New cats...one seems to like human food

So we just adopted a couple new cats yesterday: a 2 year old female and a 4 year old male (both spayed / neutered). Well, the male seems to have developed some bad habits. He has jumped on the counter a couple times and he wouldn't leave me alone when I was eating some chicken! I literally had to stand in the middle of the kitchen and eat it before I could go back and sit on the couch. He was jumping up on the tables and the couch to get to the food. This isn't really acceptable of course.

We don't mind him being on the couch, but the tables and counters need to be off limits. So does anyone have any suggestions on how to make him leave us alone while we are eating?

Also any suggestions on training him to stay off the tables would be nice. I have heard the spray bottle and loud can trick but we don't want him jumping on the tables while we are gone either.

Congratulations on adopting 2 adult cats!!!!

Put away the spray bottle. You don't know the background of this boy and it may only make him afraid of you. He needs time to adjust to his new home and bond with you. There are a lot of other reasons to not use a spray bottle that I won't go into right now. The key is that you need to bond with him, not scare him.

You need to get him on a regular feeding schedule. Cat's love routine and will figure it out pretty quickly. Even if you free feed, refresh his bowls at the same time each day and make a big deal of it. If he's begging, he's done it before and he needs to know that only his food is acceptable for him. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give him food when he begs from you, unless it is his food or his treats.

If he approaches when you are eating, simply push him away, or if you free feed, carry him over to his food bowl. You can also hiss at him to tell him that he is doing something wrong.

I keep a cat condo slightly higher than the table in the room where we eat. The cats really like to lay up there and watch.

Those are very good tips and tricks and I may use some of them myself even!!

Even if you put them on a feeding schedule, they may not stop wanting the people food. Charlie wants to sample ANYTHING you are eating! They know they get fed after we eat, but that still doesn't stop them from letting you know they are there.

Just keep being consistent in "NO".

Thanks for the tips. Yeah pushing him away doesn't do anything. Until dinner yesterday he was scared of you at the slightest sudden movements. But when he saw the chicken on the plate NOTHING (well, nothing we were willing to try without scaring him off) would get him to go away. I even picked him up a few times and put him back on the floor.

I am thinking about actually building them a ladder to the top of our bookshelf...that should help with any desire for a "perch". So far they have been pretty good about that in general...I have only seen him jump on the counter once and as far as I can tell they haven't ever jumped up on the computer desk.

We probably should change their food habits. Right now we leave dry food in the bowl for them to eat throughout the day and we feed them a little wet food in the morning. They are hardly touching the wet food; I don't think they like the one we got.

Changing any behavior takes time and gentle persistence. You have no idea what behaviors were permitted in his former home, so any changes you need to make will take a while to seem natural to him.

He sounds really cute...a chicken lover!

Cally

Originally Posted by pee-cleaner

He sounds really cute...a chicken lover!

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Not just a chicken lover...a FRIED chicken lover. He was so intent on that chicken, we hadn't seen that side of him since we brought him home.

Originally Posted by ozziegt

So we just adopted a couple new cats yesterday: a 2 year old female and a 4 year old male (both spayed / neutered). Well, the male seems to have developed some bad habits. He has jumped on the counter a couple times and he wouldn't leave me alone when I was eating some chicken! I literally had to stand in the middle of the kitchen and eat it before I could go back and sit on the couch. He was jumping up on the tables and the couch to get to the food. This isn't really acceptable of course.

We don't mind him being on the couch, but the tables and counters need to be off limits. So does anyone have any suggestions on how to make him leave us alone while we are eating?

Also any suggestions on training him to stay off the tables would be nice. I have heard the spray bottle and loud can trick but we don't want him jumping on the tables while we are gone either.

Click to expand...

We are forced to close the door to our eating area because Persi will do the same thing. He loves human food and I give him some after we are done eating especially on fish night. We have given up on the counters though, he just goes where he wants so we just have to be careful when it comes to leaving food laying around. Alley never gets on counters though, and we do not know who brought her up, but somebody brought her up with very good manners! I am at fault for letting Persi have his way, but I always gave in to kids too and now our cats are our kids. I did the spray bottle thing for a while but after reading several posts here decided it was not a very nice thing to do to a cat...

Unfortunately the door thing won't work...we have an open floor plan and the only rooms with doors are the bedrooms and the bathrooms. I am thinking about doing the sticky tape or aluminum foil thing with the counters and tables; it's the begging for food which is the tougher one to solve.

Well congratulations on the new addition to your family! I think all of those ideas that other people gave- are good. Your probably not going to like my beliefs though. In my house, PHX has full rein to whatever he wants. If he wants on the counter thats fine, unless we are eating- then he lays at the opposite end of the counter or on the chair next to me and waits until I give him a piece of food.He does not beg- just waits. I let him eat little samples of anything I think he might like. But he is not allowed to sit next to my plate and beg. I do not have my cat on any "schedule" He is free fed and he has one of those water fountains. So water and food is always available to him. We just put food into his bowl anytime that we see its getting empty- no certain times though. But he is learning OUR schedule. He knows when we are getting ready to leave in the morning for work. Also our neighbor says that he meows off and on all day- but mostly like the hour before we come home from work... hmmm. Well good luck training your little furr babies!!