Food obsessed

[CatSalvatore]

Hi fellow cat lovers,
I have 3 cats, 2 girls now about 10, and a boy, who is 7. The boy, having been healthy and happy at all times, has, in the past 2-3 years, become completely obsessed with food. He has gained a huge amount of weight which is obviously a worry for his health.

The cats are not free to roam outside because of a busy road, but I have a room which is basically dedicated to them, with walkways and cubby holes all around the room.

I obviously have to feed all 3, and they get various kinds of reduced calorie indoor cat biscuits, so it is nigh on impossible to have control over how much he eats. The others are grazers, so he will basically eat all of their food also. I do try and remove theirs when they are not feeding, but they have to eat.

He will even miaow and beg for food when there is food in his bowl and he is already eating!

I intend to speak to my vet and see if he maybe has a thyroid issue, but wondered if anyone has any wisdom to pass on about this kind of behaviour.

To be clear, he is still a very happy and affectionate individual, but will soon pop, if I don't manage to solve this.

Thanks in advance.
Donald

[Mollycat]

Hi Donald, I've been there and solved it.

I adopted first Bobby-Boo a retired stud aged 8 then 3 months later a 6 year old traumatised indoor moggy called Molly. Boo was chilled about food and life in general, Molly quickly became food obsessed, if I tried to cut rations she would eat his and I would wake up in the night to the sound of Boo licking the carpet because he was hungry. I tried set meals, free feeding, everything, but she would become aggressive with him.

In the end Boo was diagnosed with early renal failure so I wanted them on different diets, so I found microchip feeders. They still retail at nearly £100 each but you program each one for one cat only and it will not open for any other cat. I put Boo's renal food in his, and Molly's reduced calorie diet food in hers. She became more food secure once she realised Boo couldn't open her feeder and the obsession improved and she lost weight steadily.

The twist - after 18 months of this regime Molly fell ill suddenly, and because she is so difficult to get to the vets I asked for a full blood panel with to everyone's surprise revealed she was hyperthyroid. As I've always said, hyper appetite, hypo metabolism! But she was treated 18 months ago and the vet said to put her back on normal food. I thought her weight would sky-rocket but it hasn't, she has a pouch of Felix twice and day of which there is almost always some left, free dry which she rarely touches, plus treats and titbits, and she is a perfectly acceptable slightly rounded weight. Around 5 - 5.5 kg compared to over 6 she was at her worst and maybe 4.5 - 5 that she should be ideally. But even treats she will just walk away from when she's had enough, and that attitude alone tells me we have a success.

[CatSalvatore]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I am investigating the chip feeders as I write and they look like I'll be able have an arrangement that'll ration as they need. I have also made an appointment for him to have his bloods checked and see if there's anything else going on.

So much appreciate your time. He's a happy boy just now, but I know fine well that if nothing is done before he ages more, he will become ill and depressed, so I could literally hug you for opening this particular door for me. x

[Ruth B]

Microchip feeders will certainly help stop him eating everyone's food so you can restrict him to his own, but you might want to look at feeder toys or slow feeders as well. There are a range of them available, some just slow a cat's feeding down to help stop them wolfing it down and then bringing it back up, then there are others like balls with holes that have to be knocked about to get the dry food to fall out so combine food with exercise and entertainment. While toys like that might seem a bit mean and a road to a frustrated cat, they are actually very good at preventing boredom and food fixation, when you think how frustrating hunting must be and how many prey animals escape before they actually catch one they can eat, they actually provide a far more natural way to feed than just having a bowl put in front of you at a set time.

A combination of feeding techniques would probably work best for him.

[CatSalvatore]

Thank you for your thoughts, but all of those are things I've already tried with the wee fella, without success. The chip feeders I think will literally be a life-saver for him.