Quiet rustles and clanking of dishes at night. The unexpected loss of household items, or the appearance of other people's things in the house can raise a lot of questions in any family. What is this? Ghosts? Brownies? Harmful neighbors? What are you, don’t be so scared. Behind all this could be none other than a cute, fluffy and absolutely harmless, at first glance, domestic cat. But how to stop a cat from stealing food from the table?
Cat theft is well known. But there is an opinion that only outbred and poorly raised cats steal. And if a purebred cat is caught red-handed stealing, the owners begin to suspect that the cat, who is not purebred at all, is stealing. The owners of even a pet picked up on the street, but lovingly nurtured, may come to the conclusion that nothing can correct the genes, or they begin to reproach themselves for shortcomings in upbringing.
Is it so? Any animal psychologist will tell you - no. In fact, theft from cats cannot be given any unambiguous assessment. There can be many reasons, and in some cases theft can be dealt with using fairly simple methods that will be discussed in this article. In others, you will have to put up with thefts, trying to minimize the damage, both for yourself and for your pet. So, let's discuss the first question.
Why is a cat interested in climbing on the table?
The first reason is obvious - the cat climbs onto the table to get food from there. Perhaps he is fed up with his food and wants to find something tasty, or he is not full. We must not forget that cats are predators, which means they climb onto the table for prey. The owner’s task is to show that this cannot be done. Sometimes cats with a superbly developed sense of smell are attracted to the smell of food, especially if meat is being cooked.
A cat is not always attracted to food left on the table. Often this subject is of interest to him as:
- unexplored corner If there is something interesting on the table, it will certainly attract the four-legged naughty one. Cats are very curious creatures and are ready to explore everything in the house. If you leave something on the table after meals, then prepare for a visit from your pet.
- corner for sleeping Surprisingly, cats will happily sleep where there is a smell of food. This aroma has a calming effect.
- places to watch One of cats' favorite pastimes is to climb high and watch. The table works well as an observation post.
- warm place If the house or apartment is poorly heated, then the cat will want to find a warm corner. Warm air rises, and the pet will prefer to bask where it is higher. A kitchen table will do just as well as a cabinet.
Once you find out the reasons for your cat’s unacceptable behavior, begin to fight the bad habit.
Three reasons for stealing things
But, if the theft of food can be at least somehow justified, then the theft of things may certainly seem like something unhealthy. And again wrong. The reasons for such cat theft, in fact, are also quite simple and understandable.
Hunt replacement
Such non-standard behavior can become a substitute for a full-fledged hunt for a cat. Imagine how many emotions a shaggy thief can get while getting things that he doesn’t actually need. What can I say, for the sake of adrenaline, people don’t even do such things.
The desire to get what the owners do not give
The second reason may be that cats also have favorite things that slow-witted owners do not give of their own free will. You have to take risks and get the necessary toy yourself. For example, our cat will never calmly pass by a brush. It will pull. During cleaning, her hiding places with brushes are periodically discovered.
Please the owner
The third reason for theft is the most touching. This is the cat’s desire to somehow please his beloved owner or mistress. What should the poor fellow do if the mouse is not caught, and the birds do not allow themselves to be caught, and the cat feels that the gift is about to be torn off? Things obtained from neighbors will be very useful here. The example of Oscar the cat from England is widely known. Feeling immense gratitude to the owners who took him from the nursery, the cat simply showered them with gifts “borrowed” from the neighbors.
There were gloves, scarves, and even, for some reason, underwear that I liked. When Oscar's owners encountered this behavior, they were at first shocked, and having figured out the reasons for the strange behavior, they moved Murzik and left him with them.
Well, now, having figured out why cats steal, let's move on to specific actions to wean a pet from theft.
Feeding rules for owners
The first question for the owner is: is the cat eating enough? You may be mistaken in thinking that you are feeding your pet well. If you notice that your pet is stealing food from the table, make sure that you provide it with adequate nutrition.
When weaning your animal from climbing onto the table, follow a few “food” rules:
- before you sit down at the table, first feed your pet well;
- Offer a cat begging for food something unappetizing, for example, highly peppered meat. He must understand that your food is not tasty;
- Train your animal to wait quietly while you prepare dinner. Stop attempts at persistent begging. If you give in, the cat will decide to climb onto the table.
By weaning a cat from stealing food, it can show character and begin to starve. Your task is not to give in. Soon the pet will realize that it is better to eat what is in its bowl.
Cats steal food even when they are full - they are driven by curiosity or the instinct of a hunter. This behavior requires correction.
Uniformity of feed (lack of nutrients)
To keep your cat healthy, fit and active, her diet must be nutritious and balanced. Receiving monotonous food with the same set of nutrients, sooner or later the animal will begin to experience a lack of some of them.
To replenish the missing energy, the pet begins to look for additional food. And it doesn’t matter that the food of interest is outside the cat’s bowl.
Sources of essential nutrients can be:
- garbage dump;
- other people's food bowls;
- bin;
- household food (set table, meat or fish left in the sink to defrost, unsorted bags of groceries, refrigerator).
