cat eating EVERYTHING- long

[thixle]

I am so unnerved and stressed out by this. There is a lot going on in my house, and the cat is just adding sooooo much more stress to my life. I'm ready to have her put down (and yes, I'm aware this could be PPD talking). I need help!

I feed her a good quality dry kitten food, mixed with wet 2x a day. There is always dry food and water out as well. Oh, I also give her crushed cat vitamins in with the wet food at night. I really don't see how it could be a vitamin deficiency.

So, Queso is about 2 years old. She has unfortunately had 2 litters of kittens (3 kittens each litter) in her short life. Since the last litter (born Sept 3rd) she has become antagonistic about food. She steals food out of my baby's mouth-- like bananas. I have never allowed her on the countertops/tables but now she jumps up there constantly. I can't even read a cookbook at the kitchen counter w/o her being there. She is constantly begging for food. We seriously step on her a dozen times a day bc she is always between our feet begging. She still has food in her bowl from this morning, but she is on the counters trying to rip open a bread bag to eat!

We can't eat at the table, we have to put the cat outside to eat. It's getting cold out there.

Hubby is calling the vet right now. She was spayed Oct 23rd, and we had high hopes the food thing would lessen, but it has gotten worse. I feel like we should have put her down instead of spaying-- and I'm really an animal lover, I am. But this cat constantly stealing my kids food, making it to where i can't cook, stepping on her all the time, ugh. I'm at the end of my rope.

Anyone want a neurotic cat? WTF can I do???

[Starflower]

My friend had a cat who ate and ate and ate - her cat ended up being diabetic. It's good that your DH is calling the vet.

It sounds like this could be just a behavior thing though? (I'm not a cat expert but the vet could help here too.) You might try a spray bottle of water to squirt the cat when she begs or climbs up where you don't want her. It works with dogs.

Good luck. Please don't euthanize your cat. If you can't get things to work out, maybe you could take her to a no-kill cat rescue place so she can find a new home. Thank you for getting her spayed.

[Pepper44]

I have no idea what would make her so desperate for food, that would be frustrating! My cats sometimes try to steal food but not quite that aggressively. I'll list some suggestions, take what might help and leave the rest!

Have you tried discouraging her with anything? Different cats respond to different things. You could try a can of air, a spray bottle of water, a rolled up newspaper (not to beat her, just gentle swat in her direction...this has been very effective with one of my cats.)

Is there any chance she might have worms and that's what making her so desperate for nutrients?

Have you tried changing cat foods or maybe switching to raw food that might satisfy her more?

Could she have some kind of strange psychological thing where she thinks she needs to get food for her kittens, even though they are probably long since weaned and gone?

Instead of putting her to sleep would she be able to be an outdoor cat? If you have a garage you can call her in there at night with fresh food, lock her up to keep her from roaming in the dark and fighting with strays, and have a warm box in there for winter. As a kid that's what we did with our outdoor cats and they lived to 19 and 20 years old!

[Caneel]

Our oldest cat, a male Siamese, went thru a similar phase from shortly after we brought him home at 3 months until about 1.5 years.

He was everywhere, all the time and into everything. In our face 24/7.

He would chew and ingest anything he could get into his mouth, he would rip apart anything left out - newspapers, mail, empty my purse, haul stuff out of the closet.

He definately would have tore open a bag of bread and taken a few bites.

We spent literally thousands of dollars on vet bills and testing. We had to put baby locks on all the cupboards. We learned to leave nothing sitting out. Spray bottles did nothing and he wanted to attack the can full of beans I tried to shake as a scare tactic.

What helped? A second cat. I thought the breeder was crazy when she suggested it but it did wonders.

Cat anti-manic behavior drugs are very reasonable, like $5 a month so that might be something to talk to the vet about. (the female needed a course of these for an OCD problem)

All this occurred years ago, before we had a child, and it was still exhausting. I don't know that I could have dealt with it now.

[thixle]

more

There aren't any no-kill shelters in the area. The closest one is 3 hours away and full I wouldn't send a neurotic cat to a shelter, though. I'd (try to) rehome, or make her an outdoor-only cat first. Oh, no garage, but we do have a shed that is pretty tempting.

