About six months ago we moved from an urban house to a semi-rural location. As a result, Mitzy (photos to follow, I promise) has been spending a lot more time outdoors, hunting shrews and voles and anything else that isn’t faster than her.
Her routine is to bring her kill back home, proudly announce to all and sundry that she has slayed a beast, then my husband takes the kill down to her food bowl and she wolfs it down.
What we’ve noticed is that immediately after eating her kill, she is absolutely ravenous! If there’s any catfood in her bowl, she’ll munch that down real quick, and if there’s no catfood in her bowl, there’s much meowling until it gets replenished.
Previously, and at all other times when she hasn’t recently killed something, she’s quite a grazer and only has a mouthful or two at a time.
Has anyone else noticed this increased appetite following eating a kill? At the moment we’re speculating as to whether gulping down something so large triggers an eating reflex, or whether her kills just taste so damned awful, she wants to get the taste out of her mouth!
I’d bet it’s because hunting takes a lot of energy, rather than loafing around like cats usually do. I know after I’ve done a lot of physical activity I can get ravenous too.
Cats are surprise hunters. They aren’t exactly running down their prey in a long chase. Their method comprises walking very coolly to some likely spot, then sitting very still for hours, then undertaking a lightning fast pounce and bite lasting all of maybe 2 seconds. That’s it. I don’t think your explanation can be right.
Well, sort of. Domestic cats when left to do their own hunting often take on habits of their large wild relatives. Rather than graze (which can be due to boredom), they are occupied with stalking and eat larger meals farther between. If kitty is eating a smaller rodent, she may be wanting to fill her belly the rest of the way because that feels more natural to her, and then may not be interested in food again until another day or more later. They really aren’t built for two or three meals a day, or grazing, but rather for large less frequent meals. Living in homes with people mostly indoors, requires adaptation to their people’s schedules. Many vets who specialize in feline care will recommend meal feeding for indoor cats, plenty of playtime, and/or another feline inthe house to interact with and stave off boredom.
Small nitpick: Going a solid 24hours without eating, regardless of how large the last meal was, is more likely a bad idea in cats. Dogs can handle a couple days without eating. Cats, not so much. I watched my own cat slip into hepatic lipidosis after not eating for a day and a half.
Yah. I admit I didn’t post fully because I was posting from my phone before bed. I made a couple of assumptions about the OP’s cat, mostly being that she is slim and active. Do you agree it’s more likely to be overweight cats missing a couple of meals that are more likely to begin liver failure than slim ones? Or with another underlying disease? I have to admit IME it’s always been the fat cats that can’t tolerate skipping meals. Though they’re not always fat any more by the time they get to the ER. It’s scary.
At any rate, I didn’t intend to encourage feeding less than twice a day with the above post, just trying to explain why the OP’s cat might want to finish gorging after eating a vole, and why she then might not want to eat until the next day.
I’m sorry to hear about your kitty getting so sick. Did s/he pull through OK?