Cat refusing treats?

Have you ever heard of a cat refusing treats? Mine has started this in the past couple of weeks. Its not that she doesn't like them; she will eat them if I leave them someplace where she can get them but only when I can't see her do it.

I have tried giving her a treat after doing something that she find unpleasant or to try to tempt her to do something I want her to do.

When I offer her a treat in these cases she acts like she can't even see it!! Ignores it completely. She has loved the Gerber baby meats since she was a baby. Used to put some in her dish once a week & she seemed to love it. After I spooned some from the jar she would like the spoon clean.

Then I made the mistake of trying to use a bit on a spoon as a 'reward.' So now she ignores the spoon with the food on it but if I put it in her dish she will go in later when I'm not looking & eat it up.

Does anyone have any idea why she has started doing this? Is she just trying to prove to me that she's smarter than I am? That's sometimes what I think. <grin>

It could be that she now associates the treat with a bad thing you are doing, so she avoids the treat as long as you are in the room. Although this is pretty unusual, it makes some sense. Usually the treat makes the unpleasant task a little better -- but you had the opposite effect where the unpleasant event made the treat unpleasant, at least while you're in the room. Oh well.....at least she still gets the treat, even if it is a little delayed!