Hi,
I have a one and a half yr old neutered girl cat. She has to have a special diet as she has a sensitive bowel so any extra treats and stuff is a total no-no otherwise she pukes and has diarrhoea almost immediately and it takes weeks for her to settle down again to eating without a reaction.

Anyway, she has become the most dreadful scavenger ever. She gets plenty of her [extremely expensive] prescription diet which she is happy to eat.

The problem I have is that the moment my back is turned, she's up on my cooker hob and sniffing about for any tiny scrap or trace of food. This evening was the last straw as she stole two discarded bayleaves - ate one and promptly threw it up all over the mat in the kitchen. She had left the other leaf by the pile of puke just as an added garnish, I suppose ...

I know she jumps up and I always scold her for it but short of turning violent with her, I am at a loss what to do to stop her - for her own good. She literally throws anything she shouldn't have eaten up within 10 mins of scoffing it and as I say, it takes days, if not weeks for her bowel to settle again. She's driving me berserk with the scavenging. She also eats flies, spiders, mice - which I can't do anything about as that's outside - and I have seen the entire lot of them on my mat in piles of puke, but I need to at least stop her scavenging stuff inside.

Any ideas how I can stop this? I cannot believe she ate b**dy bayleaves as I would have binned them straight away as I am usually meticulous about not leaving any sort of food stuff out/uncovered so as to not entice her in any way.

Thanks

Does your kitchen have a door? Shut the cat out when you're cooking and don't leave any food out when you're not. My cat would get into the food if he had the opportunity as well, but he doesn't. Very simple solution.

There is only one solution, be even more meticulous about clearing away any food - however unappealing you think it might be. Or if you can't be that meticulous, shut the door. I don't know what other answer we could give you, other than to tether her to a pole

I feel so lucky with my cats

They've never given a rats arse about human food, ever - not a single morsel.

My parents cats on the other hand, love everything from Cereal/Rice Pudding (milky) to Crisps (Namely pringles) and pretty much every type of meat - which includes roast dinner left overs and Donner Kebab!

As everyone else has said, you have to be very careful not to leave food around but she'll still scavenge whatever she can from outside. I do feel sorry for your cat though ~ it must be very frustrating for her having to be on a boring prescription diet whilst surrounded by the smells of other foods.

I wonder, if you had a word with your vet, if there are other foods that she could tolerate just to alleviate the boredom of her diet? It obviously depends on her condition, but sometimes a small amount of bland, poached chicken breast, or coley fish, can be tolerated by some cats with sensitive tums.

Is she on a dry food or wet food diet? Perhaps you could mix a small amount of other tastier foods with her wet food, or moisten some of the dry food with a bit of stock? Ask your vet first though, in case her condition means that she can't have anything else.

I have a cat with IBS and my experience is that trying other foods (whether bland or high quality no additive etc) to see if they are tolerated is not worth the grief. My vet specifically said no chicken - and indeed on the one occasion our cat stole some, he projectile vomited it out within five minutes.

My cat does however eat coley regularly - at my vet's suggestion - with no ill effects, so it is worth asking your vet about that, it is soooo bland it would be unlikely to cause a problem. If a cat has to stick rigidly to one food only for its entire life it is not surprising he gets excited about bayleaves

My cat hunts, there is nothing I can do about him eating voles ouside so it's a question of limiting the damage indoors. I have two other cats who sometimes have different food from him and I have to be absolutely sure that he doesn't get access to it, I stand over them till they've finished!

My cat's a terrible scavenger too. He is on a very rigid diet now since being diagnosed with diabetes but even before that when his diet was more varied, he'd steal anything remotely edible, from dog food to salad and even a very hot curry! I've heard people say cats will only eat as much as they need but that's simply not true of all cats and certainly my cat would eat and eat until he's sick and then eat some more, given the chance.

You just have to become very careful with making sure nothing edible is left within their reach and also remember how sneaky cats can be. Mine even found a way to get to the top of a cupboard which is a good 8 feet off the ground, to steal the dry dog food we stored up there. I still don't know how he got up there!

Thanks for the replies . I had to have a little rant last night as I just couldn't believe she went to the bother of nicking two used bayleaves...I truly clear every single scrap away asap when I cook but I didn't think for one minute she'd be interested in bayleaves - I had just quickly fished them out of two plates of food and was in a hurry to get to the table...oh well, seems I can't even take that risk now. Little beast!

