For many years now, we have had a tradition of turning skinny cats into fat cats. Case in point:
Frankie, on the other hand, has stayed skinny.
I’m sure this is because he scarfs up his expensive, canned food and home-made raw, organic chicken cat food, and then pukes it out. I feel bad for him when he does that but, I’m ashamed to say, I feel bad for my wallet too.
I think I would feel worse for Frankie if I thought there was something physically wrong with him but he seems pretty healthy otherwise. If he was human, I would think he has bulimia, but what he probably has is something called Eatwaytoofast Disorder.
I don’t know if there is a cure. Anyone else have experience with this?
Bad Cat Chris 
I’ve seen other bloggers talk about their cats eating well then throwing it up – some say it’s behavioral and others say there’s some kind of medical issue or food issue – I think there are a number of “reasons” for it….but as you say Frankie is healthy – your vet has no ideas either??
Pam
The issue didn’t come up last time he was at the vet.
Ahhh…..I just thought maybe the vet would have some insight as to cause but I think maybe some cats just EAT TOO FAST for their own good and up it comes !!
I think that may be the case. Perhaps I should split the meal and give them half now and half in a half an hour.
I hope you will get some good tips … the hoover-like eating is sadly a problem in our house too… what you eat with mach2 comes back with the same speed… and mostly it lands on my poor shaggy carpet …sigh…
They do seem to prefer carpet or a desk where it can run over the side.
There are some dishes that are made to help a cat eat slower – some are like mazes or puzzles. Most are designed for dry food but a few work with wet. And I know there was a post about this on another blog not too long ago – maybe The Conscious Cat? Some breeds are “prone to regurgitation” – is he part Siamese ?
He’s not Siamese but he pukes more than our Siamese cat Floki.
The maze dishes work for our dogs but we haven’t found anything for our cats. Hoping someone else does.
I am not sure making it difficult to eat would work because Frankie would leave his bowl and take Chris’s food, who needs to eat more wet food and less dry.
Hope you get some tips to help. We just lived with it when we had cats that threw up but it was only occasionally.
Frankie doesn’t puke every time but he does puke a lot and it’s almost always right after he eats.
The only solutions my human can come up with involve separating Frankie at mealtimes. Because he might do better being given small amounts of food at one time so he doesn’t eat so much that he pukes it back up. But that would involve keeping him from the other cats’ food also. (For the record, there always seems to be one cat who is separated from the others at mealtime around here, MOL!)
Also, you have probably already done this, but have you checked to see if there are certain brands or flavors of food that he pukes up more than others? We don’t feed Blue Buffalo here, for example, because Binga always threw it up. It just didn’t agree with her, so we’ve given it a pass.
It doesn’t seem to matter. I’ve seen him puke up various brands of canned food. I’ve also seen him puke up straight raw food and raw food mixed with canned food.
Also separating cats is such a pain. If anyone needs separating it’s Chris because everyone steals his food and he lets them. You would prefer to wait for the dry food.
I used to do that when I first came to live here with Mom. She bought me a slow-feeder bowl. Is there a slow-feeder bowl for kitties??
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Yes but
Oops, I hit send by mistake. Our cats change bowls like it’s a game of musical chairs. I would have to buy slow feeders for everyone and Chris needs to be encouraged to eat more wet food. It’s very difficult.
Mr Buttons has that disorder. He also has Steal-Milk-Even-Though-Lactose-Intolerant disorder. He can projectile milk around 8 feet. MOL Rumpy can also be bulimic when he finds a bag of cat food that is not put away and eats his own weight.
*Sigh*
When I make coffee in the morning Chris is right there wanting some of the coffee cream. I know it’s bad for him but I sometimes just give him a very small amount, like half a capful.
First of all, Chris doesn’t look fat. 🙂 Sometimes Ernie eats his food really fast and then throws it up. But he always comes back looking for more. I think he just eats too fast. He has a thin body type. Sometimes I think it’s just body style too. Some cats look huskier than others. ~Island Cat Mom
We did have one other cat, Alex, that didn’t get fat. I guess everyone’s different. I do think eating too much dry food does make a cat fatter though. I’ve been trying to cut back the dry food I put down and encourage Chris to eat more wet food but he resists.
Joanie does that too so I put a golf ball in her bowl to slow her down. You can buy special dishes that make it harder for them to get the food so they eat slower.
That would be a good option except everyone keeps switching bowls.
My cat Ted eats like there is no tomorrow. He has barfed up his food several times because he eats so fast. I take his wet food with some added water and pour it into a long tray. This slows him down somewhat. I tried dividing up his food and feeding him a spaced out meal over several minutes but I don’t have the patience for that and neither does Ted! Those cats! What are we going to do with them? ❤
They certainly are a challenge. 🙂
yes our Merlin suffers from the same “disorder”. Pure greediness. He gobbles food down without chewing, and usually vomits it back up within about 15 minutes. What annoys me the most is often he pukes it back up into the large communal bowl of dried food . . . so none of the other cats want to eat after that!
Yuk! That’s like wasting food twice.
Our big ginger cat used to do the same Hoover and puke manoeuvre, we just used to only give him small amounts at a time but we had three cats too so he would just go eat someone else’s food. I don’t think we ever solved the problem but as long as he wasn’t going down in weight the vet said not to be too worried
We have the same problem with other cats. Frankie, fortunately, seems in relatively good health.