Begging for food

Sometimes Brady begs at the table as if he were an ill-mannered dog. I haven't discouraged it since he is an ex-feral and I'm proud of how well he's adapted to being a pet. Also I'm not ashamed to use udnerhanded tactics to make sure it stays that way! I give him a little bit of cream cheese, a tidbit of bacon, piece of steak etc. Does anyone else's cat beg like a dog?
And NO my dogs do not beg - I won't put up with it from them!

My cats beg. I was just cooking lunch earlier and Tomas was literally right under foot. He knows I'm clumsy - and yes, I dropped a noodle on the floor. He tried to rush right in and grab it while it was hot.

I tell them to go away and "pssst" at them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it turns into an argument with Tomas (mouthy back talking cat). None of them try to actually take food from my plate because I will hiss and growl at them if they get too close.

If you're going to keep giving him treats, make sure you only put them in his dish and not around the same time you're eating. He'll think he can harass you into giving him a treat all the time. Maybe do it ten minutes after everyone is done with their food and the dishes are cleared off? It works with some of mine, but the problem is I have two other people in the house that indulge them and that I'm clumsy and drop food.

Azizi used to beg when he was a kitten, but luckily it didn't take him long to learn a little table manners.

If we're eating chicken, Elliott will sit in close proximity and stare at us until we give in and give him some, but he isn't in our face.

Oh that would drive me nuts if he were in our face. He doesn't do that though. He sits a few feet away in his regal pose and STARES. Then when I give in and offer him a morsel, he sniffs, takes his time and usually decides he wants it. A couple of times I've offered him a cereal flake just to see his reaction. He's pretty fussy, not one of those lasagne eating kitties at all!

When we just had Trent and Ophelia it was fine. Ophelia learned really fast that she would get to lick the good stuff off the plate when we were done (gravy, butter from veggies ), and Trent always wanted to see what we had. He would sniff it and make a face like "OMG you're really gonna eat that?? GROSS!" and walk away.

Ginger was a stray, and a scrounging stray at that. She wasn't feral. I'm sure she picked up her bad habits that earned her a few meals on the outside. She's figured out that food's-a-plenty here and she won't starve but she also knows that people have the yummy food on their plates.

Oooh boy. We actually just developed a problem with this. Ringo, the monster, licked string cheese I was eating. Once. Now, if he sees anything near your mouth, he is in your face trying to eat it for you. He even dunked his face into ice cream, and I have caught him a few times nose deep in glasses. We are working on fixing it, luckily neither of his siblings have any interest at all in human food. Heck, they won't even eat kitty treats.

^When a kitten or cat gets right into your face trying to take your food, act like another cat. Most cats wouldn't tolerate that and you don't have to, either. Hiss, growl, and pull your food away/lean over it a bit.

It sounds crazy, but cats can understand other cats, so copy what a cat does. Pulling the food toward you a bit and leaning over it clearly shows possessiveness to just about any animal.

Our current cats don't beg for food, but our Rainbow Banshee did!

She would sit on the kitchen table and scream for her share of DH's banana every morning. At night, she and DH shared a bowl of cereal....her favorite was Frosted Shredded Wheat and she couldn't get it fast enough. She'd be in bed with me, sound asleep. No matter how softly DH tried to open the cupboard and pour "her" cereal, she heard him and flew into the kitchen. It got to be a game with them.

When I would put poultry in the oven, once the aroma started going through the house, she would sit in the front of the oven, patiently waiting for it to come out. But as soon as it came out, she'd start screaming for her share.

She could be back in bed and as soon as I opened a cantaloupe or a mango, she was right there...she would run out to the kitchen so fast, her butt would swing around on the kitchen floor as she tried to turn the corner!

Same with tuna and crab. Get it out of the fridge and give a (large) part of it to her. It was just the way it was.

I remember one night, we had a large family gathering and I had made a roast turkey. She started screaming right on schedule and I put some little bits on a plate for her. She gobbled it down. Then she sat on the floor next to me at dinner and started to paw my leg for more. (My father was not amused.)

We just let her have her way. After all, she was the Queen. And we all knew it. We talked to the vet about her food habits. And her vet said that she could have anything as long as it wouldn't hurt her (no grapes, raisins, onions, etc.). And in moderation.

My kitten Joey was the first cat I have had that begs for food....and he has NO manners, and will jump right onto the kitchen table, or on me if I am sitting somewhere else, and stick his head in the food!
We just adopted a little blind kitty...and yesterday he must have smelled my bagel because he jumped from the floor onto the couch, onto me, and stuck his face right by the bagel and tried to lick it...like he was a fully seeing kitten instead of blind.

I always feel bad for the kitties when they beg, which I shouldn't. I usually sneak them a little taste of food, which of course makes it worse because they think its okay...so I am trying to break the habit!

I will have to try to do these things with my boys - several of them are beggars and I often cannot eat anything in peace. I do share with them, however. But when I am done I say NO... and pull the food towards me, and again say uh,uh. no. all done. Sometimes it works. LOL!

my two have to share to, flash's take on it is - if its good enough for the hooman to eat it its fine for me lol sooty begs dramatically for warm chicken you would think i was starvin them

oh yeah if i dont cave into flash's begging she runs to daddy who caves straight away i always cave to soots though

Fluffy is a shameless little beggar, but is not rude about it. She will sit in front of you looking cute until you are finished and then she expects you to put down the plate, bowl, whatever.
Scooter and Pepper are rude little brats about it. They will crawl right up in your lap and help themselves if they can get to your food. They will fight over who is going to steal your ice cream. They act like they have never had a square meal in their lives.
I could have tried harder to break them of it, but they came along at intervals, and by the time one was almost broken of a bad habit, another one came along and they both picked it up.
Fred did not help raise this bunch, or they would have been much better mannered. He would put a paw to a full grown cat twice his size for behaving badly.

Monster only begs for certain things.. If I'm eating cereal he sits there and patiently waits - Most of the time. Sometimes he will stick his face in my bowl and start helping himself. He really likes cream cheese, so if I'm eating a bagel, he sits and waits for me to put some on my finger for him to lick. He likes things like turkey, chicken or steak, but he won't beg for it, it has to be offered.

Mittens will sit right next to you and stare until you share.. But beware, if you leave your plate unattended and there's something like chicken or steak or whatever, she will steal it. She's been caught several times robbing my boyfriends fathers plate.

Precious is notorious for begging. If you push her away, she will sneak around to the other side, and try again. Then you push her away again, and she will lay right near you, and if you aren't paying attention, she will stick her paws in your food. If the plate is left unattended, you will come back to find her paw on your plate.

Swanie begs, and sometimes he gets rewarded (he is spoiled, I freely admit). If I go into the kitchen he will watch me intently until I let him sniff what I'm eating. If it smells like something he would like, he can get fairly pushy. Cindy doesn't really beg, but at least one time when DH was eating chicken she went over and helped herself to some from his dish (yes, we let them on the table ) What Swanie really begs for is his treats - actually Taste of the Wild kibble. I keep it in a little jar in the closet. Whenever I'm upstairs he will run over and stand in front of the door - treats are in here mom! If I get some for him, he starts to purr.

My RB kitty, Little Man Tate, would go one step further and try to grab the spoon or fork from my hand before it even got to my mouth!!! That was Annoying!!! I started feeding him at the same times I ate and he eventually broke the habit and I also took off a little weight