cat...driving me mad

threemuttleys

Hi all.

We having problems with our 2 neutered 18month old cats, Jasper and Louis, and hoping some clever person can help sort it..before I go mad.

Firstly...they are always looking for food..whenever someone is in the kitchen they are shouting for food, will try to pinch whatever you are eating and Louis nearly lost his head trying to nick one of the mutts breakfast this morning.
They are wormed regularly, (so I dont think thats the problem) they have dry food in the main (sainsburys or aldi) and then we supplement that with the dogs raw (so they might have a bowl of dry, and then chicken wings/eggs/beef bones etc) and I know they both catch and eat their own food. When we tried better quality dry and wets.. made no difference at all to their constant hunger/greed. They always have water available too....I reckon for their sizes, they eat more than the dogs do

all of this is creating another problem...getting on the kitchen sides. I know some people with cats are ok with this...im not..grosses me out big time. Also means that they are stealing food from the sides/licking em (yuck) and im having to anti bac/bleach them a good few times a day. I have even caught Louis trying to pinch food out of a pot while its cooking (which I have maybe left for 5 mins to see to my baby Alex)

The general advice is to chuck em off...we do this..doesnt work..they both will get on the sides while we are watching them from a distance. Has been suggested we try a water pistol, but not sure that would work while we are not there?

Any help, before I go insane

CheeseCat

Can't you close them out of the kitchen at all? Or is it open plan?

Our cats aren't allowed in the kitchen at all as I am not keen on the idea of them being on the worktops and also they'd trash the place looking for food :rotfl:

Do you always leave dry food down for them or is this not an option?

EmptyPockets

Our cats are also never allowed in the kitchen. Can't you just keep them out?

Ours have a constant supply of dry food down, and then a regular breakfast and regular supper, which is wet food. They know their feeding routine as we stick to it, and in-between feeding times they either help themselves to dry food or sleep. They never come looking for more. Can yours have some dry available all day like this?

threemuttleys

dont havea kitchen door..we do have a stair gate up(to stop mutts nicking cat food) if we shut cats out after they have eaten, they just jump it

we tried leaving dry food down all the time, but honestly, they just guzzled the lot in one go...sooooo maddening!

Sooz00

Hi Threemuttleys - I'll be keeping an eye on this thread as one of my cats is like this. Had tests to see if any hormone problems and there aren't, he's just a gannet. Admittedly he's not as bad as the seagull that swooped down and literally scooped up my entire cornish pasty whilst in Cornwall last year, but he's pretty bad nonetheless.

I've tried a few things:

1) Squirting water - I have a bottle on the worktop and I just have to pick it up and he thinks twice; only works if you're in the room though.

2) Reflective surface - someone told me once that cats didn't like reflective surfaces and suggested using tin foil so I tried to cover my worktops. TBH it didn't do a lot, my kitchen looked ridiculous & everyone thought I was mad.

3) Citrus segments - I left segments of lemon/lime randomly on the worktop. It did seem to work but was a bit of a hassle.

If anyone has other ideas, like the OP, I'd love to hear them!

threemuttleys

hmmm.citrus...could give that a go...someone has suggested (on another forum) vick vaporub smeared all over the sides (cats are meant to hate the smell?) dont fancy cleaning it off tho!

lindens

Sooz00 wrote: »

2) Reflective surface - someone told me once that cats didn't like reflective surfaces and suggested using tin foil so I tried to cover my worktops. TBH it didn't do a lot, my kitchen looked ridiculous & everyone thought I was mad.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Shouldn't laugh, as I have the same problem, but that tickled me......

taxi97w

They don't like spearmint or peppermint either. If you can get one of these mint oils and dilute it with water, and spray on or around the work tops.

threemuttleys

ooooh...will give that a go

ztan

taxi97w wrote: »

They don't like spearmint or peppermint either. If you can get one of these mint oils and dilute it with water, and spray on or around the work tops.

Have to be honest, my cat LOVES mint. She's a nut job.

But citrus is great for deterring animals. Our cat had toileting issues when we got her, but we squirted pure lemon juice in the areas she kept going that she wasn't meant to and it soon stopped.

We have recently moved house, and she now gets up on the sides all the time. I hate it and she gets severely told off when she does- but she is too curious about the window sill to stay away.

Definitely try lemon- even cleaning spray- you could just use citrus cleaning products and it may assist matters?

Apricot

When my cats were kittens they used to attempt to jump up at the sides - I had a savings tin that I was saving for xmas in and I started keeping that out the kitchen - any time they jumped up I shook it loudly and they always jumped down. They don't even attempt to jump any more although one cat does have a penchant for cupboards - any time the cupboard is opened he dives in straight to the back and sits there - half of the time I don't even notice until I hear him banging on the door trying to get out!