You need to: review your pet’s diet, diversify its diet, prepare and buy only high-quality food that includes a large complex of nutrients.
How to make a table uninteresting for a cat
If the cat eats enough and still steals food by climbing on the table out of curiosity, then start with gentle methods. Try to make him lose interest in the table. Firstly, after eating, food must be removed so that nothing remains on the surface that attracts the animal. If there is no research item left, the cat may lose interest in the table.
If the table is empty almost all the time, but the cat still jumps there, it means that it is not food that attracts him. Animals love to watch what is happening from above. In this case, set up a tree house for your pet. A tall scratching post, a climbing tree, or a shelf against the wall will do.
Perhaps the cat found shelter on the table from small children or from the dog? Make sure you have a quiet and secluded area for him. The same applies to the desire to create a warm, cozy place to sleep. This is especially true in winter. Set up a cat bed near the radiator. You can rearrange the chair. And if the table is located by the window and serves as an observation point, then rearrange the kitchen.
Hunting instinct
Cats by nature are predatory animals and natural hunters. Even well-fed pets are no exception. At home, the need to realize instincts, practice and train hunting skills can make them cunning and dexterous thieves. This can happen if:
- they lack activity, they run and jump a little;
- they do not receive rewards (loot) after playing.
The role of prey is given to food left unattended. The theft is carried out in the form of a game and consists of the following stages:
- tracking;
- ambush;
- attack;
- eating.
Everything is like that of predatory animals in the wild.
Need: more time to play active games. At the end, offer a treat (prey).
Smell
It is known that cats really dislike the smell of citrus and eucalyptus. You can use this fact to wean your animal from jumping on the table.
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Take half a lemon or another citrus with a strong smell, like an orange, for example. Place the slice on the table or squeeze a few drops onto the surface. You can also use a piece of cloth soaked in lemon or orange juice. However, this smell disappears quickly and you need to change the products several times a day.
Essential oils are absorbed into the fabric for a long time, so it is more advisable to use them. Drop a little oil onto a sheet or tablecloth and cover the table with it. Thus, the smell will drive away the agile cat.
In addition, you can use an aroma lamp, into which you should pour a little essential oil. It leaves a smell for a long time, which means the cat won’t even come near the table.
There is one caveat: if this method did not work, it will not work. It may turn out that the cat's interest in the table is stronger than its dislike for a certain smell. Therefore, if your pet continues to steal, you should try another method.
Lack of attention
Many cats steal everything in order to attract the owner's attention. Even if you scold the cat, you are communicating with it. Imagine what kind of attention deficit your pet experiences if he is ready to suffer punishment for the sake of communication!
If you think your cat is stealing to get attention, you need to take immediate action. The most reliable way to compensate for the need for communication is to sleep together. When you allow your cat to sleep in your bed, she becomes saturated with tactile contact.
Squelch - and your food is gone. This cat Negan swoops in like a hurricane and steals everything his owner eats.
In Minnetonka, Minnesota, there lives a very cheeky cat who steals food and doesn't blush. Moreover, any kind of food: both the one that doesn’t fit well and the one that fits very well - even in your mouth. The owner of the hungry monster no longer knows what to do, so he created a Facebook page about him. Now the cat is a star.
Negan is a gray cat. His little black sister's name is Lucille.
Negan looks harmless enough, but he's only pretending. As soon as his owner starts eating, the cat is right there.
Here's an example of Negan's daring theft when he couldn't resist a burger. And look at the dogs! They wait and don’t get impudent.
The Facebook page about Negan's audacity immediately reveals the essence of the cat: "Negan the cat who will take half of your food."
The pet only steals food so far, but he just hasn’t heard about the cat Sir Whiner, who steals money from passers-by. But Negan has a lot of potential. No matter how hard it grabs you, it won’t let go.
And it’s like everyone is ok that he continues to eat the burger that the cat bit? Cats do lick their asses, right?
But others came to his defense.
I didn't see anything bad in the video. I won't eat it myself, but if he doesn't mind eating the food after Negan has taken a bite of it, there's no need to blame him. Life is an individual thing.
Others believe that the owner himself is to blame for allowing the cat to steal food in this way.
You never taught him discipline, that’s why he steals food from you. I would be so mad. Cats sit and lick their butts all day, and you let them come near your food.
If you allow them to treat you like this, they will continue to beg or steal food right out of your hand. It's not cute at all.
Many users could not resist commenting on the excess weight of the cat's owner. Someone decided that Negan was doing him a favor by stealing food.
Come on people, watch it and understand what this video is about. Bad guy Negan saves this guy from a heart attack. Negan is a true MVP (most valuable player in sports - Medialeaks note).
Obesity, as it turned out, affects not only people, but also cats, and the problem is becoming more and more serious. In Great Britain, for example, so many fat cats have appeared that zoologists have already begun to explain what needs to be done with pets.
Foil
As in the first method, it is necessary to determine where it is easiest for the cat to get to the table, while blocking all other paths.
Since cats steal from the table by standing on it with their front paws, you need to cover the edge with foil and not secure it with anything. The next time the cat wants to steal something from the table, he will get up, and the foil will move forward or backward, and the cat will simply be pushed off.
