Have you ever found your cat on the kitchen counter trying to steal a piece of food that is unprotected? Or about to climb on the table to steal the food from your plate? ? Well, if the answers are yes, don't worry anymore because on our site we are going to explain the possible reasons why your cat steals your food and how to correct this inappropriate behavior.
Educating a cat from when he is small is essential to get your pet to understand what he can or cannot do and how he should behave and live with his human family. But there are times when animals learn unwanted and annoying behaviors for us. That is why in this article en titled " My cat steals my food, why?" you will discover the factors that may have fostered this behavior and you will know how to retrain your cat to stop stealing food.
Why do cats steal food?
We know that the fact that your cat takes advantage of the slightest oversight to steal a piece of food that you have left unprotected on the kitchen counter or that directly climbs on the table when you are eating to ask for and/or steal food from you is a very annoying situation, but why do cats steal food?
To know the answer to this question it is necessary to review the behaviorof our pet and the habits he has acquired towards us, their owners. Perhaps the problem started with us or perhaps not, but what is certain is that this is behavior that must be stopped and corrected as soon as possible, because it can become a serious setback if it is overlooked, or if For example, the cat inadvertently ingests some food that is toxic to its body.
Next, we'll review possible reasons why cats steal food.
They don't like their cat food
One of the main reasons cats steal food is that they don't like their own, that is, the dry food or wet food available to them don't like it or don't fully satisfy, so they steal food from where they can and when they can.
Let's remember that cats are strict carnivores, so it is recommended to give them a feed that contains mainly meat and that is not mixed with other food products such as refined flours, cereals, etc… If you think that the I think that you are giving your cat it is not the most appropriate and you notice that it does not like it because it leaves it and/or does not eat it well, the ideal is that you change the brand, buy ahigher quality feed and keep trying until you get the best feed for your cat, or better yet, you can try making your own homemade cat food.
It is also possible that the dry food or wet food you give him likes it, but your cat does not eat it because it is soft for leaving it all day at your disposal in the trough. Cats are very gourmet animals and they don't eat everything that is thrown at them if it is not to their liking. That is why in these cases, the solution is very easy: simply serve him the amount of daily food that he has to eat (according to his age and body weight) at the time and once he eats, take it away. This way there will be no food left out in the open and it will not soften.
Likewise, we could also think that our feline does not eat its food, not because it is softened or because we have not found its perfect feed, but because it prefers the one on our plate on the table. But the truth is that this is not so. There is nothing that cats like more than food that is designed specifically for them.
You have a bad habit
If you have already found the best feed/wet food for your pet and your cat still steals food, it is possible that the problem goes deeper and is a bad habit that has been acquired over time.
It is possible that at some point in his life, our cat has climbed on the table while we were eating and we have given him a piece of the steak or tuna we were eating. At that moment, the reinforcement of the bad habit began, since the cat understood that it was normal to eat the food on our plate and even more so if we offered it to him. If this situation has been repeated more than once over time, it is very logical that the cat steals food from the kitchen or the table even if we are not sitting, because for him it is a learned behavior
The solution to break a bad habit is to create a new one, so in the next section we will explain how to do it.
How do we fix it?
The truth is that it's not easy teaching a new habit to any animal, least of all cats, we all know how special they are they are, so the ideal is always to educate them from a young age because the sooner they learn the better and also have a lot of patience with them. But if your cat is already an adult and steals food, calm down because there is still hope.
First of all, we must raise awareness and help him eradicate this bad habit by avoiding leaving unprotected food on the table or in the kitchen (even if it is leftovers) and also not offering him any type of food from our hand while we are eating.
Likewise, if for whatever reason one day we get lost and see that the feline is ste althily approaching to steal some leftover food that we have forgotten to put away or that it climbs on the table with that intention, what we have to do is scold him saying "NO" firmly and serenely, and take him away from that place by holding him in our arms and not letting him in until there is no food available, so the cat will gradually understand that it cannot do that.
Another way for the kitty to understand that he cannot steal food is reinforcing his behavior when he eats from his feeder So, once that he has finished eating (which does not mean that he has finished all the food but that he has already finished doing the action) and not before, because it is better not to interrupt them when they are doing something right, we can reward that good behavior by stroking him, playing with him or giving him some cat treat. Obviously, the food we give him should be he althy and as appetizing as possible for our pet, so the chances of him stealing food will be less and less.
