A crazy cat lady question....

[Funkyfilly024]

Does anyone else have a cat totally hell bent on eating human food?
Despite ample access to cat food it will chomp through a cellophane wrapper to get at a loaf of bread/pasta/cake/cheese ect
It's driving me nuts can't leave something out and turn my back for 10 seconds!

 

[MrsMozart]

Only whatever I'm eating. He watches every mouthful and prepares to pounce at any given opportunity

I think yours would drive me whappy though

 

[Montyforever]

Yep, she also begs for food like a dog and if that doesn't work she starts tapping you with the paw

 

[cloverleaf1985]

I can't stand animals that beg for food!
Mine are never allowed to jump up on the kitchen cupboards or the dining table and if we're eating in the living room and they jump up on the sofa, they get told to get down.
When I got Kimberley last year, she was terrible, trying to snatch food off our plates etc. She still has her weak moments, but is much better.

 

[Catcus]

I'm not sure mine wants the food, just the wrapper it's in. He's banned from the kitchen but will still go through the waste paper bins in search of cellophane or any other wrapper to eat. He'll steal off plates if you leave it unattended. I blame it on him being on a boring prescription diet, but really it's just bad behaviour!

 

[Funkyfilly024]

I can't stand animals that beg for food!
Mine are never allowed to jump up on the kitchen cupboards or the dining table and if we're eating in the living room and they jump up on the sofa, they get told to get down.
When I got Kimberley last year, she was terrible, trying to snatch food off our plates etc. She still has her weak moments, but is much better.

Don't get me wrong I don't let it, it gets shooed off every time, we have 4 other cats (yes I know :/ ) and they don't dare.
It quite literally wondered into our house one day as a stray and I wonder if this has any bearing on its taste for human food ...
It's driving me round the bend, all food is strictly kept away but you daren't even turn back on it while cooking, have to keep putting it outside.

It's only gone really bad since its had kittens (pregnant when arrived) and since can be very hissy to the other cats (gremlin like noises!) although it has acess to food put away from them.

 

[OldNag]

Does anyone else have a cat totally hell bent on eating human food?
Despite ample access to cat food it will chomp through a cellophane wrapper to get at a loaf of bread/pasta/cake/cheese ect
It's driving me nuts can't leave something out and turn my back for 10 seconds!

Yes, me. Nothign is safe, even if wrapped. And you can bet that if I put that food in her bowl, she'd ignore it.

 

[pines of rome]

Out of my five, two never do but the other three tend to want what I have and sit round me at dinner time! One of them actually starts meowing when he smells our food cooking!

 

[Rudolph's Red Nose]

My old cat started to do that, drove me mad - used to eat bread through wrapper etc if I turned my back for a few moments. She used to act starved even though there was a continous supply of dry cat food in a bowl for her and her brother, which she also ate loads of.

I took her to the vets in the end and she had a thyroid problem - just a thought ..

 

[tessybear]

Ah we had an old ginger cat who didn't beg as we hate that but one day when we went out we came to one happy fat cat rolling in multiple chocolate wrappers having gone into the bowl of sweets and unwrapped them

 

[HumBugsey]

Yep, she also begs for food like a dog and if that doesn't work she starts tapping you with the paw

Our cat is like that, TBH I think he might be a dog....

 

[Funkyfilly024]

My old cat started to do that, drove me mad - used to eat bread through wrapper etc if I turned my back for a few moments. She used to act starved even though there was a continous supply of dry cat food in a bowl for her and her brother, which she also ate loads of.

I took her to the vets in the end and she had a thyroid problem - just a thought ..

That is interesting to hear, I did wonder if it was some sort of deficiency, what did they do for her?

 

[Pippity]

Yep, mine does that. Her current favourites are pasta and cake. Although she will also try to chew into the bag her dry food comes in, even when there's a bowl full of exactly the same food right there.

Then again, she's weird in pretty much every way going. I've had all my other cats from kittens, but this one was an adult when I got her, and she came with some very firmly established preconceptions that I haven't managed to get rid of even after two years.

 

[heebiejeebies]

Mine is worse than the dog for mooching and stealing food, I can't turn my back on food at all!

 

[Funkyfilly024]

The strangest thing I have seen it eat is pineapple !

 

[nixharveandpri]

A had a cat whose favourite foods were singapore chow mein, chilli con carne, cheesey wotsits and chocolate ice cream. I never voluntary fed him them, but he was the world's best thief. So much so that I used to have to make sure the kids were sat up at the dining table AND keep an eye out for him launching himself past whenever they had anything edible!

The two I have now aren't too bad, the only thing I do find is that I have to share my sandwich filling at lunchtime and split it three ways ... not that they're spoiled at all, of course.

 

[WelshInferno-x]

All of my cats do it. I blame the ring leader. Asbo (can you see why she's called that? :L) she's done it since a kitten. And her babies (accidental I might add, she had 3, we rehomed 1, kept the other two.) do it. And the others but one (my rescue ginger Tom) do it. But he's kept separate because they a bully him.

We've had to put child locks Etc, on cupboards, the cookers, the fridge and microwaves because Asbo, has learnt to open them. Clever cat. But highly irritating!

 

[hackneylass2]

Its probably the survival instinct kicking in if she was a stray...especially as it worsened when she had kittens. The scavenging nature is quickly learned and slow to fade away. She prob had to eat bin food before you got her and a lot of packaged stuff is thrown away or wrapped for bins. We have an ex stray now who eats like its her last meal and will try to 'unpack' anything...despite catfood for her being down and available...I guess its hardwired survival and learned behaviour.

 

[Sarah_K]

Hackneylass2- I'd completely agree with that. My cat was a stray before I got her from a rescue. She was supposed to be around 4. She'd been found at the back of a couple of take aways eating from their bins etc. Even now, she far prefers bin food to nice fresh cat meat, will eat anything I'm eating and likes drinking out of the toilet. Old habits die hard, I've had her for 7 years and she's never changed.

(Currently she likes cheese and bread and can hear packets of human food being opened from miles away. Not bothered about cat food being opened )

 

[Pippity]

(Currently she likes cheese and bread and can hear packets of human food being opened from miles away. Not bothered about cat food being opened )

One good thing about mine - she's deaf so can't actually hear the food being opened! Although she can certainly smell it. She'll suddenly sit up straight with her nose twitching, before launching herself at whatever smells appealing.

 

[Supertrooper]

I cured mine of begging for food when he launched himself from the kitchen counter one day and landed in a yoghurt I was eating. It frightened him so much that he doesn't try and steal food now and when you open a yoghurt he legs it

 

[ebonyallen]

Only whatever I'm eating. He watches every mouthful and prepares to pounce at any given opportunity

I think yours would drive me whappy though

This, anything I have she wants, bit like my horse really