My cat just will not stop begging constantly. She is overweight, and I did used to over feed her unknowingly. She has been on a kitty diet for several months, and we have had an automatic feeder for over a year. We got it with the hopes that she'd get used to her feeding time and leave us alone about food. It isn't working very well.

We've taken to using a spray bottle and every time she begs she gets squirted... but this feels like a temporary solution. We're following Dr's orders for the amount of food, and are actually feeding her a little bit more than that and she still won't let up.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Do kitties boredom eat too?

I dont want to be harsh, so please don't get offended if it comes off that way. I had (before I moved recently) 4 cats. I left a food bowl out and let them eat at their own discretion, and not one single one of them was overweight. With that being said, they were all incredibly active. They always played with each other quite often. If your cat is an only cat, instead of spraying the cat when she gets hungry, why dont you play with her? Get her a scratch pad, get her the toy that has a ball inside for her, get her balls with bells in them, PLAY WITH HER!
Your cat will surely lose weight with you watching her food intake, so please don't feed her more. The DR knows what he/she is doing. If your cat begs while you're eating, put the cat in another room, you could even put the cat in a cage if you're afraid of her scratching the door of the room you put her in.
You have to think about this in the same sense as your own weight loss, we are hungry, we want to eat, we need to not take in more calories than we're burning so we need to work out.
Makes sense, right?

i agree. i do play with her. i definitely could play more often with her though. her favorite thing is to play fetch with the milk jug rings. i have found them in the strangest of places.
it kind of seems like it's just become a habit for her to meow at me every time i get up or go anywhere near the room that her food is in... every morning when she hears me get up she starts in and every evening when i walk in the door. even if she's already been fed, she is whining for more .
I'll try distracting her with toys next time to see if that helps.

My husband gets so mad when she wakes him up - and we're on the 2nd floor and she's on the first! The other morning we thought she was whining, but I got up and she was sitting in the window singing to the birds. I have to remind him that cats Meow... it's what they do.

My parent's dog is at the right weight, but always seemed like he's hungry. They switched him to overweight dog food so he could have more of it than the higher calorie regular formula and he seems happy with it. Just a thought (check with your vet first though!).

Is she eating a dry food?

Dry foods are mostly carbs, and not as filling... or really the right diet for a cat. Easy for sure (I'm currently trying to get my kitty to like wet food after her getting mostly dry at the shelter) but really, the best choice for a carnivore like a cat is meat.

I hope I don't offend in any way - I personally know it's tough to wean cats onto different foods, they can be very stubborn But I read that for best health, they should be eating 90% protein (or even more), like the levels found in canned kitten food. Plus the water found in wet foods keeps them healthier; cats have low thirst drives since in nature, they get a lot of water in their pray (kinda gross but hey...) So they can get dehydrated pretty easily and develop kidney issues.

Plus meat diets usually mean less poop and less smell

Good luck!

Hi BG, I was just in your neck of the woods, lovley but cold.

I would try 2 things, I would go for a better quality food, your cat will eat less of it because it has better usabable nutrition and I would leave it out with refill at bedtime, so she won't be a pest first thing in the moring.

I personally like the holistic foods, they have far less crap than the comercial grocery store/pet store foods. I find it at the local animal feed store.

I struggle with this with my older (tabby) cat. The Other Human likes to give the cats people food and the tabby will stuff himself silly.

I've found that there are certain brands of dry food that have to limited to treats, so we don't buy them often and only get the small bag when we do. We've found a brand that they'll both eat but neither one LOVES to the point of gorging.

I try to keep the O.H. from feeding table scraps. I've taken to banning the cats to the garage during dinner -- no kitty crying and no naughty Human.

I also find playing "paper ball" on the stairs helps keep Mr. Tabby trim -- he chases the paper ball up the stairs, bats it around, and chases it back down. He also likes to play "chase tag" -- I'll follow him around the room holding my hands out and saying, "I want a hu-u-u-ug!" He hops and hurries to stay just out of reach.

We also find wearing the cats out with active games keeps them from demanding as much 3 am attention.

Well i as a veterinarian am going to give you some advice. First and foremost, follow your vet's guidelines. I do recommend dry food especially if its a diet type food. I'm guessing your cat is on either W/D, R/D, M/D, or purina dm. At least that's what most vet's recommend. I disagree with feeding moist. It really doesn't "fill" cats up. The dry foods are very high in fiber which is what the cat will fill up on. As for the begging, i know this sound hard, but the only way to stop begging is through what behavior veterinarians call "extinquishing" in otherwords, don't give in and just ignore...i know it is hard, but the best to do. Other suggestions are this. They make dog/cat toys that slowly dispense food. You could put your kitty's food in these and then the cat "chases" his food all day long. Also they make these things call "puzzle Katz" which are boxes with designs on the lid, so the cat has to work for his food. It may keep him/her occupied long enough that it takes longer for the food to be consumed. BTW...what diet is your cat on. there are some really good foods out there to do the trick. I have had great success in my own clinic using the M/d or R/d made by hills. But waltham also has a great brand (just forget the name of it). Also the purina DM (only available at a vet clinic) is good too. Remember, just like humans, obesity in cats can lead to diabetes and heart disease. Let me know how it goes.

I forgot all about this thread, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. We did not get the diet foods that our vet had for sale, it was suggested that we use an indoor cat formula, and we've been feeding her Science Diet Indoor Cat.
She never gets wet food. Occasionally she'll get a tiny bit of people food, usually if we're making fish. And she does get treats, she loves the soft chews Pounce ones.

I have been exercising her using a laser pointer, boy she loves that thing.She also plays catch with the ring off the milk jug and we also have a chasing around the house kinda game... she loves to hunt me.

She's lost some weight but she still whines and cries a lot. I am so scared that I'm going to underfeed her that I overfeed her I think when she whines. And I do give in to her a lot. I think I need to try harder to ignore her and not give in and I will check into those toy/treat things. She would love that.