Breaking a cat's bad habit.

[rafm]

Oi. The resolve of my cat Riley is truly amazing. If you do something, like give a treat once, then to him, it's an expectation, everyday, at that time.

So, Riley got hooked on Greenies again. My fault. He began demanding them everyday, multiple times a day....actually, any time you walked through the kitchen, he would be there on his stool yelling for treats. Now, we are having to break his addiction. As my DH says, we are staging an intervention. And Riley is NOT happy nor on-board with this.

I've stopped picking up the cat brush he knocks onto the floor as this is the third day in a row he's not allowed it to stay on the counter. He knocked the porcelain kitty dishes down and when I went in the kitchen, he screamed at me. I can't even count the number of bags, receipts, tags he's relieved the counters of in the past couple of days. He's MAD.

And now he's pouting in the window because I won't give him any. He gets them at bedtime now and that's a long 13 or so hours away.

:lol3;

 

[stephanietx]

You're the human and he's the cat.  Just stick to your guns and say, "No, not at this time." and walk away.  Don't allow him to have that control over you.

 

[rafm]

Oh, he's not getting them. Not until bedtime. We just have to live with a very ticked off cat for a week or until he gets the picture. :lol3:

 

[stephanietx]

I had this problem when we decreased food amounts.  We just have to continue to tell them, "not time to eat" or some such thing and then try to distract them with a toy.