady_marmalade wrote:

Yeah, he's been wormed. I'll check out the Omega Tasty. I give in to him cos I'm worried if he doesn't like the food I'm giving him, he'll go somewhere else for it!

It could be a habit that the stray picked up to push the other out of the way because well, they never knew when they would eat again when they were stray.

If you don't offer them any went food and just use the dry food then they will eat that. Don't worry, they won't go hungry. You can start by mixing dry food with the wet stuff and gradually put less wet in each time if you want.

rediguana

Saruman wrote:

Did you worm him? If he has worms (likely if its a stray) then he will eat non stop.

anyway forget about demanding... keep putting down dry food and he will eat it when nothing else shows up.
Try Purina Omega tasty. Thats what my cats eat and they miss it if i have to get them something else.
They were brought up on wet food but i got them out of that habbit as soon as i could.

Purina's great. That's what I give mine and her coat's so glossy you can nearly see your own reflection in it.

mcaul

Make sure you have a bowl for each cat and keep them a few feet apart. It will stop the competition eating between them. - Cats are like women in a nightclub - very competitive!

Might take a week or so, but they will automatically go for their own bowl after a while. They are creatures of habit. - Learnt this after seeing 2 cats (shared between ourselves & neighbours) constantly going between the two houses (about 40 yards seperates the houses) and gradually wearing a track in the grass. We've now put name signs at the beginning to the tracks (one for each cat) and amuse visitors by showing how we have "trained" the cats to run on their own track!!! - Never fails to amuse! (Now back to my pills!)



As for food, the aldi pouches are quite good, but next time tesco have their 2 for €6 on the whiskas pouches I'm taking a van with me!