# Cat Petulance?



## podgette (Jul 23, 2012)

I'm not sure if this thread belongs in health or not, but here goes. 
I was adopted by my 4 cats about 5 years ago when I was living in Spain and they were living in the street (but being fed). Nearly 3 months ago I had to come back to London (it involved all of us spending days in a van going through France!) and now the cats seem fine. Except one of them has, in the last 6 weeks or so, started vomiting at 5 or 6 in the morning. Generally it's a regurgitation of just-eaten biscuits. In Spain he used to succeed in getting me to feed him at 7 am (ie 6 am here) but now he tends to have to wait until 8 or 9. This is wet food he eats (and prefers), there are biscuits down all the time.
He eats absolutely fine (in fact this morning he scoffed virtually a pouch just after he'd vomited - I was clearing up at the time) and displays absolutely no signs of illness at all. Nor do any of the others, incidentally.
I am loathe to take him to a vet due to the extortionate and unjustifiable prices here (I would if I thought he was actually ill). My opinion is that this is petulant behaviour designed to train me into feeding him when he wants to be fed. He always makes sure I can hear him (and so leap out of bed, from a deep sleep usually) and doesn't do this any other time at all. He is a greedy pig who is, I'm afraid, used to getting his own way. He has not done this before.
Any opinions or thoughts greatly appreciated.


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## carly87 (Feb 11, 2011)

Sorry, but I don't believe that a cat is vommitting because he's huffing. Could it be that he is having difficulty with his food? Have you changed it recently? It sounds like he's having difficulty keeping the biscuits down. Could you consider either changing him totally to wet or feeding the dry from a treat ball so that he can't gorge on it and make himself sick?


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

I have never in my life heard of a cat deliberately making itself vomit in order to change human behaviour!  Frankly cats are just not that devious or calculating. You sound as though you are quite angry with him, which I have to say I don't really understand..... 

If your cat was used to being fed his breakfast an hour or two earlier each day in Spain than he is now, then it is possible he is getting too much acid in his tummy from being hungry. Eating dry food on an empty, acid tummy could be causing the vomiting. He would be better off with a little wet food on an acid tummy. 

I don't really understand why he can't be fed at the time he has always been fed -- you could buy an automatic feeder and put wet food in it, and set the timer to open it at 7 am if you don't want to get up.. 

If he is "a greedy pig" and is overweight, then it is up to you to manage that by giving him smaller meals. Letting him get very hungry won't help. The fact he was able to eat a whole pouch of food immediately after vomiting suggests the cause was too much acid in his tummy. 

Some cats do get hungrier more often than others. I don't regard this as "greed" per se, same as I would not in a human if they were hungry a lot. It is all to do with the rate of metabolism. Some cats (and people) have a fast metabolism, some have a slow one. 

Personally I think the consultancy charges at UK vets are quite reasonable, but I have not lived in Spain (or elswhere) so don't know how they compare.
It would be worth shopping around though, as there may be a saving of a few pounds to be had depending on the practice. Smaller practices are often a bit cheaper. 

Or if you are on a low income there are the Blue Cross Hospitals, but you may not be near one of those.


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## lymorelynn (Oct 4, 2008)

You say he doesn't like biscuits but is obviously eating them because he is hungry. He may be so hungry that he is gobbling them down too quickly and then bringing them back up back again - this is the reason I never wean kittens onto biscuits; they gobble them up, the dry material swells in the stomachs making them over full, so back it all comes.
I doubt very much if he is deliberately being sick. Make sure that he has a good meal (wet food only) just before you go to bed and don't leave the biscuits down for him.


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## porps (Jun 23, 2011)

if the biscuits are barely digested then its most likely that he's eating them too quick and making himself sick. It might be worth changing the dried food to something with bigger biscuits, to force your cat to bite them in half instead of just swallowing them whole. This could slow him down so he doesnt make himself ill. 
I've certainly never heard of a cat making themself sick on purpose. I've heard of dogs doing it but never cats.


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## ace85 (Aug 16, 2011)

Agree with the others here - cats can be willful 'in the moment', so to speak, but they generally do not plan devious strategies to undermine their owners' authority. If he's being ill, then it's because the food disagrees with him, not him disagreeing with you. Dry food often makes cats vomit because drinking afterwards causes the food to swell inside the stomach, meaning that they suddenly find they have eaten too much 

The best solution IMO is to get him on some decent quality wet food, which will do a better job of curbing the hunger issues due to a higher protein content. Sourced from somewhere like Zooplus, it needn't be much more expensive than dry either


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## maisiecat (Jul 27, 2011)

In the past I found that if I left dry food down overnight I would come down to find it had been vomited up.

I think Maisie would eat it because there was no wet left. She was fine with it during the day, always had both. I only give her a little bit of dry now as a treat or for a change and I never leave it down at night. I just make sure she has enough wet to keep her going.


