Animal Welfare Professionals

  • 1.  Troublemaking cat- no manners

    Posted 05-05-2020 12:41 PM

    I foster to adopted a kitten about 6 months ago and since then she has taken over the house.  She is so so sweet and my roommate and I love her so much, but she has very little manners. The primary issues are that she jumps on the counter and tries to eat our food. We have been trying to solve these issues basically since we got her and nothing is working.

    My roommate and I have tried everything: we tried giving her rewards when we tell her down and she gets off the counter but 10 seconds later she will be back up there.  We tried spraying her with water and she just waits till we aren't looking to get back up there. She has a cat tree and all kinds of other things to climb and yet she still jumps on the counter. The other day she jumped on the stove which was still hot from breakfast, and even after yelping from burning herself, 5min later she was back on the counter and stove.

    She also is so determined to eat whatever food we are. I tried feeding her smaller meals more often so she isn't as hungry throughout the day but she doesn't care she will ty to eat anything and everything. She acts like we never feed her and often scarfs down her food super fast. I try breaking up the meals so she cant eat it all at once but nothing is working.

    Please help as we want to keep fostering as soon as we can get her in line.


    #PetBehaviorandTraining


  • 2.  RE: Troublemaking cat- no manners

    Posted 05-06-2020 12:21 AM

    Have you heard the dog hanging cat? I think you should feed her a meal and don't break her down. You split up and she can't eat more.


    #PetBehaviorandTraining


  • 3.  RE: Troublemaking cat- no manners

    Posted 05-06-2020 12:40 PM

    Here's a good article with some tips by WebMD/ASPCA Virtual Pet Behaviorist. It includes some ideas about perpetually hungry cats (if your cat is looking for food on the counters), and especially good info about using "environmental punishers" to discourage them from jumping on counters. Side note: the punishers they're talking about do NOT hurt the cat. I wouldn't recommend this article if they did. 

    Hope this helps give you some more options! https://pets.webmd.com/cats/guide/keeping-cat-countertops-tables#1


    #PetBehaviorandTraining


  • 4.  RE: Troublemaking cat- no manners

    Posted 05-06-2020 12:42 PM

    And one more article from Petfinder that specifically talks about removing the reward the cat is getting from jumping on the counter. https://www.petfinder.com/cats/cat-problems/keeping-cats-off-counters/


    #PetBehaviorandTraining


  • 5.  RE: Troublemaking cat- no manners

    Posted 08-29-2020 08:57 PM

    I would get a cat tree for that cat. In our situation - it helped. If you would be interested in that as well, I can show you this resource of most attractive cat trees where you can choose the best model for your cat and for your room, where you're going to install it. You should keep in mind, that some cat trees are pretty big.


    #PetBehaviorandTraining