Hi, I've asked for advice about our foster cat recently (upset tummy) and you really helped me with that, so I'm back with more problems!

1) She's obsessed with food, to a ridiculous extent. After a full meal which she wolfs down in one sitting, she cries by the fridge for more food. She will relentlessly go after food that I'm eating, or that my son is eating, and starts drooling. Everytime I walk anywhere near the kitchen she runs to the fridge and starts crying (I have kept cold cod, chicken and turkey ham in there for her so she seems to expect it to carry on dispensing food 24/7.) I only have to look as if I'm getting up and she's at the fridge with big hopeful eyes!

I found out that she was basically kicked out of her family home after several years to take care of herself. She has sores and bald patches on her legs from living on concrete. It may be a 'next meal could be my last' attitude, but I don't know how to calm her down!

2) She plays, but when she gets exciteable she bites. I don't know if this is normal, I've only had one cat before and she never did that. She also bit me when I looked in the fridge but didn't take anything out. She was standing on her back legs looking in, I went to stroke her, and when she saw my hand was empty she bit my forearm. Not hard though, and she flinched straight after like she thought I was going to smack her. I don't know if this falls into the realm of normal cat behaviour?

3) Her thumb claws are always out, and they're very long. All of her claws seem quite long. She keeps getting them caught in the carpet. Is this a vet issue, or is it easy enough to trim them at home?

Aside from these issues she's actually very affectionate and sweet! I don't know if she counts as a semi-feral? I get the impression she may have been living outside for a year.

Poor puss. Your thread just made me fill up there. my boy was the same when i first got him. It took him a long long time to settle down where food was concerned. He will now only eat food if it is covered with biscuits and once the biscuits are finished he claws at the door until I put more on his food. Once he is full he will happily go off. I think your wee cat has been starved of affection and food for so long that she is scared it will suddenly stop. I still think you are doing an amazing thing. Well done and good luck.

I agree wholly with your post ava. The OP's post caused me a tear too coz I has a cat like that who was totally obsessed with food and we thought it was coz of the lack of attention and love in her previous home.

Poor baby OP, give her a big cuddle from me.

Maybe she needs wormed but also she has learned to scavenge and will continue to scavenge despite being adequately fed. You're right, she doesn't know where or when her next meal will come from.

Go back to feeding 2 or 3 times per day. Treats 2 or 3 times per week. She needs to relearn but won't do that until she is secure.

Excitable cats bite but not usually with any force but they give up if you consistently stop play the minute they bare teeth and go on to ignore them.

Claws can be clipped at home easily enough if you know what you are doing otherise a groomer or vet nurse will do it for you.

Glad she is out of hiding.

I didn't think of worms. Her information sheet said she'd been wormed, but I think they take the ex owners at their word. I'll ask if it would be okay to worm her again.

I want to be strict but I also don't want to upset her. I'll admit - I think I am giving her more food in the last couple of days that she should have. There's a pack of turkey ham in the fridge and I bribe her with it when I need to herd her into a secure room. Perhaps there's an element of buying her affections. I will try and stick to a three meal schedule from tomorrow.

Ignoring is a good tactic for biting. She bites then looks frightened so I give her lots of strokes and reassurance, but I don't want her to think I'm giving her permission to chomp me

She is out of hiding now, she has a favoured bed, or just flops on the floor anywhere. Oh, and Jackie - you were totally right about me... I already don't want to give her up I'm going to try though, as long as I can find the perfect person for her.

I agree with all the advice given. Poor little cat, I hope she settles soon.

My Bernard bites when he's excited but it's never malicious so I just accept it as his normal behaviour. My Millie also occasionally gives me a 'loving' bite when I stroke her. It's just what some cats do. I think this behaviour can be corrected when the cats are young kittens but I took on my cats when they were adults so it's more difficult to get them to stop - and I never 'tell off' my cats, I just stop stroking.

My Tabitha's claws were extended a lot as she got older. I thought it was because she just wasn't able to trim them herself but I think claws tend not to retract as easily as the cat ages. My vet used to trim them but I could still hear her clicking on my wooden floors. I would never have attempted to trim them myself - she wouldn't have let me anyway!

I hope you get the food issue sorted. As others have said, hopefully as she becomes more secure she will relax more.

I'd get the claws trimmed and have a chat with the vet at the same time. Maybe some of that feliway stuff may help calm her down?
Mine acts like she's permantly starving but I think thats fairly typical for cats. However now its warmer and lighter they are likely to be much more active so she may need a little more food than the recommendation based on current weight.
For bribes rather than large quantities of food try just a few biscuits. You could try Dreamies - but they are like "cat crack" so she may start to pester you even more...

I think my issue is that I only knew one cat before, so when her behaviour doesn't match it's surprising! I hope I don't seem completely clueless! Everything is going very well a few days in, and she's settled down a lot. The woman who oversees the fostering is calling in to see me in a few days, I'll ask if she can bring nail clippers.

Give your little loves a cuddle from me

You're not anywhere near Edinburgh are you?

re the cat, can you get her a trickle feeder - they're not too expensive, and my cat that was a pig (for no reason) settle with it, and now picks (it take a while to realise the food isn't going anywhere)

not sure about the claws - is she an outdoor cat? does she scrit? maybe she doens't know how to sharpen them>

No, I'm near Oxford

I will look into getting a trickle feeder. She seems a little bit better (maybe), no treats today. I'm telling her 'No' when she goes to the fridge and she stayed on her bed the last time. Maybe I'm expecting too much considering we haven't even had her a week yet. She's adjusting very well considering. And at least her tummy has settled!

