Do cats sometimes eat too fast?

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 ...

http://www.smilies.nl/dieren/catmilk.gif

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.

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! :rolleyes:

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

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. :rolleyes: 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 :rolleyes: ). Occasionally he will eat his dry food too quickly and it comes up too but that is a much rarer occurrence.

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?

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 :rolleyes:. 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.

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.

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.:)

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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---

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LOL LOL urp it! :D

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!! ??

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

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Originally posted by wolflady


LOL LOL urp it! :D

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

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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......:rolleyes:

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!

:D :D 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. :mad: :mad: and this is every day. I thought I had the only bulimic cat. Guess Not:) :)

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

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Originally posted by 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

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Wayne! You're back! I'm sure there's probably a post in "General" but I've been swamped again so just wanted to say a quick "Welcome Back!" You've been missed. Can't wait to hear how all the kids took the trip and are settling in.

Thanks for your thoughts of me. Yes, they made the trip OK after the initial protests about being shut up in back of my little truck. However I lost Snow Cat in the journey. Apparently he got in some kind of situation where he was in danger of being covered with small but heavy boxes. I heard a lot of meowing in the back of my truck but thought it was Otis, my orange tabby kitten, fussing. At any rate, by the time I had entered Mohave, Calif, Snow cat was dead. But I did not realize it until I got to Ashfork, Ariz, that following morning and got out to check on the alternator on my truck, that is when I found him dead. Needless to say I was quite upset. When I crossed the bridge connecting Needles, Calif. with Arizona, at about 2 AM, I saw a figure crossing the bridge covered with gray wool blankets, pushing what appeared to be a baby stroller. What was most unusual was that at this time of the morning in the Lower Colorado River Valley, it was still 90 deg F. However, I did not see any part of her body. I thought to myself that perhaps it was one of the local Indian tribes crossing with her children. But in Ashfork Ariz, after finding Snow Cat dead then it dawned on me that the figure was an apparition, telling me that I was carting a dead "baby". I still get the hair raising up on me whenever I think of this. This also acconts for not seeing any part of her body, because there wasn't any. I have heard of apparitions presenting themselves in such a manner but it was thought that I would never see such a thing. Otherwise, my remaining 12 made the journey OK and without fussing. In fact when I arrived at my new (older) home in southeast Kansas, some of them did not want to leave the truck, especially the kittens. But after getting all of them in the house, they began to explore and within about 45 minutes, they were chasing each other around the large vacant rooms. I have been off line because everything I looked at in the house needed some attention, especially the electrical sockets as there was still the old style 2-slot types beig used. I have been replacing them with the code 3-slot types. Fortunately, the large basement allows access to all the plumbing so, it was only necessary to find a solid earth ground in order to connect the newer types. So, I have been purchasing various furniture, painting and repairing things before I could get back on line.

...............wayne

Sunny will also eat very fast sometimes and then throw it up again. He hasn't done this for quite a while though. I used to find throw up almost everyday from one of my cats. Now I give them hairball medicine every other day and it rarely happens. :)

:( :( At the lost cats hotel this is a bit of a problem!!And it seems to be the Siamese cats who end up leaving thier food on the floor.The problem is that they leave
the mess
where i have to walk,on the stairs etc,etc.And it can be dangerousand I have to step lightly!!

Perhaps some of you remember last spring, about Tiger barfing up what ever she ate, because she has a 3" piece of grass in her nose. She has quit barfing all together, and generally holds her food down OK now. Barfing is not generally a problem now from any of my 12. But every once in a while I have to get out the mop and bucket of soap-water and clean up kitty barf.

Lut, I am certainly sorry to hear about Sydny. He must have passed on to the RB during my moving. I know it is hard to take because of the love that is shared with them. I hope you get another kitty to "take his place" soon. There are plenty of furkids out there who need loving homes. I am seriously considering getting a new kitty to "replace" Snow Cat because I miss him so.

.........wayne:)

Our old cat with no teeth would eat and urp because it made the food softer so he could gum it up. Maybe that's the reason?

Wayne, I'm so sorry to hear about Snow Cat.. but that story you wrote sent shivers down my spine. How wonderful to know that Snow Cat is still with you! Glad to hear the trip went well otherwise. :)

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Originally posted by Nomilynn
Our old cat with no teeth would eat and urp because it made the food softer so he could gum it up. Maybe that's the reason?

:)

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Nope, Ritzy's choppers are intact....and she won't eat what she hurled...blech..just leaves it there and sits by it like she's proud or something...and watches mommy clean it up...fortunately this is not an every day thing...just once every other month or so, which makes me wonder if it's some kind of hairball cleansing ritual.

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just leaves it there and sits by it like she's proud or something...and watches mommy clean it up..

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Edwina does this too. She seems to feel it is a special thing to do when we have overnight guests Like my in-laws :rolleyes: Who point it out to me first thing in the morning.

She free feeds -- IAM low fat -- so she has no reason to binge. When she barfs -- not often -- the kibbles are undigested and -- shall we say "distinct." At least that makes it easy to clean up.

