Do cats sometimes eat too fast?

[tuxluvr]

In the past year, about every two months or so, Ritzy will snarf down a bunch of food, not chewing it very well, then urp it all back up---I can tell that all of the dry food pieces are intact, like she swallowed them whole. She is always fine after that, and continues to eat normally, chewing her kibble well, without throwing up again.

I'm wondering if this is anything to be concerned about. I check the contents of her litterbox to make sure everything is "solid", she is as regular as a clock, drinks enough water...is fed regularly (and limited to a scoop in the morning and a scoop in the evening because she was getting "chubby") and is only fed Iams dry cat food. She has come to monitor her intake with our feeding schedule, so I don't think this is a "hunger" attack.

This baffles me...is it her way of 'cleansing' hairballs? I'm always worried she is going to choke.

Sorry for the gross topic.

My RB-cat used to do that too !!!
He was fed regularly !! He was always asking for more food ; I had to step over to a diet , as he was gaining to much weight , and this was no good for him !! He was suffering from a heart-disease , and was sleeping most of the day .
So , when feeding time came up , he scrunched it all up in a second ... ! Lots of times this resulted in throwing it all back up after a few minutes ... ! So the message from the vet was : feed him everytime he beggs for it , but give very small portions , so he won't get to much food !! This helped a lot !!
Unfortunately , dear Sydney passed away a month ago , while we were on vacation , from a heart-attack ..........! Poor Sydney ...

[tuxluvr]

Was Sydney an older cat? Wasn't that the big black kitty? too sad, and to have it happen while away...my heart goes out to you. I probably missed the thread announcing this sadness - I've been busy and not on line as much the past few months. My condolences

Ritz does not have other health problems and is a very active kitty - while she does sleep the typical cat hours, when she is awake she wants to play and run (and is only a little over 2 years old). She is indoors only. The vet believes her weight is fine


This is a "random" act. While we do feed her on a schedule, she does not go for any length of time without food. IN fact, she seems to know how to "ration" her intake based on our timing, (morning and evening)there is always a little kibble left in the dish when we put out more...this is just something that she will do periodically.

[NoahsMommy]

Noah does this...he always wolfs down his food...even his treats! When I brought home dental treats from the vet, he was put off for a little bit because he HAD to chew them to get them in his tummy!

http://64.246.0.213/talk/showthread....ghlight=Sydney

http://64.246.0.213/talk/showthread.php?threadid=13796

this tells you more ,Tuxluvrr , about my sweet Sydney one-way-trip to the Rainbow bridge !

http://64.246.0.213/talk/showthread....hlight=Tribute


http://64.246.0.213/talk/showthread....hlight=Tribute

[Pam]

My Trevor attacks canned food like he has never eaten a meal before in his life and this is his last chance! Often he will throw it up within a few minutes of getting it down. For this reason he hardly ever gets canned food and when he does I dole it out little by little as I sit on the floor beside him. (I know, he's spoiled ). Occasionally he will eat his dry food too quickly and it comes up too but that is a much rarer occurrence.

[NoahsMommy]

I just thought of something else, Noah does this with his water when he drinks too fast. Does anyone else's cats do this too?

[Former User]

Casper eats dry food like he never has gotten food. He takes 3 or so pieces to is mouth, bites once and swallows down. Sometimes, he doesn't even bite . Luckily he doesn't throw up then though. Although C & K sometimes eat together from the same bowl, they don't compete by eating fast, they both know there's always enough food for them, and that they both will get enough.

Kitty still has a problem when drinking, she starts coughing. We're going to the vet soon, and will ask about that coughing from him.

[C.C.'s Mom]

My RB cat Pishi had hardly any teeth left in the end and swallowed everything. She did throw up all the time, but that was because of her having a stomach tumor which was diagnosed shortly after we took her to the vet.

Eddy never chews her food. No matter what she eats. She never has problems.

Rudie eats fast, a lot and chews very loud. As if it's important for me to ask him if he's enjoying his food. The only problem he has with eating so fast: he gained too much weight within one year and is now looking like a blown up balloon on legs.

[emily_the_spoiled]

Over the years I have done some reading on this topic (because I once had a cat that did this all the time). What I have learned is that this is a "normal thing" for cats. It seems that when they are in the wild they generally don't have the time to chew and swallow their food. So they have adapted by gulping down their food which is later digested in the stomach. The best thing to do is to feed smaller portions at a time. If he vomit you might want to wait a little while before putting more food out for him.

The cat I mentioned above (Meow) used to eat the food extremely fast and then get sick at my feet. Meow was also over weight and after a few months of not feeding him again right after he got sick, not only did he loose some weight, but he was also more careful about vomiting.

[wolflady]

Originally posted by tuxluvr
In the past year, about every two months or so, Ritzy will snarf down a bunch of food, not chewing it very well, then urp it all back up---

LOL LOL urp it!

Yes! I guess I'm not the only one with one of these binging cats! LOL Marius has this very bad habit of gulping down everything then...urping it all back up. As long as everything is ok with your cat, I don't think it's anything to be too concerned about. I've tried several tactics with Marius, but he'll still do his binge and purge thing every now and then. I notice that it happens more frequently when we get home late and are behind in feeding time. He'll just wolf it down. But, we ended up switching from Iams (little pellets) to Nutro (bigger chunks) in hopes that the bigger pieces would force him to chew. It helped a little, but he'll still urp. Lately I've just been giving him a few kibbles at a time and if he keeps them down, I'll give him more.

emily_the_spoiled, what you explained about cats in the wild is most probably the reason some cats do that. I hadn't thought of it before! Thanks for posting that. You know, come to think of it, I sometimes have to wonder if Marius gulps his food like that because he was a starving bag of bones street cat when I got him, and he's never recovered from that trauma...so he feels he must gulp all of his food in case he doesn't get fed again!! ??

[lailamara]

My female vacuums down her food "urps" it up and then ...euh, gross....eats up the "urp". Saves me a cleanup.

[tuxluvr]

Originally posted by wolflady


LOL LOL urp it!

Yes! I guess I'm not the only one with one of these binging cats! LOL

Oh dear, I just realized that we may be harboring "model cats"...they are so obsessed with being runway-svelt that they go on binge purge attacks! If I see empty bags of cheetos and cheeseburger wrappers in Ritzy's usual hiding places I'll worry....no...wait...SVELT. yeah, right......

Thanks for the thoughts, we keep very close tabs on ritzy - keep the water bowl clean (scrub out with hot water every 2-3 days and refill), sift the poopy box twice a week and do all new litter every 2 weeks....gad, I've become a maid to a furry little tuxedo face!

But she is always active and healthy, as is evidenced by her evening and morning rampages through the house, the shinycoat and bright eyes. She doesn't act sick when she does this, almost like "something went down the wrong way"...and she continues to eat after. She did have a legitimate tummy ache once after her spay surgery - it was a different event, lots of awful moany merrooooouuuuuwws accompanied that one.


The dreaded annual vet visit comes up in a few months, so I'll mention it then, but all seems aok in Ritzyland...
thanks for the enlightening comments!

[purrley]

Tuxluvr - no you are not the only one. My Spencer inhales his food every a.m. and when I get home from work I find it on the floor. and this is every day. I thought I had the only bulimic cat. Guess Not

[wayne0214]

This barfing up food that was too quickly eaten is common occurance around here. Fortunately, it is only my kittens that do most of this and it is not a regular occurance. Once in while I will let Amy outside, for her to gulp down some green grass. And then she will usually barf up the contents, but not after a whole meal.

.........wayne