Teaching Manners Around (human) Food

My partner and I recently adopted a kitten we have been fostering and he is now getting used to being out of the room we have set up for our fosters and being a full time member of our family

He is approximately 13 weeks old. We have 2 other cats who were adopted as adults, they are about 9 and 4 years old.

He is settling in great but has poor manners when we are eating. He tries to grab things off our plates and never gets tired of being told no and being put on the floor. He bounces straight back up like a yoyo. I know that he isn't hungry as I've tried feeding him right before we eat and he'll even leave some food in his bowl. I'm worried that if I put him in another room while we eat then he'll never get used to it, but eating with him around is impossible. I never had this issue with the other 2 cats, probably because I didn't have them as kittens...

Here is a pic of the terrible 3 (new kitten is on top):

Your kitten might grow out of this behavior if you put him in another room while you eat but some cats are just more interested in human food than others.  My late cat Wesley would actually swipe the food off my fork as I lifted it to my mouth, even as an adult.  The main thing is to never feed him anything while you are eating.  As you've learned, kittens (and cats) will often totally ignore being removed from a table and will just bounce right back up again.  Maybe someone who successfully cured their kitten of such behavior will chime in with more ideas, but I was never very successful in curing Wesley of his single minded determination to eat what I did. 

Your cats are quite lovely.  I love the photos!

I haven't dealt with this issue personally, but I wonder if your kitten's behavior is more about attention-seeking/playing rather than actually trying to eat your food. Maybe he feels like you're ignoring him when you eat, and he's learned that if he jumps up on the table and tries to swipe your food, he gets attention (albeit negative attention). If you have some kind of automated toy he likes, you can try setting that out only during meal times and see if it helps to distract him. 

Thank you both so much for the kind and thoughtful responses I think that you might be right that he just wants attention. We do have to put him in another room while we eat but I'm sure he will grow out of this phase.

sandrak7761 said:

 He bounces straight back up like a yoyo.

Click to expand...

Thanks for my first chuckle of the day!

All 3 cats are gorgeous, btw.    As for the food silly kitten, hopefully he will out grow it, especially as he sees how the grownups behave.

I hope he grows outs of it too! Sounds like you might have a food motivated boy in your company! If he gets excited about treats like he does the food - you might actually be able to teach him some tricks! I taught my last 2 cats how to sit!

I've been there though. I had a cat in the past who would run off with chicken nuggets from your plate if you weren't looking or jump up on the counter after you've left the room to try to eat whatever was left in the pan on the stove! >.< I had to buy a covered trash can because I would come home to cans pulled out where he would attempt to stick his head in and lick whatever sauce was on the inside!! And he was an adult cat! When he was a kitten he knocked a turkey sandwich off my desk and ran off with the meat! Hahaha

But, there is hope for your boy. With time and discouragement he will probably respect human dinner time!

Luckily my current kitten (he's 15 weeks!) shows no interest what so ever in human food. First cat I have had that didn't want anything to do with it. 

My 9 month old kitten has always been terrible for this... but he's unfortunately grown more into this! I have tried no, putting him in another room, putting him down on the floor but he still goes in for the kill... and if he so much as succeeds to get the food into his mouth.. he'll growl and growl at you to stay clear so he can eat his pride and joy! I am hoping he'll grow out of it eventually but being nearly a year old.. losing hope. Lol