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## Cookieandme (Dec 29, 2011)

When I got my cat she was fed on biscuits so probably used to having them all the time. She wanted feeding at around 4am and after a few mornings of getting up I bought an auto feeder and set it for around 4. 

You say he used to be fed at around 6am (UK time), now he has to wait another 2 - 3 hours, no wonder he wants your attention. If I had to wait another 3 hours for my breakfast I woud be shouting about it as well.


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## podgette (Jul 23, 2012)

maisiecat said:


> In the past I found that if I left dry food down overnight I would come down to find it had been vomited up.
> 
> I think Maisie would eat it because there was no wet left. She was fine with it during the day, always had both. I only give her a little bit of dry now as a treat or for a change and I never leave it down at night. I just make sure she has enough wet to keep her going.


I would like to thank everyone who took the trouble to reply. I have taken to making sure he has wet food newly put down late at night and I have also been getting up at 6 (or whenever he wakes me up) to feed him. So far he hasn't vomited (apart from a very small bit) so the problem may have been solved.
Just so everyone knows, there is always wet and dry food down. The cats are fed pouches/wet food essentially as they want them in the day and usually the last one is about 8 at night. 2 of the cats eat wet and dry and 2 eat dry only (their choice). 
I do not, in any way starve him. The merest hint of hunger has me running to feed him. He does eat a lot more overall (and always has) than any of the others and I suppose that's why I used the term 'greedy pig' - I sometimes call him that out of affection. BTW, using a automatic feeder wouldn't work as he likes to see the food put down fresh. If it's been down a while he will ignore it until fresh appears.
Since there are no other symptoms I do rather feel that it is a stomach acid problem, which could be why he eats so much more frequently than any of the others.
I'm replying to this comment as Maisie sounds the most like Smudge. Unfortunately I can't restrict the dry food as it would deprive the other 3 cats.
Again, many thanks to you all.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

podgette said:


> BTW, using a automatic feeder wouldn't work as he likes to see the food put down fresh. If it's been down a while he will ignore it until fresh appears.


Pleased to hear that you may have solved the problem

Just wanted to add a comment re: the autofeeder. My cats are the same as yours, they will not touch food that has been down a while, and because of that I have always taken their plates up immediately after every meal. 
But I have not found their objections apply to food put in the autofeeder, and I imagine this is because the food is not open to the air so is not deteriorating at the same rate as food on an open plate.

Also there are autofeeders available with reusable ice packs, which go underneath the dishes, and this would keep the food in an even more pristine condition.

The other thing is you say your cat's last wet meal of the day is at 8 pm. I would strongly recommend giving him his last wet meal just before you go to bed (assuming you don't go to bed as early as 8 pm of course). A big bowl of wet food at bedtime will likely see him right through the night, and then there would be no need for bothering with autofeeders anyway.


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## podgette (Jul 23, 2012)

porps said:


> if the biscuits are barely digested then its most likely that he's eating them too quick and making himself sick. It might be worth changing the dried food to something with bigger biscuits, to force your cat to bite them in half instead of just swallowing them whole. This could slow him down so he doesnt make himself ill.
> I've certainly never heard of a cat making themself sick on purpose. I've heard of dogs doing it but never cats.


Thaks for this. Smudge has lost all his teeth (gingivitis) so biting is out of the picture - doesn't stop him eating everything he wants to, though - ham chicken, prawns! I thought for a while that the problem could be that he likes the biscuits (Tesco's incidentally, which he loves far more than the ones he had in Spain) too much, so I got some Morrison's ones. He hates those,as do all the other cats, so I've had to mix the remaining ones in with the Tesco's ones, so that the other cats don't suffer, as it wouldn't be fair otherwise.


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## podgette (Jul 23, 2012)

Thanks - I'll investigate the autofeeder market on Monday! Their last meal (before all this) was at around 8, or whenever there were the last signs of hunger. Since the new regime, he's been getting wet food down at or around when I go to bed. Yesterday he didn't wake me up and there was no vomiting of biscuits, so it may be that the late feeding is the solution.

I can't thank you all enough. It's very reassuring to know that there is a large fund of experience out there. I'd never 'owned' cats before this four decided to live with me and it's been one steep learning curve. The best thing I ever did was to bring them back with me (not that there was any choice - morally, ethically or sanity wise) and I love them so very much. There are many people, often English, I'm ashamed to admit, in Spain, who take cats (and dogs) in and then when they leave just abandon the poor things. The animals in Spain are often not neutered by the locals and so there is an awful stray problem compounded by the abandoned animals. There are a lot of animal charities there and so often people who have pets have several not just one. However, as I said before, the vets are absolutely fantastic. If anyone wants details of the charities please contact me.


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