Kevin The Tyrant Kat.

[Ratface]

Be careful what you wish for: I was (and still, mostly, remain) thrilled to have Kevin Kat aboard.
In the three months he's been with me, he's proved excellent company, a good source of heat, an increasingly heavy presence tramping over my head to attend to the nightly demands of the litter box and a steady drain on the finances.
He is obssessed with food. In a perfect Kevin universe, packets of chicken W***k** would be on tap. Bowls of G* **t would be permanently available. Healthy treats would appear on demand.
Covered hot water bottles would be always present.
The reality is that the barge is often very cold, and that in winter it can become extremely cold overnight.
Thus, winter quarters are the small aft cabin, heated by an oil filled radiator. Two winter weight duvets, two winter horse rugs, a faux-fur throw and a 40 year old shearling lamb leather coat overlay the duvets. Both Kevin and I wear our outdoor clothing. I wear a woolly hat and gloves.
Kevin has been piling on the weight. He's 6.75k It's now a battle of wills between him squawking at me for food in the dead of night, and me ignoring him until he flumps down in a sulk and goes back to sleep.
I think he's still in starvation stray mode and that it's going to take a while for him to be confident about food being always available for him.
What do you think?

 

[claret09]

i have two amazing cats. they are brother and sister. they were strays and i got them when they were about 18 months old. they always have food available, both wet and dry and they are not at all greedy - probably because food is always there. they do love fresh chicken - tesco's are great for sell by date treats. they always sleep on the bed - unless it's too warm. my little girl likes to sleep in bed under the duvet - not necessarily great for a good night's sleep. mine also have a glass of water up in my bedroom for nighttime drinks!!
my suggestion would be to keep putting some food down - he will get the message.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

By coincidence my dad needed something in a garden shed at our Summer cabin one day around noon, around 12,5 years ago. He came back, and said I need to come and look at a strange looking piece of fur he didn't recall seeing on the floor before. It was a kitten, approximately 4 weeks old, truly only skin and bones. Her mother might've gotten run over, taken by a fox, or something else, who knows.

We heated up our hot water bottle, wrapped it in a towel, put it in a cat transport, and placed the kitten next to it. Arrived with her to the veterinarian after that she'd been lying next to the hot water bottle for I think around 1 hour or possibly a bit more. They tried to take her temperature with first one, and then a second thermometer, neither showed anything. Thinking the batteries was low, they went and opened a brand new thermometer.
When the third one also didn't show a temperature, they realised her temperature was below what their thermometers could read.

They kept her for a few hours, but they don't keep pets in over night at "my" vet clinic, so before they closed we had to come pick her up. She had a big hump on her back where they'd injected her with fluid, and we was told that if she survived the weekend, maybe she would make it.

Cilla did make it, but the starvation certainly had lasting impact. For several years she started purring of joy almost every time she got her first breakfast for the day, because she was getting food this day, too.
It sometimes also came some purring at the second breakfast, or during another meal during the day. By the way, I sometimes joke about that she's a Hobbit, eating breakfast, 2nd breakfast, elevenses, luncheon... Only that she couldn't wait all the way to elevenses to get her 3rd breakfast.
Some mornings she even needs a 4th breakfast.
And 5th. Before Luncheon.

If I woke up in the middle of the night, and needed to pee, guess who sometimes turned up before I'd even managed to get out of my bed, or who I often almost tripped over on my way to or from the toilet in the dark (she also happens to be mostly black with just a little white) - wondering if it was time for breakfast?

Guess who started recognising the sound of my alarm clock, and realised that the sound meant she might catch me in a semi-conscious state, and get breakfast?
Guess who learnt which time my alarm went off most mornings, so turned up to mostly wait, and stare at me, around 15 to 30 minutes before the alarm went off, to be sure to not miss the opportunity to getting breakfast? Guess who a few mornings did more things than just patiently wait for me to wake up?

But after 10, 11 years it felt as if things really changed, and she's instead started to take for granted that she will get breakfast next day, too. It still happens that it comes some small purrs of joy when she gets food, but it is more rare now.
Actually now that you've made think about it, I can't even remember the last time I stumbled over her when I've had to go up to pee in the middle of the night.
But I do know that I've noticed that she doesn't always eat so many breakfasts anymore, some mornings it even happens that she only eats one!