I do chuck her right out of the house normally when there's food about to lessen the temptation for her but oh well, it was a sunny day and the back door was open so in she came. She will always try to get under the table and pilfer any dropped food scraps too. I honestly wouldn't give a toot but she seriously barfs up even if she eats a tiny scrap of something she has scavenged. So I really need to be strict with her - for her own good.

I do my absolute best to give her a bit of variety as I get wet and dry food from the vet and give her wet stuff (exceedingly expensive) as a treat every few days. Luckily there are two flavour types too, so she does get a bit of a change now and then. She scoffs it all up so seems happy with it, but even if she has just eaten her food, she will run like the wind to the kitchen if she hears a tin of tuna being opened (for our dinner) or even a rustle of a shopping bag. She's just dreadful .

Like you Lippincote, I feel it is not worth the grief to change her food or add stuff in. I am too scared to even try chicken or anything to deviate from the prescription food - it has taken so long (months) to get her tum settled and I just can't bear the idea of her puking all over the place and diarrhoeas everywhere again....It has been just so bad. She would end up on steriods long term if it starts up again too so I'd like to avoid that.

Oh well, I'll just have to be a ''meanie'' and keep up with the strict regime!

PS Tethering her to a pole sounds like a very tempting idea sometimes! *sigh*

I often think of tethering, for various reasons

Just wondering if the bayleaves had been used in a tempting type dish so retained the scent of something like cheese?

My cat has been on daily steroids for the past year, because even with the strict diet he goes off piste by hunting rabbits etc. It is a very low dose, 1mg, but in tandem with the diet regime it seems to keep him stable 95% of the time. We resisted steroids for over a year but the Christmas he spent vomiting from the top of the fridge freezer made up my mind! My vet was concerned he would put on weight but he hasn't, all effects have been entirely positive (just mentioning it in case you have to go that route at some time in the future).

I SO sympathise with that! We have a conservatory outside the living room, and the cats often sleep on a tall cupboard that I can easily see from where I normally work. Heard a strange noise one day, and diabetic cat is up-chucking some ham that he'd nicked from somewhere, from a height of 6 feet, and all over the damn floor!

Ahh, the curse of the scavenging cat! I too am afflicted by that one.
Would it be worth doing some research into supplements that may help settle and build up her guts? Slippery elm powder can really help with nausea and loose bowels in cats. L-Glutamine is the building material for the gut lining and Probiotics can also help re-build a leaky or damaged gut.
As always...research carefully and run the ideas past your vet before taking any action.
http://www.holisticvet.co.uk
The link above may be useful as they have information sheets written BY a vet intended for OTHER vets.

I think your only option is keeping her away from food prep areas when you're cooking and then getting obbsessive about cleaning afterwards.

One of my kittens, Cookie, is a scavenger. He'll eat absolutely anything, whether he has to steal it off a worktop, rip open binbags for it or even snatch it off your plate
Luckily he has no health conditions so whilst its an annoyance he hasn't come to any harm through it. My other kitten Truffle likes to chew and eat carpet fibres which he then proceeds to throw up....as a result we've had to get rid of every carpet in the house. The things we do for cats

My cat has daily probiotics in the form of live yoghurt, which he loves.

My vet also provides prokolin which is a mix of probiotic and kaolin to firm things up during flare ups. The downside of prokolin is that it is absolutely rank, hideous chalky muck, and my cat thoroughly hates me on the rare occasionals I have to dose him with that.


They can achieve an impressive splatter effect from that height

Rename him "Jackson" (Pollock- sp?)

I can now not get the image of a pole-dancing cat out of my mind, especially as I know one who would be a prime candidate, the little trollop.
She even comes with a built-in fluffy boa

All our cats go in to the garden on leads and so the problem of scavenging is reduced, but have you considered giving your cat something to occupy it's mind (toys) and so take it's attention away from food or what it considers food. It may be an idea to keep your cat in for say three or four weeks maybe longer to break the cats routine. The closer your little girl is to you then you have more control over what she gets up to. If you hide her food so she has to look for it then you are getting the cats primal instincts going and giving her more purpose. With some string a cane and a cat toy you can have more chance to get the cat to run about and get rid of some energy and as you are aware, cats love to sleep and a tired out will sleep and stop scavening so you can have a rest too. Hope this helps both of you.

Unfortunately IBS and similar conditions are often set off by stress, and a major change in routine would equal stress, which would be likely to express itself via the litter tray. I try to keep my cats' routine consistent so Mr doesn't get stressy surprises. He entertains himself by chasing prey and swinging through trees, and while he likes chasing a piece of string that wouldn't really cut it for weeks on end