I have 5 cats and this is a problem with all of them, but especially 4 of them. Any time there is food, they turn into little monsters. I don't mean that they get aggressive, what I mean is that they have absolutely no manners. It has become a severe problem at this point.
Just to give some backstory, when I used to feed my cats kibble, they had no bad manners around food. They just ate their food and were happy. But when I switched them to raw food and canned food this year, they have become insane. They can't get enough. No, they are not skinny or underweight. They are all vet checked and confirmed to be perfect weights. But they are OBSESSED with ALL food now. Now they want to eat every single piece of food they can see. It's horrible, and I mean it. I can't feed my dogs without all of the cats climbing the counters and jumping over each other and climbing my legs to get the dog food. I can't give my dog his medicine without the cats trying to steal it. I can't mix food into my dogs bowls without being worried that the cats will eat the dogs medications in the split second it takes me to grab spoon or another ingredient. Any time i have a bag of unopened dog food, they will chew through the bag to get to the kibble. If I don't put a heavy object over the trash or dog food bin, they will figure out a way to get in. I can't even prepare their own meals without them climbing all over the counters and stealing the food. It's not too hard when its only one of them because I can just push them off, but it's a bad problem because of how many of them there are and that they are all doing this at the same time. If I push one cat away, another will jump up instead. And the more I push them, the more irritated they get with each other instead and resort to fighting each other while waiting instead. Due to current living arrangements, I cannot put them in a separate room while preparing their food or the dogs food. And even if I could, I can't put them all in a different room every time I need to carry a piece of food. I give my dog medicine x3 a day and I can't lock all my cats away every time I need to take out a treat for my dog. It's ridiculous. They are never satisfied. They follow me when I feed the chickens and do everything they can to steal the chicken food too. I have seen them catch squirrels and eat them whole in one sitting then walk around with a giant protruding belly and beg for more food. They will sometimes abandon their own food to try to eat the dogs food. They are all vet checked and healthy though, they aren't all acting like this due to any health issues.
However, this is only half of the problem... The second half is that they claw at my hands every time they think I have food. I started giving them treats throughout the day because it encourages them to stay around and not wander, and it definitely works. They won't leave me at all anymore, which i love actually because I love having them around, however now every time they think I have food, they claw at my hands. I dont mean that they chew on my hand, I mean that they reach out in a split second and grab my hand with their claws to bring it closer, as if its prey they are trying to quickly catch. Imagine the way they claw a toy when you dangle it in front of their face. That's what theyre doing with my hand, and they do it very quickly. When I DO have a treat, they claw at it. When I DON'T have treats, they claw at it if they think I have a treat. I could be moving my hand to grab a spoon and they will claw at my hand because they think I'm giving them food. I could be placing their food bowl onto the ground to eat and they will claw at my hand to get the bowl faster. They all do this, and I know it's my own fault because I started giving them treats, but now i have to fix this. I try waiting for them to sit patiently before giving them the treats, but they will just wait until the last possible second to claw my hand. They could be sitting nicely all the way until the treat is in their face and then when they grab it with their mouth they will simultaneously claw my hand. And the problem is they grab my hand faster than I can react. I think the main reason they do this is because they want to make sure the other cats dont get the food first so they are being possessive and trying to get it as fast as possible. So I'm gonna stop giving them any treats at all, but I don't think that will completely fix the problem. And what if I DO want to give them a treat? How do I do it now without them behaving like maniacs?
I thought that I would just have to come to terms with this until I saw a video a few days ago on social media of a guy recording his cats and dogs all peacefully respecting each others food boundaries. Nobody was going crazy and nobody was stealing anothers food. My dogs are trained to respect food boundaries, but my cats are not and I don't know how to train them to do this because most sources online just say 'you cant train a cat, just deal with it.' That's clearly not true though, if other people have been able to do it. So how do I fix these issues? I have 5 cats and it's a severe problem when all 5 of them are behaving dangerously and like maniacs around food. They are scratching my hands every day and making me bleed. I want to be able to keep giving my cats treats, but it's impossible to keep doing it if they behave so badly. Plus, one cat needs a daily treat anyways because of a medication she takes. So I can't stop the treats 100% either.
And just to clear things up, none of the scratching or insane behavior is aggression here. The only time it turns to aggression is when I start pushing them off the counters to allow me to prepare their food and they get frustrated and take it out on each other instead. But that needs to be fixed too. In the future when my living arrangements change I will be able to dedicate a room just for the dogs and I will be able to keep the cats away from the kitchen when I prepare their food, but at the moment it's not possible, so please dont suggest that I just try to figure out a way to keep them away. That's not possible. Should I just get line up a bunch of crates and force them to sit in there while making food? I would much rather prefer to train them to behave respectfully instead though. And putting them in crates also doesn't fix the 'clawing my hands' issue around treats too.
Also, I have never played with or rough housed my cats with my hands. They don't treat my hands like toys. They like being pet, they are all friendly, they love people. It's only around food that there are issues. The cats ages range between 1.5-3 years, and the issues only started happening after I starting feeding raw and canned, and after I started giving them daily treats.
So what do i do here? This is a bit of a rant post, so I apologize for that. I am just so extremely frustrated after this morning and their behavior and I am just so done with it. I need help here, I need advice or resources on how to train them. Im not expecting my cats to be super patient after putting their food bowls on the ground, but I do need them to be patient while I am preparing the food on the counter. And I need them to stop destroying my hands every time I have a piece of food in it. It's just ridiculous because I can't even train my dogs without the cats trying to eat the treats. I can't have any high value treats around my dogs because my cats will get their faces trying to steal it and thats dangers. Im just so frustrated and I need some advice on fixing these issues.
