Kittens appetite

Dublin21

Hi

One of my kittens who is about 4 months old now has a serious appetite and i'm not sure if i should be worried at this point.

He cries out (And i mean cries!) when we enter the kitchen, every single time.
He tries to get our food whenever possible.
He does not investigate the food, sniff the food etc just dives straight in and gobbles whatever we give him! And when hes finished he will either cry to us for more (I presume!) or run to wherever our other kitten is and try get his food.

What concerns us a lot is that he is quite aggressive around food. I.e. we have another kitten and feed them both in separate rooms but if the other kitten every comes close to him he growls and literally puts his paws on the plate to prevent his food getting touched!

Hes's about 2.5kg and we feed him about 250-300g Grau food a day and/or some chicken/beef/fish per day (50g max and only when we give them less of the grau)
We feed him about the same amount as our other kitten who is 3 months old and weights 2kg but this this kitten generally grazes over his food and will come back to it a few times before finishing where as the other guy mills everything in no time.

We def think he is a little overweight.. He got sick the first week we got him and had to stay at the vets for 2 nights, he def lost a bit of weight but has put it back on since but we don't know how because i don't think we over feed and he doesn't get any scraps or crap food..
I'd be reluctant to cut his food as im conscious he is a growing kitten!!

He is an indoor cat but is quite active and extremely playful with our other kitten so def gets a good run around!

Any suggestions???
Should we just keep going and wait it out to see if he grows out of it or could there be an underlying issue???

Ziegfeldgirl27

My kitten was like tis but he is an outdoor cat. The vet said kittens are like this because they are growing and use a lot of energy!

Dublin21

Yeah we mentioned it to the Vet and she said hopefully he will grow out of it but i suppose its because we are comparing him to our other kitten who isn't like this at all.. Would easily just walk away from his plate and let the other kitten eat the left overs.
Ive no problem with a growing kitten having an appetite but this seems severe to me and quite aggressive!!
Hes currently trying to eat pencil shavings

Suppose i was just wondering if there are ways to 'train' him out of being so aggressive with food..
I refuse to put the plate down until he has stopped crying and have tried feeding him smaller bits more often but he doesn't eat any slower. Just swallows it whole pretty much!

The Sweeper

Has he been wormed fully? (just a thought)

Dublin21

As far as i know he has (We only adopted him 2 weeks ago) but i think we should prob be on the safe side and do so again!

Thanks! Funny how the most obvious thing can be over looked!

Ziegfeldgirl27

My 'kitten' is now three years old and still has a massive appetite, much like when he was very small He's not carrying any weight though. He just uses so much energy!
He would eat any human food too. Potatoes, veg, pasta, anything!

ladyjuicy08

Sounds like ur talking bout my 2 cats one hoovers d food down n the other takes forever to eat his food

angeline

Definitely get him treated for worms. Almost all kittens have worms.

anniehoo

What's his poo like?

Also how long have you had him? Was he a rescue who learned young to scrounge and eat quickly?

His weight is on the higher end but nothing mad. Id be making sure your other cat is getting their full daily quota too if shes a grazer.

He's still very young and my gut feeling is he was a hungry boy before you got him and just hasnt learned to regulated himself yet.

Dublin21

Hi Anniehoo,

We adopted him from a lady fostering him who apparently has 7 cats already so we were thinking he might have had to compete a bit from food. Im not sure of his story before that but she had him for weeks anyway.

He got quite sick the first week we had him home so his stools are only returning to normal in the last week but they look fine now (if a little big! :eek:)

Our 'grazer' def eats all his food but just takes a Looong time to do so!

I cant totally understand if he is like this because of his past but im wondering if he will grow out of it if thats the cause!

Will be going to the vets this week to get him some wormings tabs anyway!!

Dublin21

Hi,

I posted on this issue awhile ago but thought i'd revive this thread rather than create a new one on the same issue.

So basically i have 2 kittens and the older one is quite aggressive around food. By the size of him and his teeth i'd def say he's 7+ months now which is older than we were originally told by a few months!

From Day one he cries for food (Wails is a better description!) is possessive and aggressive and will eat anything in sight.
I realise a lot of cats can be like this but we are starting to get very worried as he becoming So aggressive.

We tried upping his food incase he was literally starving, and changing the food but no change.
He has been wormed several times by us now.

They are both indoor cats and we are pretty strict about feeding them outside of 'meal times' i.e. they get no scraps etc.

The kitchen door was left open last night and i ran in to find him on the counter gobbling down pork chops.. Whereas thats not the worst thing hes ever eaten he literally start growling as soon as he seen me and when i picked him up the claws starting going!
He has even tried eating matches...

