Any Ideas?

A friend of mine just adopted her second cat from the Humane Society. She name him Harry. It is a domestic short hair tabby. Yesterday I asked how it was doing, because when she first got the kitty it had a chest cold, and worms.


She said the cat is doing much better now, but that any time there is "people food" out and her and her bf are eating Harry goes nuts. He won't stop meowing and trying to get the food. I had no idea why the cat was doing this, but told her I'd talk to you guys and ask if you had any ideas on how to stop Harry from trying to eat people food and meowing constantly to get it.

What ever your friend does, make sure, she doesn't give in to the cat. People food can be very harmful to a cat. If that is the only cat then there are many different ways to tell a cat no. Your friensd could try a soda can with beasn or pennies in it. My cat doesn't like it if we shake a lysol can. Don't spray it (or of you do, don't aim it at the cat). It is too strong. Just find something that a cat finds unpleasant. My cat isn't allowed on the kitchen table. Your friend could try feeding the cat it's meals the same time she eats hers. She could also try keeping the cat out if the kitchen/dining room while she is eating. She could lock the cat in a bedroom, with plenty of toys. Begging for food is something that has to develope over time. A cat will hang around people and so the people started giving the cat food. Now the cat knows it will get food if it is on the table meowing. It has been established with repitition. It will not come over night. The cat has been rewarded for doing this. Just ignore the cat, or startle it to get away. Only use the can to scare the cat off if it is right in the food, or physiaclly taking it. The best way to stop this behavior is to ignore the cat, or strctly say no and move the cat away.

Please do NOT use Lysol around your cats! It is very toxic to them! I urge you not to do that!

Do not spray it, just shake the can for the noise. I realize that it is harmful. Just find something that will startle the cat away from what it was doing.

Belle (RIP) was like this all the time til we started locking her up in our bedroom while we ate and after a a few times of this she stopped. After she passed away we didnt have anyone that did this until this May when we got Beepers, she is a little demon when it comes to human food. We haven't tried locking her up yet because she is so small and some of the food we do give to her so she will put on some weight, before you tell me human food is bad please know this is a Bengal and they do eat raw diets. But what we feed her is cooked chicken and beef.

Chet