The first two days I had Pete, I was on annual leave from work and by the end of the second day I was confident he was settled enough that I had no need to worry about him while I’m at work. I’ve continued to believe that for the last two weeks. As I start to unlock the door, I can usually hear him jump to the floor and run to meet me. He waits by the door for me to come in, lets me rub his head, and then he does that big stretch cats do when they’ve just woken up from a long sleep. So I’ve assumed he’s quite happy during the day.
But I saw my neighbour yesterday and she says she heard him crying on Monday. It was about lunchtime, and he was sitting behind the front door and meowing very loudly, and for quite a while. So now I’m worried that he does that every day.
It’s only another week till he gets his second lot of jags. I’m hoping that once he can come in and out freely, that might keep him a bit happier during the day. I hate to think of him crying alone all day every day.
McBobb arrived last night and he and Pete are getting to know each other. Pete was a bit uncertain at first, but within ten minutes was asking for a headrub. This morning he looked a bit surprised when he saw bobb - I think he'd forgotten he was here - but he's fine now.
I'm really struggling to work out how much to feed him. The shelter said they gave him a wet pouch and biscuits twice a day. The vet weighed him and said 5.8kg was fine. I've been giving him a pouch when I get up and 20-25g biscuits when I leave for work, a pouch at teatime, and 20-25g biscuits when I go to bed. And if he's been a really good boy, he gets a couple of Dreamies, and now and again I defrost a couple of prawns as a treat for him. He gobbles the pouches down in seconds, and when I put the biscuits down, he gobbles about 3/4 of them and eats the rest little by little. But he seems to be hungry so much of the time, he spends a lot of time meowing for food, winds round my feet hopefully as soon as I go near the kitchen and tries to eat anything left out on the worktop that looks likely. And when he doesn't get anything he lies down next to his bowl and looks sad. I don't want to over feed him, especially just now when he's not getting much exercise, but I don't want to starve him. I gave him 30g biscuits this morning after his wet food and he ate most of them and has been snoozing contentedly ever since.
He's a big strong cat, but he's not fat, and you can feel but not see his ribs along his sides. How do I tell if he's genuinely hungry and needs food, or if he's just being greedy?