As said before he literally does not seem to care what is put in front of him, he mills it all however strangly enough the first time we tried to worm him i broke the worming tablet (Very small tablet!) in two and hid it in the food. When i checked his bowl the nxt morning the 2 pieces of tablet were left behind!!!

One small change is that he doesnt seem to be as aggressive around the other kitten anymore.. I found them both eating out of the same bowl a few weeks ago - I thought that would never happen.

Is there anyway to discourage this sort of behaviour?

Outside of this he is an extremely affectionate Kitten - we are just worried that if this continues he is only going to get bigger and stronger and will be able to do more damage!

planetX

Do you have to have strict mealtimes? I leave out a bowl of dry food for nibbles during the day, my cats aren't overweight. I think cats prefer to graze rather than eat big meals. He sounds hungry, he's probably in a growth spurt.

Dublin21

Yes we usually feed them in the morning (Grau wet food with some applaws dried food), the same when we come in from work and again at night time.

If i left out dried food he would eat it straight away.. this guy does not graze. I've never seen a kitten (or cat) eat so fast.. the bowl is literally licked clean and if he gets into the other room where our younger kitten eats he will either push him aside and start eating his food or lick his plate clean if hes finished and i havent picked the bowl up yet!

We have tried him with more food incase it is hunger but he eats everything and still comes looking for more and as i said previously i'm reluctant to give him too much food because i honestly think he will eat and eat until he makes himself sick!

Last night for example he was fed about a half hour before he got into the kitchen and by the time i caught him he had one chop pretty much demolished and was moving onto the next.. That was after two feedings that day already and we fed him later that night which again he gobbled...

He's been wormed...

When he came to us first he was Definitely overweight so i have a feeling he was overfed in his previous home (and prob fed scraps)..

We've said it to the vet who thinks he will grow out of it but its definitely getting worse...

Bakemate

I think cats who have to compete for food at an early age or are adopted from the wild tend to gobble their food in one go, as they're not sure where their next meal is coming from or who might come along and take it. I'm not sure if this is something you can fix in a cat, but that doesn't mean you can't discipline a cat who hisses at you or your other cats, or who might take a swipe at you for interfering with your food. The cat needs to know that you're in charge. It might sound strange, but we have used a number of the tools that Cesar Millan uses in the Dog Whisperer series. Cats do the same dominating exercises with each other and you can do it too.

If my cats hisses, takes a swipe at me, attempts to bite me or does anything bold, I make the sound "tschhh" and give her a poke with my fingers around her hip area. She knows now that this means I'm disagreeing and she has to stop what she's doing and I usually don't need to poke her anymore; I just make the noise and she stops.

She tests me every now and then and does something very bold, in which case I dominate her by putting her on her side and holding her in position with one finger on her head so she can't bite and the other two across her neck. I don't hurt her and I only apply enough force to stop her from getting up. If she's really annoyed she might try to get me with the back paws at the same time and I use my other hand to hold them still. I keep her like this until she relaxes, then let her go and walk away. She'll be good as gold after this for at least two or three months.

It doesn't affect her bond with me either. She still comes rushing to see me a few minutes later.

planetX

I've never heard of an overweight 7 month old cat - generally they are self regulating until middle age sets in. If you just left food out maybe after an initial binge he would settle down to a normal appetite.

Sarsippius

One of my cats follows me into the kitchen every time she hears the kettle. I got into a habit of giving her a tiny drop of milk and now she expects it everytime I boil the kettle!

It took a while but she eventually got out of the routine when I kept chasing her out of the kitchen

Our vet advised us to leave out sachets and feed her good qquality dry food, ie purina etc. Her appetite decreased and she is in much better humour now too

Dublin21

Believe it or not Bakemate we have already touched on the cesar millan technique!
Might be time to try enforce it a bit better

With his own food he will walk to where he's fed and he will sit down when i tell him and he stops crying out which is when i put the food down. The issue isn't really around His food its about the way he acts around food that isn't for him..

I've already tried leaving food out after he is fed which he eats straight away.. my problem is that i will have to overfeed him for awhile to see if he breaks that habit and actually gets to a stage where he grazes on it rather than gobbles it straight down.. As of yet i have never seen him get full or refuse food.

I've had 3 cats (Currently have 2 kittens) in my life, im not claiming to be an expert on cat weight. I understand when ppl say that kittens can't exactly over eat because they are growing which is fair enough, but this kitty was overweight when i got him.. The previous owners told be he was pushing 10 weeks... Id say he was at Least 3 months and he was a little Lump..

Hes def got leaner since we got him, we have him on good quality wet and dry food and thats all he gets.. doesn't seem to be enough for him

Thinkingaboutit

I think if a cat gets used to getting a daily minimum and nothing else, they quieten. A cat can get an expectation that if you enter the kitchen, they will be fed.