hungry cat

Question
Hi Carol, I have a four year old cat, and she is always asking for food. Every one and a half hour, to two hours, she starts asking again for food, when she was just feed, not too long ago. If i dont feed her, she meows, and bothers me until I do. It gets really annoying after a while, i dont know what to do about it. It all started when my grandma came to vist, and she just kept feeding, and feeding my cat. Now that my grandma is gone, my cat has been doing this for a year and half now, and I have tried not to feed her too much, but she meows so much. So then i just give her a little bit, by the way she eats dry food, so i give her like five little pieces, but then here she goes again, since it wasnt enough. Please tell me any advice you have to this. Thanks.

Answer
Hello. It sound like your cat likes alot of your attention and she has found a way to get it.

I would feed her free-choice. That is always having a bowl of dry food available. That way when she wants to eat she can, or if she just wants to nibble it's available. At first she may stuff herself because she's not used to a full bowl there, but then she will eat sensibly when she sees it's not going to disappear. Always get a high quality catfood, like Iams, etc. Cheaper brands have a lot of fillers that don't fill up the cat for long.

I have always fed free-choice and I have never had an overweight cat. When you don't have free-choice they tend to gobble their food because they don't know when they will get more.

Plus she would have to find another way to get your attention.

Also it would be advisable to worm her. If she has worms they are eating what she eats and she is not getting enough food. That could be possibly why she is always hungry too. If you worm her, get the wormer from the vet and not a pet store. The wormers in the pet store the worms are getting immune to. The vet has the newest medications that are effective.

Carol