Feeding Issues

[BabyBerlioz]

Hello All,

I am brand new to this forum and I am really just looking for a wee bit of advice to avoid a trip to the vet!

I have a 4 month old Maine Coon / Ragdoll cross. He is an indoor cat. He is all up to date with this worming / flea treatments / vaccinations and has had two check ups at the vet everything is fine. He weighs 2.6kg and looks a healthy weight.

The issue I have is that he is ALWAYS going crazy for food. He will not eat dry food (have tried every kind and we won't even have dry treats), so I am feeding him 3.5 pouches per day and the packets says he should only need 3 pouches but even at 3.5 (spread out over the day) he is constantly crying for food. Every time someone walks into the kitchen he is crying franticly and he is always trying to steal our food!

I don't mind feeding him more if that's what he really needs but if he's just being greedy I don't want to start a pattern of over-feeding. I probably will take him to the vet but thought someone on here might have some advice in the first instance.

[Antonio]

Hi BabyBerlioz, welcome to the forum!
Feeding only wet food to your cat could be the root of the problem. Most wet food (cans, pouches) are complementary food, not complete food. That means that some nutrients (minerals, amino acids, vitamins, atc) are totally missing. Dry food is generally advised to be fed to meet the daily requirements. In my opinion this lack of nutrients could lead to a feeling of not satisfaction of your cat.
You might try feed him some different brands of wet food that can be considered as complete food.

[BabyBerlioz]

Thank you!

I am feeding him Wainwrights and James Wellbeloved kitten foods which was recomended by the vet at our first checkup as having what he needs without any uneccesary extras.

[booktigger]

Hi BabyBerlioz, welcome to the forum!
Feeding only wet food to your cat could be the root of the problem. Most wet food (cans, pouches) are complementary food, not complete food. That means that some nutrients (minerals, amino acids, vitamins, atc) are totally missing. Dry food is generally advised to be fed to meet the daily requirements. In my opinion this lack of nutrients could lead to a feeling of not satisfaction of your cat.
You might try feed him some different brands of wet food that can be considered as complete food.

Actually, in England, most of our wet food is complete, it is only the 'gourmet' foods that are complimentary. Feeding wet only is perfectly fine, James Wellbeloved definitely is complete, I've only used Wainwrights dry (it is essentially James Wellbeloved, with slightly more meat and cheaper), but a quick check shows it is classed as complete.

What you might be finding is that being a Maine Coon/Ragdoll cross, he is going to be bigger than your average cat, so will need more food than your average cat.

[Kay]

I too wonder if it is because Maine Coones are big cats, and the recommended amounts would probably be a bit on the small side for him - also some pouches are 100gms and some 85gms, so this could make a difference

it could be too that being an indoor cat he perhaps gets bored, and like many humans food has become a source of passing the time for him - is he an only cat, and is he alone a fair bit of the day? Have you tried a treat ball, which might entertain him, even if he doesn't want the treats

Perhaps a couple of small meals of cooked chicken on top of the pouches might fill him up a bit too, without adding to his weight

[booktigger]

I too wonder if it is because Maine Coones are big cats, and the recommended amounts would probably be a bit on the small side for him - also some pouches are 100gms and some 85gms, so this could make a difference

it could be too that being an indoor cat he perhaps gets bored, and like many humans food has become a source of passing the time for him - is he an only cat, and is he alone a fair bit of the day? Have you tried a treat ball, which might entertain him, even if he doesn't want the treats

Perhaps a couple of small meals of cooked chicken on top of the pouches might fill him up a bit too, without adding to his weight

Good point Kay - I still had the PAH website open, both James Wellbeloved and Wainwrights are 85g pouches. Seems they are making smaller pouches, but not changing the recommended daily amount, although Wainwright's does have 40% meat.

[BabyBerlioz]

I did myself wonder if he needed more food because of his breed, but the recommended daily amount goes by their current weight so I would have thought the breed would be irrelevant in that case?

