Ask Me Help Desk - Floor food search

My almost 2-yr old main coon cat has always liked to eat things off the floor. Little crumbs from crackers and chips and such. One time she even ate a dried pea (hahaha). Sweeping is quite difficult (she seems to believe the piles of dust are piles of food :) ).

Semi-recently, she scours the family room carpet in search of crumbs or cat hair. Is this because she's hungry or just because she's insane (which is quite a possibility heh).

Hahaha. My cat does the same thing!

I call her my little vaccuum sometimes. If she sees a speck of ANYTHING she has to know what it tastes like. I've seen her open her eyes from a dead sleep and spot some tiny speck across the room and feel the need to go over and see if it is yummy.

It isn't just specks of stuff on the floor, either. She tries to taste chairs, shoes, my bed, my purse, the table... just about everything. I often spot her licking objects around the house. She's been doing this since she was a kitten.

Granted, my cat is a hungry girl. She's the kind of kitty that'll eat all the food you put in front of her, and even try to steal more if she can. Actually, I'm cutting her food back some now because the vet told me she needed to lose a pound (she is a ragdoll and weighs about 13 pounds, doesn't look "fat" though, just fluffyish). So in any case, I know she couldn't have been starving or something all this time. She overeats!

Maybe our cats are just curious about what things taste like? I don't think they are insane (at least not for that... lol).

alkaline, I would put her food in different rooms and let her go in search of it esp. up and downstairs, this would help her to get some exercise looking for her food. Raw potato I have 4 cats 3 females not an ounce of fat on them they weighed around 8 pounds each in February when they went to the vet and 1 huge male 14 pounds the vet has never told me that he needs to lose weight. I keep dry food out most of the time. But I do know that wet food does not have the calories in it that dry food has, so maybe if you think your cat is still hungry you can give some wet just to help fill her up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bushg

alkaline, I would put her food in different rooms and let her go in search of it esp. up and downstairs, this would help her to get some excercise looking for her food. Raw potato I have 4 cats 3 females not an ounce of fat on them they weighed around 8 pounds each in feburary when they went to the vet and 1 huge male 14 pounds the vet has never told me that he needs to lose weight. I keep dry food out most of the time. But I do know that wet food does not have the calories in it that dry food has, so maybe if you think your cat is still hungry you can give some wet just to help fill her up.

That is a good idea, putting her food in different places so she has to exercise. When I move I will try that (I can't do that where I live right now). Though, she does run around quite a bit at night (and she sounds like a herd of elephants going down the hall lol).

I keep dry food out for her, and she gets a whole can of fancy feast every day. It is the highlight of her day, she meets me at the front door when I get home from work and then meows at me for it after some pets.

The weird thing... this vet (she wasn't the vet I have had in the past there, it was a new girl I hadn't had before) told me to give her less WET food and more DRY food. That confused me, because I know for a fact just the other day I saw a vet on TV (it may have been on Good Morning America or something like that) say the exact opposite, that dry food has all the calories and the wet food is healthier. The lady on TV also said how the dry food has stuff in it that cats wouldn't eat in nature because they are carnivores, so it also puts on weight.

That is a little unsettling that the vet we had told me something that was so incorrect. Especially on something so simple!

My kitty would be THRILLED to have more wet food and less dry food, maybe I'll just try that and see how it goes.

And make sure I don't get that vet again...

Well, my cat also has fluff for a brain, so if I move the food dish around, she'd probably go hungry (seriously haha).

Good idea with the dry/wet food proportions. I'll have to try it.

Thanks everyone!

Be careful the amount of wet food that you give... It does not have as many nutrients in it, this is what my vet told me. He said if I wanted my old tom to lose weight that I should feed him wet. You must also remember they need the dry to keep their teeth healthy.