Cat Appetites Change Through The Seasons
If you’re someone who lives with one or more companion cats, you may have noticed that your cat’s appetite (and their weight), may fluctuate throughout the year with the passing of seasons. Sometimes the changes may be obvious and other times they may be more subtle, but the fluctuations are still there. While some animals will more explicitly build up reserves of fat and nutrients before hibernation, for companion animals that live in our homes the process is less clear. The purpose may be less obvious as well: why would animals that live indoors change their eating habits, and thus their weight, over the seasons if there is not a need to do so based on environmental conditions?
Previous long-term research has observed that cats may gradually gain weight with age and that a faster growth rate in early life (less than 1 year of age) is the major risk factor “predicting the likelihood of becoming overweight during adulthood.” In this study, researchers monitored the same colony of cats with the goal of clarifying two things: 1) “whether seasonal differences of food intake exist in cats maintained under domesticated conditions”, and 2) if that is the case, “to determine the influence of climatic conditions including ambient temperature and daylight length.”
The study included a total of 38 cats and the research was conducted at the Royal Canin Research Center in Aimargues, France. This particular site is located in the south of France and has “a Mediterranean climate, with mild, somewhat wet winters, and very warm, rather dry summers.” Most of the cats (30) had unlimited outdoor access, eight were kept strictly indoors, and all cats were fed “ad libitum” which means they were free-feeders. Food intake did indeed differ based on the seasons: “the voluntary intake of domestic cats, fed ad libitum, follows a cyclical pattern, being greatest in late autumn to winter, and least in summer.”
However, an interesting point to consider is that the changes “did not lead to significant changes in body weight,” which suggests that the differences are in response to “changes in energy needs, for instance due to changes in energy for thermoregulation or activity.” The particular setting of the study in a controlled colony means the results should be used with caution given that they “are not necessarily applicable to cats housed in other settings, or indeed wild felids.” Still it’s not difficult to see how the results of this study are relevant to both the care of cats at home as well as in feral cat colonies. With winter currently in full swing in the northern hemisphere, those looking after feral colonies may want to increase the amounts of food they leave out for their charges.