I have a 5 year old kitty, Halo, who is always hungry and has become very irritating, to the point where my husband is ready to lose his mind.

As a kitten, she was fine. We did free feeding of kitten dry food and advanced as needed, and she did fine, but at about 1 year old we moved in with my mom who had 2 other kitties. My mom was not always the most responsible with their feeding and as a result has very fat cats. My kitty ended up getting quite chunky as well (about 15-16 pounds after my mom would feed them tons of wet food and dry food and treats, and whatever else). Halo also learned that she had to get her own food while she could before the other ate it. We did try to separate their feedings, but it didn't always work.

My husband and I moved out 1 1/2 years later, and over the past 2 years have been able to get Halo's weight down into a good range (last check up she was 11lbs) through scheduled feedings, smaller measured amounts (1/4 cup per feeding x 2 feedings a day), and indoor formula, and we've been praised by our vet for that.

Our problem now: Feedings had been scheduled at 6:30am and 6:30 pm, but starting at about 5, she starts crying and running and begging for food, and always waking us up, obviously she's hungry. What I thought was a logical solution was to, now that she's in a good weight for her size (she's larger framed to begin with), that we could increase her to 3/4 cup a day, separated into 3 feedings, to maintain her weight. And to decrease the early morning wakings, one of those feedings is at 11pm right before we go to bed. So now it's 1/4 at 6:30-7am, 1/4 at 4-5pm, and 1/4 at 10:30-11pm.

But it isn't working. Nothing has changed. I'm worried about increasing her food amounts too much and her gaining too much weight again. The bag says for a 10-12lb cat to feed 3/4c to 1 1/4c per day, so perhaps I could increase to 1cup a day. But regardless of what we've done - feeding early, giving treats during the day, adding in more, etc - Halo still gets crazy about an hour before, running to the food dish every time we go in the kitchen, and when we put the food in the dish, she practically inhales it, so I definitely don't think free feeding again will be good.

My husband is not a cat person, and Halo is really trying his patience, and something just has to change. Any advice would be wonderful and so appreciated!! Maybe more or less calories? I don't know. She's a strictly indoor kitty, there are no other kitties to fight for food with (and haven't been in over 2 years), she's not incredibly active either.