Cat begs for human food

[nicoliae]

I'm not sure if anyone is going to be able to help since my vet has no suggestions about this...

My cat begs for human food like crazy...some back story I found her at 4 weeks old, no mom around. I took her to the vet and was recommend to put her on wet cat food and supplement with human tuna to try to keep her weight up. The first few weeks of having the cat she would purr and chatter like crazy when she got food. The vet said this was just because she had been living without and she never knew that the next meal was going to be there for her. So after while we stopped the wet food and tuna. I put her on IAMs dry kitten and now she's been eating Blue Buffalo dry food for over 6 months. She's 13 months old. She has access to a food bowl at all times and eats about 1 cup a day. She weights about 14 pounds and isn't starving.

But she's been begging for human food since she was a kitten. She's like a dog, she will be underfoot while you are eating. She will steal food if you sit it on the coffee table. If you sit on the couch she will try to headbutt the food out of your hands. If I drop food on the floor it's a fight to get it away from her. We have never willing fed her human food.

Ideas on why she begs or how to get her to mellow out?

[Velvetshady]

No suggestions (we had one that begged and she taught our youngest to do it when he was a kitten).

But can I ask, why did you stop feeding wet food?

[nicoliae]

The smell was making my husband physically sick. I know it's better for the cat, but I got sick of feeding the cat by myself and MH vomiting if he was home during the feedings.

[polarbearfans]

One of my cats in convinced she loves lettuce. She is all up in people's business during salad time... She has never had lettuce. I offered it once and she smelled it and left. She was terrified of pieced of unseasoned cooked chicken. Cats are funny.

[polarbearfans]

High quality food doesn't smell as bad . What were you feeding previously?

[nicoliae]

Aug 10, 2012 20:58:31 GMT -5 polarbearfans said:

High quality food doesn't smell as bad . What were you feeding previously?

Blue buffalo brand. I'm pretty sure my husband would divorce me if I said I was going back to wet cat food.

[msmerymac]

Can you separate her, like put her in a bedroom, during meal time? Maybe once she's not used to being around the food anymore she'll mellow out.