this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2023
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Not to make them feel included, but to kill their curiosity. I always offer a smell of my food to my cat and then take it away. She gets to smell it and realize it's something she isn't interested in. I think that's the reason she doesn't bother people while they're eating. She knows she isn't interested in "people food."
We have had very different cats then.
Yup, mine was way too happy about the opportunity to steal anything
I've never had a cat that wants people food, and I think it's because of just showing them what it is and then taking it away.
My last cat was food-obsessed. I would do the "show, sniff, remove" thing and it would work depending on the food. But many foods only needed a fraction of a second for her to know she needed it in her mouth right now. If you took it before her attempt to eat it, you met the response of "hey, I wasn't done with that!" and the paw would come out to bring your hand back.
For roast chicken you would have to actively defend your plate the entire meal. She would sit next to you and very slowly try to "sneak" her paw on to your plate to take what she could. As though I wasn't watching her like a hawk and she had some kind of cloak of invisibility.
I miss my round dinner thief.
My cat does like some people food, but yeah most of it is "You don't want this."
Cats don't like pepsi, but mine has to sniff every last can.
That’s how she feels included. Even if you don’t mean it that way, that’s how she sees it. She’s important enough that you care what she thinks. That’s good cat parenting.
Yeah, I'm just saying it isn't the intent of what I do.
we always had to defend the table when we had two cats. They both would steal sausage, ham, cream cheese and butter and one of them would even take cheese and margarine.
i think the only people food they didnt like was purely plant based stuff.
I do this too. But of course some cat like some or most people food more than others. My cat eats ranch dressing, eggs, dairy, and oils. She'll eat a few meats too. But she is mostly uninterested in human food, so I fulfill her curiosity often because it's kind to my cat and it helps stave off her desire to beg. I also thinks she just trusts me more and is more fond of me because I engage with her in her interests a lot. Hell, that's just good advice for raising children too.