Just to give some backstory, when I used to feed my cats kibble, they had no bad manners around food. They just ate their food and were happy. But when I switched them to raw food and canned food this year, they have become insane. They can't get enough. No, they are not skinny or underweight. They are all vet checked and confirmed to be perfect weights. But they are OBSESSED with ALL food now. Now they want to eat every single piece of food they can see. It's horrible, and I mean it. I can't feed my dogs without all of the cats climbing the counters and jumping over each other and climbing my legs to get the dog food. I can't give my dog his medicine without the cats trying to steal it. I can't mix food into my dogs bowls without being worried that the cats will eat the dogs medications in the split second it takes me to grab spoon or another ingredient. Any time i have a bag of unopened dog food, they will chew through the bag to get to the kibble. If I don't put a heavy object over the trash or dog food bin, they will figure out a way to get in. I can't even prepare their own meals without them climbing all over the counters and stealing the food. It's not too hard when its only one of them because I can just push them off, but it's a bad problem because of how many of them there are and that they are all doing this at the same time. If I push one cat away, another will jump up instead. And the more I push them, the more irritated they get with each other instead and resort to fighting each other while waiting instead. Due to current living arrangements, I cannot put them in a separate room while preparing their food or the dogs food. And even if I could, I can't put them all in a different room every time I need to carry a piece of food. I give my dog medicine x3 a day and I can't lock all my cats away every time I need to take out a treat for my dog. It's ridiculous. They are never satisfied. They follow me when I feed the chickens and do everything they can to steal the chicken food too. I have seen them catch squirrels and eat them whole in one sitting then walk around with a giant protruding belly and beg for more food. They will sometimes abandon their own food to try to eat the dogs food. They are all vet checked and healthy though, they aren't all acting like this due to any health issues.
However, this is only half of the problem... The second half is that they claw at my hands every time they think I have food. I started giving them treats throughout the day because it encourages them to stay around and not wander, and it definitely works. They won't leave me at all anymore, which i love actually because I love having them around, however now every time they think I have food, they claw at my hands. I dont mean that they chew on my hand, I mean that they reach out in a split second and grab my hand with their claws to bring it closer, as if its prey they are trying to quickly catch. Imagine the way they claw a toy when you dangle it in front of their face. That's what theyre doing with my hand, and they do it very quickly. When I DO have a treat, they claw at it. When I DON'T have treats, they claw at it if they think I have a treat. I could be moving my hand to grab a spoon and they will claw at my hand because they think I'm giving them food. I could be placing their food bowl onto the ground to eat and they will claw at my hand to get the bowl faster. They all do this, and I know it's my own fault because I started giving them treats, but now i have to fix this. I try waiting for them to sit patiently before giving them the treats, but they will just wait until the last possible second to claw my hand. They could be sitting nicely all the way until the treat is in their face and then when they grab it with their mouth they will simultaneously claw my hand. And the problem is they grab my hand faster than I can react. I think the main reason they do this is because they want to make sure the other cats dont get the food first so they are being possessive and trying to get it as fast as possible. So I'm gonna stop giving them any treats at all, but I don't think that will completely fix the problem. And what if I DO want to give them a treat? How do I do it now without them behaving like maniacs?
I thought that I would just have to come to terms with this until I saw a video a few days ago on social media of a guy recording his cats and dogs all peacefully respecting each others food boundaries. Nobody was going crazy and nobody was stealing anothers food. My dogs are trained to respect food boundaries, but my cats are not and I don't know how to train them to do this because most sources online just say 'you cant train a cat, just deal with it.' That's clearly not true though, if other people have been able to do it. So how do I fix these issues? I have 5 cats and it's a severe problem when all 5 of them are behaving dangerously and like maniacs around food. They are scratching my hands every day and making me bleed. I want to be able to keep giving my cats treats, but it's impossible to keep doing it if they behave so badly. Plus, one cat needs a daily treat anyways because of a medication she takes. So I can't stop the treats 100% either.
And just to clear things up, none of the scratching or insane behavior is aggression here. The only time it turns to aggression is when I start pushing them off the counters to allow me to prepare their food and they get frustrated and take it out on each other instead. But that needs to be fixed too. In the future when my living arrangements change I will be able to dedicate a room just for the dogs and I will be able to keep the cats away from the kitchen when I prepare their food, but at the moment it's not possible, so please dont suggest that I just try to figure out a way to keep them away. That's not possible. Should I just get line up a bunch of crates and force them to sit in there while making food? I would much rather prefer to train them to behave respectfully instead though. And putting them in crates also doesn't fix the 'clawing my hands' issue around treats too.
Also, I have never played with or rough housed my cats with my hands. They don't treat my hands like toys. They like being pet, they are all friendly, they love people. It's only around food that there are issues. The cats ages range between 1.5-3 years, and the issues only started happening after I starting feeding raw and canned, and after I started giving them daily treats.
So what do i do here? This is a bit of a rant post, so I apologize for that. I am just so extremely frustrated after this morning and their behavior and I am just so done with it. I need help here, I need advice or resources on how to train them. Im not expecting my cats to be super patient after putting their food bowls on the ground, but I do need them to be patient while I am preparing the food on the counter. And I need them to stop destroying my hands every time I have a piece of food in it. It's just ridiculous because I can't even train my dogs without the cats trying to eat the treats. I can't have any high value treats around my dogs because my cats will get their faces trying to steal it and thats dangers. Im just so frustrated and I need some advice on fixing these issues.
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