Chelsea asked:
So I have a question. My boyfriend and I rescued a kitten from outside about two months ago. We’ve had him checked and all that stuff. He’s about 5 months old. He’s a great cat except for one thing. Whenever we eat food, he sits and meows insistently. He’ll crawl around trying to get on the table and chairs and stuff to get our food. We feed him lots, both wet and dry food. It doesn’t matter what we eat- cereal, chicken, pasta, a sandwich, a salad- he’ll sit there and meow like he’s never eaten.
How do we get him to stop meowing? Aside from locking him out of the room when we’re eating, we can;t think of anything. It’s annoying. And we worry about people who come over and hear his meow and feed him. We don’t want them to encourage him. We never feed him from our plates. He’s done this since we got him.
My response was:
Chelsea, I’d suggest keeping a can of compressed air or a spray bottle of water at the table with you while you eat, and the instant he starts howling, shoot it at him. Be consistent, don’t put up with the howling (I know, it’s hard to be mean to them when they’re so darn cute) and eventually if you’re consistent, he’ll get the message.
And then smack anyone who feeds him from their plates!
But then I thought that maybe y’all would have other suggestions, so if you do feel free to share!
I don’t put up with any of the cats howling for food when we’re eating. Occasionally, if we’re having something that smells really good to him, Spanky will sit next to me and rest his cold, cold nose against my leg in hopes that I’ll offer him my plate when I’m done. I put up with that because he’s the old man of the house and age has its privileges, but any other cat who harasses me gets a squirt from the can of compressed air immediately. Do I come howl at them when they’re bellied up to THEIR food? I do not. I expect the same consideration from them.
(If I must be honest, if I DID howl at them when they were eating, they’d probably just move over so I could eat out of the bowl. But that’s beside the point!)
Remember Greg Brady? He was adopted by a family who loves him to death – his new name is Riley – and here’s how he looks these days:
To all of you at Challenger’s House…a big Thank You! We adore our Challenger’s House kitties (Riley aka. Greg Brady and Cheeto). J We adopted them at separate times, but they get along wonderfully.
I love seeing my fosters go to such great homes!
Cavorting Time
(with George and Gracie)
Juuuuust hangin’ out. Watching chickens.
Chillin’. And then, suddenly…
LET! THE CAVORTING! BEGIN!
Oh, how Gracie loves to grab George’s tail because it drives him NUTS.
“You come over here, I bite you face.”
::chomp::
Playing dead. But Gracie’s not fooled.
George considers his next move.
“Your breath stinks.”
“Well, your mama dresses you funny.”
“Dude, seriously. Your breath.”
“It’s knocking me out.”
“It kills me like this.”
“You better run, ’cause I’m coming to kick your butt!”
“Long as you don’t breathe on me!”
Crazy pups.
I love it when they run around like wild things.
Jake and Alice, kinda snuggling. What I think happened is that Alice was in the bed, asleep, when Jake climbed in with her.
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Previously
2010: Moxie has a crush.
2009: “Halp! Halp! CALL 911!!!”
2008: No entry.
2007: Again with the crazy orangutan arms.
2006: POOP IN THE LITTER BOX!
2005: So for the rest of their stay at Casa And3rson, Sad Eyes is going to become Sugarbutt, Little Cal is becoming Callie, and Barrett is becoming Bear, because he looks like a little bear. Smitty’s going to remain Smitty, ’cause that’s a pretty good name.
If only Jake ran the world!
🙂
Where is the like button?! 😀
I don’t have howlers but I do have two that will walk right up and take what they want! One, however, is a perfect angel…but not the other two. I can just tell them “no” and they stop but do give me the pathetic look of starvation. I am weak…and I share. However, when we have company over, they are much better behaved and pretty much know that it is just mama that they can get food from. Even daddy….they sit patiently for the “milk bowl” after his cereal. I need to be tougher.
LOVE GEORGE AND GRACIE! I have been voting every day!!!!
Awwww beautiful George and Gracie!!
I like the idea of Jake running the world too! All will be most loony!! Yay!! Take care
x
Love Pups playtime! our doggies do the same stuff, but as one is a big GSD and the other mutt is a little thing who can run under him its so cute! They also kiss each other a lot!
Blanco and commie our two kittys also like to share milk after cereal and Blanco knows when the butter is real. 🙂
(PS re Piggies i have no illusions about their omniverous appetites!In Welsh a pigsty is Ty Mochen))
The only tip I can think of to give, is that you could try splitting your kitty’s meals up to go along with yours.Give him a bit of his food (preferably the dry variety,since that takes longer to eat)at the same time that you’re eating.That should keep him busy,and destracted from your food.
If compressed air doesn’t work, locking out of the room is the best solution; you will have several days/weeks of pathetic meows but after-while they do give up. We have this problem with the barn cats at the kitchen window every Spring, and once they realize the open window really isn’t open far enough they quit howling and jumping. Every year I try to take pictures for “failblog” but never quite manage to have the camera nearby on video when they try, once again to leap up and then slide down with the most amazing expressions on their faces.
Hasn’t Greg/Riley grown into a really handsome boy? (OK, I know I’m biased in favour of tabby&whites; I can’t help it!)
there is a supreme lack of kittenage in this post….
I startled a bit when I first saw the picture of Greg/Riley! They look a lot like my kitties: http://shianuah.com/pets/cuddle8.jpg ; http://shianuah.com/pets/cuddle4.jpg
I love the complete abandon of George and Gracie when play. They look almost…hmm, loony! Maybe Jake is already taking over the world!
ooo loving the dogs today XD they look so playful. awww Riley’s grown to be such a handsome cat.
and I have a question for you.
I recently acquired a new kitten that had shown up at a coworker’s home,who checked out healthy and I think he’s about.. 6-7 months not really sure, and did the required transitioning phase for him and my other two girls, Ember whom I’ve had all her life, and Miss that I’ve gotten just a little over a year ago. He leaves Ember alone for the most part, but just continues to antagonize Miss all the time. I can’t tell if they’re fighting, or rough housing half the time. She’s not happy with him when he does it but when he’s behaving she has no problem with him. He’s going to be fixed this Friday and was wondering if that would help bring his aggression level down, and I’m wondering if this is also because he’s still a kitten just in his ‘teenager’ stage and they’re both fully grown cats. Both the girls are Fixed so I’m not quite sure what it is about Miss that has him fixating on her.
aghh
sorry for rambling but I’ve asked everyone I know and they tell me to just wait it out and see how it goes after fixing him. or to just get rid of him, and I really don’t want to do that cause I think he needs a chance.
George and Gracie look like 2 very happy, content dogs.
Cheeto’s position is hilarious. Greg/Riley is such a good brudder.
Jake just wanted a cuddle!