The Cat That Ate Everything

Howdy all-

I have a roughly four year old cat that I originally adopted at about 9
months from the SPCA. When I first brought her home, I found that she
would occsionally like to eat cheese, egg, or other "cat type" human
foods I would give to her. This eventually ballooned into her liking a
wider varity of foods (bread, potato chips, pancakes). It has now
gotten to the point where she will literally eat, without hesitation,
nearly any food given to her (tofu, mushrooms, brocolli!).

She suffers no weird digestive problems on either end and has taken to
VERY vocally demanding food whenever I head towards the kitchen.
Additionally, I feed her the brand-suggested daily amount of cat food
for her size (1/2 cup spread over a morning and evening serving). She
eats the alloted serving within about 20 seconds and then proceeds to
look to me for more food. I know if I left a steady amount of food, she
would continue to eat this until bloated. As it is, she is about 10
pounds with a tiny bit of "belly flab" but otherwise thin. She is
excessively active compared to most cats I've seen and frequently runs
from one location to the next rather than walk. I WAS feeding her that
new indoor cat chow food (and before that, the regular cat chow). I
bought a different pricier brand today on the off-chance her bottomless
pit might be formula-related. Ok.... that's the rant. Thanks for
reading. Any suggestions would be MOST helpful!

On 26 Dec 2004 18:34:09 -0800, "MOTHdevil"
wrote:

Howdy all-

I have a roughly four year old cat that I originally adopted at about 9
months from the SPCA. When I first brought her home, I found that she
would occsionally like to eat cheese, egg, or other "cat type" human
foods I would give to her. This eventually ballooned into her liking a
wider varity of foods (bread, potato chips, pancakes). It has now
gotten to the point where she will literally eat, without hesitation,
nearly any food given to her (tofu, mushrooms, brocolli!).

She suffers no weird digestive problems on either end and has taken to
VERY vocally demanding food whenever I head towards the kitchen.
Additionally, I feed her the brand-suggested daily amount of cat food
for her size (1/2 cup spread over a morning and evening serving). She
eats the alloted serving within about 20 seconds and then proceeds to
look to me for more food. I know if I left a steady amount of food, she
would continue to eat this until bloated. As it is, she is about 10
pounds with a tiny bit of "belly flab" but otherwise thin. She is
excessively active compared to most cats I've seen and frequently runs
from one location to the next rather than walk. I WAS feeding her that
new indoor cat chow food (and before that, the regular cat chow). I
bought a different pricier brand today on the off-chance her bottomless
pit might be formula-related. Ok.... that's the rant. Thanks for
reading. Any suggestions would be MOST helpful!

I think the best advice would be to take her to the vet and have her
checked for some kind of glandular problem. If the vet rules out
anything (this will take a blood test), then I guess its because you
opened the "Pandora's box" originally by giving her 'people food', and
now you are reaping the rewards :-) A half cup of dry food for an
entire day? That sounds like too little. Remember that those amounts
on the box/bag are serving suggestions. By comparison, look at the
serving size suggestion for cereal for humans (1 oz.) This can be
anywhere from 3/4 to 1 1/4 cups. I put that in a cereal bowl and it
barely registers on my eyes ... Consider giving her a couple
tablespoons of canned food first, then put out her ration of dry food
which she can nibble on during the day. By nature, cats are supposed
to be 'nibblers', coming back to the feeding bowl a dozen times a day,
or more, for just a few small bites.

Start with the vet, ask his/her opinion, and go from there ...

HTH