The kittens are still here... we are trying to give them away and they will have permanent homes by Thanksgiving (family members have said they would take the kittens as barn cats). She allows them to nurse maybe once a day. She isn't strange at all toward them. Plays, bathes them, calls them, etc. but they respect her space, too.

We've tried the water bottle and a noisemaker-crinkley-thing. The water bottle was working up until 2 weeks before she was spayed (spayed 3.5 weeks ago). Then she would get squirted and just keep on eating out of DD's plate (or going for it)... The noise-thing did nothing-- she didn't even flinch.

We started putting her in the other room when we ate bc we couldn't let her outside before the spay. About 2 weeks ago, we started putting her outside bc the weather had been so nice and she is healed. Now, it's wet and cold, and the rain is blowing into the carport. It's pretty miserable out there.


I thought about worms, too, but wouldn't she eat ALL the food in the house, and not people-specific food? I mean, she is stealing bread while she has wet food (her favorite) right there. And eating bananas and trying to eat grapefruit. Any people food, whether we are about to cook it, currently eating it, or it's on the counter (like the bread and grapefruit!!)...

I guess it would make sense if she were trying to get some specific nutrient??? but with vitamins, kitten mix, and wet food? Sheesh, even if were all cheap food, shouldn't that be enough vitamins for any cat?

[thixle]

She's only eating food, so at least I can be optimistic about that

And we are full up on cats (3 litter boxes for 2 adults and 3 kittens, everyone seems to have enough space, the adults go in and out, 3 different "feeding stations")

I'm so relieved to know meds are inexpensive enough to be an option if it is purely behavioral.

...and even more relieved that others can relate/empathize as to HOW BAD this is to deal with

[Pepper44]

I don't know..cats are quirky creatures, maybe she is just a psycho kitty.

Hopefully the vet will rule out or identify anything like worms or diabetes.

One of my cats loves to lick things for extended periods of time. Random things like the leg of a metal chair, the glass on the storm door, DD's toys, the front of the dishwasher, the couch cushions, people, my dogs...I mean he will just sit and lick non-stop until you can't stand the noise of sand paper tongue any longer and shove him away!

[Pepper44]

Oh as an added thought...could you give her away to be a barn cat and keep one or two of the kittens instead? That might be a simple solution?

[thixle]

Originally Posted by Pepper44

Oh as an added thought...could you give her away to be a barn cat and keep one or two of the kittens instead? That might be a simple solution?

I have fantasized about giving her away (and offered her to a couple that looked at the kittens the other day)

Honestly, I just want to keep our one old cat.

[Krisis]

We had a cat like that. He would eat jalapenos. He would steal rice cakes from my son! RICE CAKES. Nobody normal eats rice cakes!

We ended up rehoming him. The last straw for me was when he ate a full pound of shrimp, broke into the bread bag and ate 2 slices of bread, and then puked it all up. That was it.

So Sushi found a new home where he is happy, and I am relieved to be free of that cat. Beautiful animal, but a pain in the butt. We had two other cats at the time we adopted him too, and they sure didn't help him stop being so gluttonous.

[phatchristy]

Seriously, I'd have her spayed and see how she acts in a month or so after that when the hormones are out of her system. Nursing queens can be rather ravenous as well, and it's also pretty common for them to go back into heat relatively soon after a litter.

[Starflower]

IF the spray bottle worked before but is no longer, you could try mixing in a bit of vinegar. I hope your vet can help you work out the problems with your cat. It sounds like a very frustrating situation.

[thixle]

Thanks everyone!

The vet said it was purely behavioral... so we are giving it a couple more weeks (to see if it's hormonal) and are either going to turn her into a barn cat or discuss meds.

[rainbowmoon]

Have you had her tested for worms? The reason I ask this is because it's very common for worms to invade the mother after having kittens.

Why is she eating kitten food still at 2yo? Have you tried other foods?

Have you tried the can of coins trick? (the idea being you get a can with some coins and shake it in her ear when she is doing things you don't want her to-this seems to work with cats that are not deterred by being sprayed with water)

If it were me I would put her in the bathroom (or somewhere else safe) while you eat and hide all food out of her reach.