Sounds like she's doing ok, she's maybe just settling in,

my cat is exactly the same, i was feeding her everytime she came into the kitchen, but stopped, after her dinner she would still be at the fridge.
The same with the playing she bites me as well, sometimes i am giving her loves and kisses and she would sink her teeth into my arm, now and again.
Maybe it is she cats, your cat sounds normal

You might be on to something there, I could leave food down for my previous (male) cat and he would take what he needed and no more. But I think if I poured out a sackful of food for my current (female) cat, she would scoff the lot!

She got overweight when I first had her as I was pretty much feeding on demand. Now she's on a daily allowance of Purina Light, which is weighed out and split into two for morning and evening feeds. She still looks for something at midday and bedtime, so I trick her by withholding a small amount from her main feeds for that and she is perfectly happy with that.

Are we allowed to see a photo of this wee one Jerrica?

I will try! So far she seems to take pictures like I do, blinks, hides her face or wanders off. I can only take pics with the ipad at the moment and it's not too successful because it looks like you're just waving a large book at them!

But I need to take a good photo for when she's advertised. When I have some I'll put them on my photobucket and maybe get some feedback on which one will work best?

Actually, here's the best of the worst, please excuse the blob of dried glue on the floor http://s1346.photobucket.com/user/Je...tml?sort=3&o=0

The biting is becoming more of an issue potentially. I did raise my voice to her earlier because I need to try and make her understand that it's wrong, but she does flinch after doing it so I think she knows that already.

I was in the bath with my elbow over the side. I leave the door open so she has access to the litter tray. She came in, stood up by the side, to be stroked I thought, but bit my elbow and walked out again! She has also started trying to nip my ankles at random moments.

She likes to playfight. She jumps up on the kitchen counter and she charges me and headbutts quite hard, and I have to catch her because I don't want her to fall, then she tries to bite, and she also does an impression of a boxer who is squaring up to someone, she sits up and waves her paws at me like she wants a fistfight! In a way I find it funny, but how am I going to get her rehomed with a sweet little old lady if she wants an owner she can fight with?? I suppose I will have to describe her as 'feisty'.

She sounds like a great cat that loves to play. But doesn't understand biting isnt play. Or sometimes they do understand, but choose to ignore.

I'd just put her quickly on the floor when she bites. She should get the message that biting stops play.

Yes I think I've been indulging her because she was so nervous, but biting could cause an adoption to be very shortlived I'd imagine, and I don't want her to be put back into foster care again.

I'll start wearing my Uggs round the house so she can't get any sport from ankle biting!

One of mine is a biter when he gets too excited and a couple are serious headbumpers to.

Sounds like is maybe she has played rough and tumble play with other cats (which involves nibbling/ biting) and is doing the same with you as she is feeling more at ease with you.

What you have to remember is cats have thicker and loser skin than we mere humans and, as she has no idea that you are a human, she just does what she has always done and treats you as she would if she was playing with another cat. So her nipping another cat to say "I want to play" is akin to me poking another human gently to ask if they want to play.

It's our fault for being so thin skinned

A simple course of sharp loud "no" will help her understand it's not ok to nip and introduce play time with toys/ lazer dots etc so she understands "what" playing is. I had one who had NO idea how to play with a piece of string when I got him at 18mths old because no one played with him and he had never been given toys to play with.

She looks very pretty in the photo She seems like a lovely cat. Perhaps she never got much of a chance to play in her old home. The nipping of ankles can be a bit of a problem I agree. We had a cat at home when I was young who I was scared to walk past because he would attack my feet. He was a lovely playful cat and we had a good relationship - but I was genuinely scared of walking past him. He did grow out of that habit as he got older or perhaps he just eventually realised that I didn't like it.

I think most cats do adapt well to living with their owners as they are quick learners and understand what is and is not acceptable to their owners.

One of mine used jump out from a 'hiding place' and bite my knee. Boots wouldn't have worked. I say bite, he didn't bite down, it was a gnaw with his legs wrapped around me. Quite sweet really. They say this is bad and you should discourage as it can lead to real biting.

But it was play, never any pain and I've seen his teeth all over my other cat and he's never bitten down. I never told him off, I doubt I could make him understand.

And he stopped it when I got another kitten to play with. Much more fun to play with her.

Anyway, Ugg boots sound like a good idea, so you can ignore her when she's biting. But I'm sure you know more about what to do than me.

My sis took in a stray young cat last year and she was always crying for food when she first moved in, did so for months but it has died down now thankfully. She is still a hungry cat like but much better than before. She bites sometimes, normally only when the kids pester her but it is not hard. Had 2 kittens just before Christmas, here is a pic of them.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...ps52497252.jpg

Aww, they're gorgeous

Ellie's getting her claws trimmed Monday. I will try the trick of spreading her food out instead of giving larger meals and see how that works.

She does seem a bit 'different' in how she socialises, but I can see how that could happen. I don't know her full history. But in essentials she's a really nice cat

We have a laser pointer, but I worry about that toy. Doesn't it send cats insane that they can never catch it?