Be careful when using this method. If the kitten is still small, it may hit a table or something else.
Effective methods for weaning yourself from a bad habit
It is imperative to wean your cat from walking on the kitchen table and other surfaces in this room, and for several reasons. The first of these is hygiene. Nobody likes cat hair as a seasoning. In addition, the cat steps on the floor with its paws, climbs under sofas and on cabinets, where it is very dusty. And in general, many microorganisms that are relatively safe for cats can be harmful to people. No matter how clean she may be, her concepts of cleanliness are still different.
Secondly, household and cutlery may be unsafe for the animal itself. Thirdly, a cat, while living in a house, must still follow basic rules of behavior. Even if an animal considers itself the rightful owner of the apartment and the king of the world, it still must adhere to some rules of the hostel.
If time is lost, and the cat has acquired the habit of sitting, walking or sleeping on the table, then experts offer several tips for weaning the animal from incorrect behavior.
The next time you attack the table, you should use a toy weapon - a water pistol. If you don’t have one, you can use a spray bottle or any other device that sprays liquid. When the cat jumps to the surface, you need to spray water on it.
Most of these animals categorically do not like such influences. In order for it to understand what they want from it, the procedure needs to be repeated several times. That is, if a cat jumps off in response to a “shot” and leaves, then you need to detain it, put it back on the table and spray it with a pistol. Then she will understand that the owner disapproves of her behavior, and thus punishes her.
Another method to play on cats’ dislike of water is to place a baking tray filled with liquid on the table. The item should be secured well, for example, with double-sided tape, and water should be poured. Then you need to remove from the cat’s access area all objects that it can use as intermediate steps on the way to its goal. That is, move the chairs in, remove the shelves if possible. The cat will have to jump from the floor. Having raised a sheaf of spray, the cat will experience a number of unpleasant sensations, and is unlikely to risk repeating the maneuver. However, it is still worth repeating the experiment, in case the knowledge gained is not fixed in the cat’s memory at once.
Treating kitchen surfaces with strong-smelling substances is another effective way to wean your cat from walking on them. These animals have an extremely negative attitude towards strong odors, especially those emitted by acids. Spraying essential oils with citrus scents and treating surfaces with a solution of acetic acid will help rid your cat of a bad habit.
Another common method to stop a cat from jumping anywhere is to cover the surface with foil. The rustling of this material is extremely unpleasant and even scary for these animals, and the pet will quickly stop jumping into such a dangerous place, in its opinion.
Another option is tape. This is one of the most commonly suggested methods. By placing pieces of this sticky material on the table, you can permanently discourage the animal from jumping into an unauthorized place. An almost win-win option is foil and tape at the same time.
Electricity
It’s worth saying right away that this method should be used only as a last resort, when all others do not work. After all, this method is quite dangerous and can cause harm to the animal if used incorrectly.
You can buy a mat at large pet stores or online that gives a small electric shock when you stand on it. But this blow is safe for the animal. When the cat feels this, he obviously won’t want to experience it anymore, which means he won’t climb on the table. However, the mat should only be used under the supervision of the owner.
There are also similar collars that also give a small shock. Control is carried out using a remote control or an application on a smartphone.
Use cat repellers
In this case, repellers are objects that cause unpleasant sensations in cats if they encounter them. They must not cause physical harm to the animal.
Double sided tape. It will be extremely unpleasant for a cat if it jumps onto the table and finds something sticky underneath it. A very effective remedy if used correctly. You can't cover the entire table with tape, so you'll have to figure out the areas where your cat jumps most often. Keep in mind that the tape may leave sticky marks on the table. You can stick it on plastic serving napkins, unnecessary oilcloth or plastic film.
Foil. Cats don't like the sound of foil when you step on it. Lay out several sheets of foil on the table and secure them with pieces of tape.
Citrus peel. Cats hate the smell of lemons, oranges, and grapefruits. Simply place citrus peels around the perimeter of the table. Keep in mind that it dries out quickly and stops smelling, so your family will have to eat several kilograms of fruit to stop your cat from climbing on the table.
Tin can with small items. Fill one or more canning jars with peas, beans, or small things that rattle loudly. The jar should stand on the edge of the table so that the cat knocks it over while jumping and gets scared by the noise.
Ssscat repellent spray. This is a small device that beeps and then sprays your cat with an odorless spray when she approaches it. Operates on batteries and has a motion sensor. The aerosol is safe for animals.
Further more
Pots, pans, bread bins, microwaves, sugar bowls, ovens - the cat is ready to stick its nose everywhere if it is not stopped. It seems she would have examined the refrigerator if it didn’t have a door! Or she would even settle in the area of a trash can, which the owners sometimes forget to take out on time.
What can we say about the fact that some of the purrs willingly drink from the kitchen tap, instead of taking a couple of sips from their own bowl of water. But sometimes all these liberties began to appear even at a kitten’s age and looked simply like a harmless prank, which the owners perceived with a smile and did not take into account.
Alas, it later turned into a persistent pattern of behavior that the cat began to confidently follow.