I work from home so I am in most of the day and he is always beside me. It's really quite cute. I really don't get as much works done as I used to because I stop to play with him lots! Then I have two older children who play with him lots when they come home from school. I also rotate his toys every couple of days so he doesn't get bored. So am sure it shouldn't be boredom.

[alanc]

Hi. As a Maine Coon owner, I can assure you 3.5 pouches of wet kitten food for a growing Maine Coon kitten is not unusual. They have a lot of growing to do and eat a lot! (They carry on eating a lot when older as well.)

[BabyBerlioz]

Hi. As a Maine Coon owner, I can assure you 3.5 pouches of wet kitten food for a growing Maine Coon kitten is not unusual. They have a lot of growing to do and eat a lot! (They carry on eating a lot when older as well.)

Alan,

Would you suggest feeding him more if he wants it? Or top him up with some chicken like the previous poster suggested? He loves prawns too, we eat a lot of prawns ourselves and he can smell them being take out the fridge from several rooms away!

[booktigger]

I did myself wonder if he needed more food because of his breed, but the recommended daily amount goes by their current weight so I would have thought the breed would be irrelevant in that case?

I work from home so I am in most of the day and he is always beside me. It's really quite cute. I really don't get as much works done as I used to because I stop to play with him lots! Then I have two older children who play with him lots when they come home from school. I also rotate his toys every couple of days so he doesn't get bored. So am sure it shouldn't be boredom.

The feeding guide goes off the weight, but he is growing, so it is slightly different.

[bobbys girl]

When Bob was that age we just could not fill him, he was always yelling for more - and he is a much smaller cat than a Maine Coon!

Have you tried JWB dry food? I've tried other foods, but keep coming back to that. They ALL love it. Actually, it does smell very nice, very tasty:?

[TheCatsMum]

Personally, I'd give him a bit more and see how that goes for a month or two. Hopefully he'll put the extra energy into growing rather than putting on weight and then review it then. He may be a bit more likely to have teeth issues in old age on just a wet diet, but a wet diet will be so much more beneficial in many other ways so I wouldn't worry about him not eating dry as long as you can get enough down him. I have to admit my two (not Maine Coon, just ordinary moggies) were overweight (not drastically for them) but they were big boned cats and in their younger days scoffed everything going - two cans, dry for one, treats and milk, far in excess of recommended guidelines.

[AndyMac]

My cat is a domestic moggy - quite large and she would eat up to 3- 4 pouches per day. I also leave her biscuits to eat. Be aware if only feeding wet food this can lead to dental problems later in the cats life - mine had to get 4 teeth removed when she was 11 and she had gingivitis. The vet blamed a diet of wet food as the dry food helps remove plaque from the teeth.

[alanc]

Hi Babyberlioz
I have been looking back at my notes on feeding my Maine Coon kittens. I actually fed them a mixture of wet and dry, but at 4 months they were getting the equivalent of 3.5 sachets a day, which rose to 4.5 by the the time they were 6 months old and stayed at that level until they were about 15 months old. At 4 months, they were fed 3-4 meals a day, dropping to 2 meals a day at 12 months. Basically, though, it was a case of shoveling in as much food as they would eat!
If cooked, I assume prawns will be acceptable food to most cats, but I don't actually know.

[booktigger]

My cat is a domestic moggy - quite large and she would eat up to 3- 4 pouches per day. I also leave her biscuits to eat. Be aware if only feeding wet food this can lead to dental problems later in the cats life - mine had to get 4 teeth removed when she was 11 and she had gingivitis. The vet blamed a diet of wet food as the dry food helps remove plaque from the teeth.

Actually, studies show that dry food isn't that effective at removing plaque. I personally think genetics have a lot to play - I've had cats toothless by 11, yet both 21 year olds had some left, despite one of them favouring wet food

[BabyBerlioz]

Thank you so much for all your thoughts everyone. I have decided to feed him up and monitor what happens with his weight over the next few weeks.