Why is my cat always hungry? Why is my cat fat? Why is my cat fussy?

Why is my cat fat?

How can I get my cat to lose weight?

Why is my cat so fussy with food - if I don't keep changing the food, she just will not eat anything?

These are some of the most commonly asked questions by cat owners. There is a sort of bemused disbelief that a caring, totally well intentioned owner providing good quality food, often in the recommended amounts, can end up with an overweight cat, which might also be very fussy. The surprising fact is that this is not rare, it has become very common. So how does it happen? Why do cats become fat? The flippant answer would be that the cats eat too much. The truth is, there is a lot more to it than that and it is a complex situation with lots of contributory factors. However it boils down to one thing in the end. The cats eat too much. If they ate less, they would be thinner. If they ate a lot less, they would be a lot thinner. This is not rocket science, anyone could work it out. So what is the problem here?

As Nature Intended.

A cat is designed to hunt for its own food. Small rodents and small birds are the natural diet. Pretty much the whole carcass is eaten. All the “tubes”, all the gristle, lots of fur, some feathers, the gut contents – they all go down the hatch. Obviously we don't feed that sort of diet to our cats and we are not going to. The world has moved on, we prefer it like this, so do the cats, but it is not perfect. Cats on a natural diet would not be stimulated to over-eat. They would stop when they were full. Another point to bear in mind is that when a cat in the wild is full, it will rest up, safe from the many dangers out there, until it is hungry enough to go out and hunt again. The result of modern, generous owners is that cats never get truly hungry, so most of them are permanently “resting up” like their wild ancestors would. They take very little exercise, and eat plenty. No wonder they are fat!

What is wrong with Modern Diets?

The first thing to say is that there is a huge amount right with them. A pet cat on a good quality modern cat food is likely to live a long and healthy life. All the nutrients are there. The vitamins and minerals, the amino acids and essential fatty acids, even the anti-oxidants and whatever else science discovers. The trouble is that our modern diets encourage cats to eat more than is good for them. They get fat. Some develop diabetes, many develop arthritis as they get older. A few will develop other serious problems like hepatic lipidosis or heart disease. These problems are much less likely to develop in lean cats. Before the 1970s obese cats were rare. Most cats did not over eat whereas now they do. Why? Genetically cats are no different. Possibly they are pampered more than in the past, but there have always been devoted owners. The main difference is in the foods we give them. Modern diets tend to produce fat cats.

Why does my cat want to eat so much?

This is a crucial question. For a short while, it would be good to consider the issue from the perspective of a cat food manufacturer. There are lots out there. They all work to pretty much the same agenda. They want to sell cat food. Nothing wrong with that. So what do they do? Firstly they have to produce a food which is generally believed to be good for cats. There are lots of ways of trying to encourage cat owners to believe that. One of the main ways is simply to produce a diet which genuinely is good for cats. As long as our cats look happy and healthy and live a long time, we will be convinced. So far so good; everyone is happy. The next step is also fairly obvious, but it is a slippery slope to get onto. We like our cats so much, we want them to enjoy their food, just like we do. Never mind the fact that most of us eat far more than is good for us, we enjoy the process and want to see our cats do the same. To fit in with this, the manufacturer of the cat food needs to make the food very tasty. Not just quite nice. Not even delicious. Ideally it will be so awesomely fantastic, your cat will not be able to resist the stuff. That is important for two reasons. Firstly your cat will eat so much, you will be back buying extra supplies quicker than you can say “My cat is too fat!” Secondly, you will stick to the same brand, because others are not as enjoyable for your cat. Basically the more tasty the cat food is, the more the manufacturer will sell. The more they sell, the more successful they are as a company. Some of these companies are very successful. Cat food is a multi-billion pound industry. No room for sentiment there. It is pure commerce. To be successful these days, a manufacturer has to produce diets which are attractive to cats way beyond what is natural. If your cat is less keen on a particular food, you will probably say “He doesn't like it” and buy a different brand Even the weight-loss type diet foods have to be very tasty, or you will not buy the food. If this was not the case, the problem would be really easy to solve. The manufacturers could produce very nutritious foods which were not as tempting to eat. Then cats would stop eating when they were full, like they did in the past. (When I went to university in 1978 to study veterinary science, we were told that cats would not over eat. “Appetite is an expression of physiological need” was the phrase. It was felt to apply to cats, but not dogs, which were regarded as naturally greedy and more inclined to gorge if given the chance. Now plenty of cats go over-eat like mad. Everything has changed – because the foods have changed.)

What do they do to the foods to make my cat seem so hungry?

This is an interesting question. A lot of science goes into the answer. Some of it is known outside the industry, some is probably highly secret. Certainly kibbles can be coated with the all sorts of flavour enhancers. Not that they are intrinsically unsafe in themselves, but they just make the cats eat too much. The carbohydrate content is unnaturally high. This is probably very important. Carbohydrates are easy for most cats to digest, though are found in much lower levels in a wild, natural type diet. They do not seem to stimulate satiety (the feeling of being full”). So bulking the foods out with carbohydrate means that the cats will want to keep eating, despite taking in a lot more food than is good for them. (We do the same with our diets. If you take away the bread from a sandwich, the rice from the curry, the potato from the roast dinner, you could make a very nutritious meal without the starch “padding”. We use starchy carbohydrates as a convenient vehicle to get a lot of energy into our overall diet. The energy content of the carbohydrate itself is moderate, but carbohydrate helps to take the breaks off the whole eating process. We enjoy eating, so we make sure we can eat lots. We like it that way. It is not always good for us, but that is another matter.)

So what should I feed my cat?

Undoubtedly a high protein, high fat and low carbohydrate diet would be more natural for cats. There are some commercial foods like that. They are technically difficult to make as a dried kibble. They also fill cats up quickly. This means that the cats eat a bit then lose interest in the food. Owners tend not to like this, so buy something else. Very often it would be best to stick with the diet your cat seems bored with, but who wants to do that? Most cats genuinely do well on any of the popular, good quality diets, apart from getting fat and lazy. If they are given in restricted amounts, they are fine. I would suggest 2 small meals a day, and adjust the amount according to how things are going. For as long as your cat is a slim, healthy weight, you can feed as much as they want, twice a day. If your cat appears healthy and well, but starts to get fussy, probably you have been giving too much food and your cat is full. Give less for a while, and the appetite will return. By far the most common nutritional problem in pet cats is obesity. You will probably be helping your cat if you start reducing how much food you offer. The last think to do is to try and find a different, even more tempting food. If you think your cat might be ill, take it to the vet. If not, just cut down on the amount of food and see what happens. Hunger really does work, it has kept cats alive and healthy for millions of years, we really do not need to find ever more tempting foods. Its easy!

One final note of caution. If you have a very overweight cat, it is important not to starve it completely. You can cut down on the food amount quite safely, but obese cats are in danger of developing serious liver complications (hepatic lipidosis) if they stop eating completely for even a few days. As long as they are eating a bit, they will be OK. To diet a cat, you can cut down on the amounts quite safely, but do ensure some food is eaten. (Oddly enough, a lean cat can go without food more safely than an overweight cat! Another reason to keep our cats slim!)

Article written by:
John Cousins BVSc MRCVS - A veterinary surgeon from VioVet - Online Pet Store & Pharmacy.

The article reflects the opinions of the author and should only be used as a guide. It can only be taken in conjunction with advice from your vet. No liability is accepted for accuracy of content or any other matter.