Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat Health & Behaviour => Health & Behaviour General => Topic started by: chris1221 on December 03, 2007, 19:31:54 PM
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Hi Everyone,
We've had Hurley for almost 2 years now. He's a rescue cat from the RSPCA, he was found wondering round a local village so we have no idea of his history. When we picked him up the vet could only tell us that he was between 6 and 10. He's only got 3 teeth, the 2 canines on the bottom and 1 large 1 at the back but he has no trouble eating.
We have always had a problem with his first meal of the day.
He normally gets fed at about 6 in the morning when we get up but not always... Over the last month or so this has gone to pot in a big way. He leaps on the bed at 12:30 and needs stroking, he comes back at about 2ish and won't go away until he's given a few bits of dry food and again at 4ish for his breakfast !! If we try to ignore him he walks all over us and then pats us on the head with his paw. If that doesn't work he goes to our daughters room and scratches on the door and won't stop.
We really can't see what's changed, he's getting the same food he always has (he gets his last meal in the evening at 8:30). He either sleeps on a mat in the landing or on our bed depending on hw he feels.
It feels like he's suffering from stress but we can't see why ??
Anyone have any suggestions ?
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Any new cats moved into the neighbourhood - or a new fox. Mine generally do this when something animated is wandering around the garden and they can't get to it. Could be he is older than you think and is getting alzheimers, but he would have to be well beyond 10 before i would be concerned about that possibility ...
May be he has just figured out what Smidgen has known all along - if you annoy humans when they are asleep they will do anything to get rid of you ;D
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Hi and :welcome: to Purrs,
Have your tried leaving a bowl of dried food (and a bowl of water) down all the time so he can graze as and when he likes.
This may stop him pestering you.
Sam xx
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Any new cats moved into the neighbourhood - or a new fox. Mine generally do this when something animated is wandering around the garden and they can't get to it. Could be he is older than you think and is getting alzheimers, but he would have to be well beyond 10 before i would be concerned about that possibility ...
May be he has just figured out what Smidgen has known all along - if you annoy humans when they are asleep they will do anything to get rid of you ;D
I think that last line may be the truth !!
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Hi and :welcome: to Purrs,
Have your tried leaving a bowl of dried food (and a bowl of water) down all the time so he can graze as and when he likes.
This may stop him pestering you.
Sam xx
He will everything that he can find and won't stop. We have to control his weight by limiting his food intake. From the way he follows you and wolf's down everything he can get his paws on I get the feeling he was with a LOT of other cats before he was found and had a problem getting enough for quite a long time.
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If it's purely for food that he's waking you up you could try setting an automatic feeder for silly 'o' clock to save you getting woken up by him. I was getting virtually no sleep with one of my cats pestering me at the crack of dawn and before it! I now set the feeder for 06:30 and it's stopped him waking me up at all during the night.
When he was a kitten he also used to wake me up at 2-3 am which wasn't for food but attention so I tried the 'supernanny' method on him and everytime he came near my face trying to 'get me' I picked him up, didn't talk to him or pet him just said No and put him at the end of the bed - took something like 80 odd times the first night but he understood in the end.
Good luck with Hurley, I know how exhausting it can be :tired:
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I think the poor boy is hungry and if he was fed more often during the day this may help, not more food but smaller portions more often.
I would also leave him dry food and water at night.
He may stop devouring every thing if he always knew there was food on tap, and he may not LOL, but I think worth a try. How heavy is he?
My four cats have food around all the time to graze and I throw about two out of four pouches worth of food away every day so they limit their eating and nobody pesters for food ever.
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I had an overweight foster, and if I didn't give him a small amount of dry just before I Went to bed (i.e. mins before), he would wake me up around 5am trying to get into somebodies food - if you just reduce one of his other meals, it will mean you dont have to worry abut him getting too much more, and you might want to scatter it so he takes longer to eat it.
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The thing is, he's hungry all the time (or appears to be).
We have tried giving him small meals offten, but he still goes at it in the night.
We've tried leaving full bowls of food out and he just eats the lot in one go where ever he finds them. As I said, I think he had some major food issue in his past and just can't believe that he can take his time or that it won't get taken away if he leave any.
He was at the vet for a checkup about 3 weeks ago and he wighs just over 4 kg, which the vet tells me it a tad under but not enough to worry about.
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get his weight checked again. Not knowing how old he is , it could be an onset of diabetes or overactive thyroid.
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Your last post makes him sound like a typical poorly fed stray, where they have to eat everything quickly in case they dont get another meal. I Try giving them lots of small meals, and with one of mine, she got aggressive unless you gave her dry after every meal. IT might be worth getting him checked at the vets again in case it is medical.
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especially if he is overweight. He has clearly had access to good quantities of food in more recent times. Mind you, some cats never get over a period of starvation rations. But if he is scoffing food down and is already overweight and you do not know his history, then off to the vet you go, I am afraid. Mean time, figure out what he Should be eating in the course of a day and ration it out in small, frequent meals so he does not accidentally get over fed cos you lose track.