When I asked the vet about it she said..."cats vomit."

Well...there you have it!

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Originally posted by Edwina's Secretary




When I asked the vet about it she said..."cats vomit."

Well...there you have it!

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Can't get more succinct than that :)

My chunky-butt eats like she has never had anything to eat before. She swallows her pieces whole and once in awhile she will vomit the pieces back up. It's just because she eats too fast.

I have noticed that Felicia will vomit if she eats and then drinks water, so I make sure she does not drink right after she eats.

do cats eat too fast?? ha, come to my house and watch them, there is no question!

sometimes Louise would do the same, meow for food then gobble it then I would find that she had vomited it up and almost whole. smaller amounts like your vet siad is a good idea, I had to do that for a while, then when I thought she had had enought time to digest that, Iwould give her more.

Hmmmm I had thought about posting this as a new thread, but, since we are talking about vomit...here goes:

Tex is a nueterd male, indoor king, and 11 years old. I have had him since he was 7 months. He vomits all the time. At first, back in his 'youth' it was maybe once a week. Now, it is pretty much every other day, and he will sometimes have good episodes, and sometimes a bad two or three days. His weight has dropped, slowly, and he is about 8.5 pounds. At his max, he was 12 pounds.

Before anyone gets too upset, I have had him examined, tested, on different meds, foods, etc. I have not just let this condition exist. As strange as it sounds- he is really healthy, though he does show his age somewhat. Namely, his coat is not as shiny, and thick. He is a tuxedo cat, and you used to be able to see your reflection in him:D

He is now on reglan (anti spasm) 1/4 tab 2x day. I have had him on anti nausea before, too, as well as steroid injections. These things seem to help, but not eliminate the problem. I moved into a house with hardwood floors largely so I wouldn't stress over the stains on the carpet. We have a routine. He starts the body spasms, I grab the newspaper, magazine, etc., and he vomits on it. The only bad time is when he does it on my bed!!! Ugh.

Does anyone have a cat that vomits like this? Know what it might be? I don't like his drop in weight, and what it must be doing to his esophagus....:(

Louise seems to have a problem with chicken flavored canned food, so I don't give that to her, and she is ok. also- Patches doesn't like some of the beef flavors, other than that, they all eat ANYTHING

Have his kidneys been checked? Sounds like what Tubby was doing before I had him checked out. He is in the beginning stages of kidney failure. They can tell by doing blood tests. I think they check 2 or 3 different enzymes to see what their levels are. My vet suggested a 1/4 of a pepcid everyday. The pepcid helps the kidneys by allowing more blood to flow to them. And it helps his stomach by reducing the acid. I also have acid reflux disease, and it's no fun, and it does make me not want to eat sometimes. (Unfortunately the pepcid isn't strong enough for me. No, my pills cost over $100.00 a month, thank God for insurance!) The vet said just a 1/4 of a Pepcid a day will make a big difference in a cat. He will have less acid in his stomach, which should make him throw up less, which will in turn make his throat feel better, which will make him want to eat more, and when he does eat more, it will stay down so he'll get more of a benefit from it. Tubby was losing weight too. He was down to about 12 pounds, from a high of almost 16 at one point. He has now been on the pepcid for a year, and the vet says he's doing better than ever. One of his enzyme levels went back to where it was supposed to be, and they have leveled off (not gotten any worse) and he has gained back the weight so he is 15 pounds again.

Are you feeding him a "senior" cat food? Tubby gets Science Diet Senior, which the vet said was an excellent choice. Chronic kidney failure is a somewhat common thing for older cats. Tubby was first diagnosed at 15, but his throwing up had been going on for awhile before that. He has always had hairballs, so I just assumed that was the problem, until it got to the point where he was throwing up almost everyday. 12 is considered to be "senior" for a cat, so I would ask your vet to check his kidneys if they haven't already been checked, and as him about the pepcid. The thing the vet told me was that they haven't done enough studies on it to know for sure if it really helps them, but it doesn't hurt them at all, and the least it will do is reduce the acid in his stomach which right there will make him feel better. And from my experience with Tubby, I can only recommend it because his last report at the vet was "He's doing extremely well for a guy his age."

So check with your vet, and let us know what happens. I hope this helps, because I know what an awful feeling it is when they are vomiting. I feel like it hurts them so much, and I want to help but there's nothing you can do. Poor kitties.

T&P's Mom, Thanks for the advice. He is on a special food...Iams low residue Adult Intestinal Formula. He seems to do better when on that, as opposed to the regular Science Diet Adult. I will have to do a little bit more diagnostic on him (well, the vet). He was on pepsid for awhile...and that probably did cut down the acid. This last trip in, the vet thought maybe it wasn't an acid overproduction, but rather a spasm issue, hence the reglan. Something about the little bit of food gets in there, and works itself back up, rather than down, or the opening is too small..and up comes the food. Thanks again for the information. :)

Well it sounds like he's really been through everything, but I guess it doesn't hurt to double check things. I sure hope you find out what's wrong with the poor little guy. Please keep us updated.