In fact, some weeks ago I even had to ask my mum (I live in a two family house with my parents) if she'd seen Cilla, because she hadn't come to eat any breakfast at all!
Turned out my mum had been feeling a bit cold, so had turned up the radiator next to her bed to max, and Cilla was sleeping next to it, so warm and cosy she didn't care about missing all her breakfasts. Had you asked me 5 years ago, I would've firmly believed that that day would never come that Cilla willingly would skip her breakfasts.
(By the way, my mum always sooner or later turns up her radiator to max during Winter, but this was the first year Cilla have cared about it.)

We've had 12 other cats, some of them rescue cats, but with none of our other rescue cats have any potential starvation they went through before we got them, had such a long lasting impact as the starvation Cilla went through have had on her.

If you can have a food bowl out for him all the time, as already mentioned, that might be a solution which could help. But that doesn't suit all cats. It can be difficult if you e.g. need to watch their weight, or if you have another cat which shouldn't eat the same food.
Also, we've had one cat who would eat until she puked. Which of course made her empty, and hungry again, and if there was still plenty of food left, she started to eat again, until she puked a second time... (She was a purebred Cornish Rex bought directly from her breeder, so her food issues had nothing to do with starvation.)

Perhaps one of those automatic food dispensers could be something to consider? But hopefully Kevin Kat will change his nighttime food demands sooner rather than later.
Or perhaps it will continue for awhile longer, who knows.

P.s. I forgot to mention, Cilla got a bit imprinted on my bitches when we got her so young. She e.g. likes to sleep on places where they often sleep, wants to have dinner when they do, and regularly demands to get to taste test a few bits of dog food when I portion up dog food.

 

[ycbm]

I think he's still in starvation stray mode and that it's going to take a while for him to be confident about food being always available for him.
What do you think?

I think cats just like waking people up in the middle of the night ?

Mine do and they are fed ad lib wet and dry.

 

[HashRouge]

We have always left down dry food in between set meals, which are wet food. Have you tried that?
Our elderly cat was diagnosed with kidney disease about 8 months ago, which coincided with a big drop in weight. So now he has a special diet, and can basically have food whenever he wants it. He thinks it's wonderful, it's what he's wanted his whole life!!

 

[Keith_Beef]

I think he's still in starvation stray mode and that it's going to take a while for him to be confident about food being always available for him.
What do you think?

Yes, I think Kevin still has the mentality of a stray living with food precarity, but he may well get over it in a couple of months.

When I first started giving Tabitha food in a dish in the garage, rather than just giving her a few scraps from my plate when we were eating outside, she used to wolf her food down as quickly as she could, and sometimes made herself sick. I started giving her very small portions and standing by her until she finished, then made her wait for five minutes before giving her seconds. And then another wait for thirds.

After a while she stopped wolfing her food down and ate at a more reasonable speed.

But she still wants me to stand by her while she eats; if I leave the garage she'll stop eating and follow me to wherever I've gone. If I go back into the garage, she'll follow me and go back to eating.

I think that she was bullied as a small kitten, that bigger cats stole her food from her. She needs me to be nearby to feel safe enough to eat.

 

[Ratface]

Thank you for your interesting and informative replies.
Kevin has two seperate food dishes and a fresh water bowl. All situated in the same place, in the galley. He has access to them 24/7.
His wet food dish is refilled 3-4 times over 24hrs. His dry food dish always has food in it. His water bowl is filled with fresh water, changed twice a day.
I'm trying to balance his intake between his food deprivation anxiety and concern over him becoming obese. He's a naturally large cat. I check his weight by the covering over his ribs and backbone. He's opposed to being picked up due, probably, to his being dragged about by his front legs by a toddler.
He has access to the outside world around 12 hours a day, depending on how wild/cold/wet the weather. It's presently wild, whirling and cold. Kevin has elected to remain next to the radiator.
I've had him since 21/10/2021.
He loves being groomed, stroked and generally being made a fuss of. He sits on the top step and sneers nastily at the spoilt (imho) spaniel who lives two boats down. Spoilt spaniel looks away and scurries off.
For the time being, I will continue to feed him his current food rations, check the covering on his ribs and backbone and have another go at weighing him without getting scratched and bitten.
Again, thanks for your kind advice.