timalkin

My 4 cats eat out of a huge bowl that is always full of food. One of them has a bit of a weight problem, but it might just be genetic.

degrawj

all i know is that i haven't been able to train my cat, and he's pretty darn smart too. i just don't think that cats WANT to be taught. they have the capability to, but just don't want to.

jumpingbeans

thay cannot be taught...just eaten!
Meow!!!

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zer010gic

My cat drives me crazy I use to like cats I had one previously that was respectful and quite but now I have this little annoying kat that pisses me off. The spray bottle worked for a while but eventually she stoped caring I could empty the bottle on her and she would just look at me. It got to the point where we had to grab her up tell her "no!" then smack her back side once and put her in her room. I think its a little much but thats about the only thing that gets through to her.

Oww yeah any one want a cat...j/k

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sherpahigh

Has anyone ever tried either the "scatmat" or the "stayaway" products from here?

http://www.scatmat.com

They seem like they may work since they're there when you aren't.

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BoCo

I had a cat that I raised for about 3 years from the time she was a kitten. I showed her the same attention most dog owners show their dogs, and she acted a lot like one.: fetched and brought things back, followed me everywhere, sat and shut up when told to, etc.

I think the problem is most people mistreat cats and because of that they never see what they're capable of doing as far as amusement goes.

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shakran

naw, we like dogs because they actually give a crap about you. Cats wouldn't care if you left 'em for 3 weeks as long as you arranged for them to be fed and watered. Dogs actually like just knowing you're around.

BoCo

Shakran: my cat I spoke about above actually waited by the door all day while I was gone, only to follow me around constantly when I was home. When I moved out and got my own place, she sat at my old bedroom door for weeks expecting me to come out. Again, it's all about how you raise them.

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monkeysugar

One of my buddies got a book called "how to train your cat" or something along those lines for his girlfriend. I don't know how well it worked, as she had to get rid of the cat soon afterwards due to pissy roommates.

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snowy

My cat follows pretty much the same orders. I've had her since she was 2 months old and she is now 17 years old. She comes when called, listens when I ask her to, and though she doesn't fetch, she shows loyalty uncharacteristic of a cat. She follows me everywhere and talks back to me. I firmly believe she has clung on to life because of her love for me, as she suffered a great battle with flea-induced anemia this summer. My parents refuse to take her to the vet as she is 17 years old. I have told them that I will pay her vet bills, but they ignore my pleas as I live 200 miles away. Unfortunate, but true. She is my darling girl, and though she may be old she may not show it.

As she tells me, cats can be taught. One just has to love them enough.

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little_tippler

Cats are very intelligent, you can teach them a lot. But they also have a mind of their own, because they are that intelligent. So in the end, depending on the personality of your cat, that's what you have to work with.

I feed my two cats twice a day, dry food mainly (because it's healthier) and occasionally some fresh fish.
They meow for more food but generally I'm good about putting my foot down. Sometimes when they climb on counters and stuff though I'm too tired to get angry and just leave it. But I will find a way to stop them...

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Our hearts are incommunicable still.
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spindles

The vet told us our girl cat was too fat. She said - feed them dry food only, with raw meat /chicken etc as a treat (maybe once a week). She also said once a day and about 1/2 cup each is all they need. Their bowls are often empty when we fill it in the morning, but they are certainly not starving - the girl has lost a lot of her "pudgy" tummy as well.

Our boy cat will fetch a tennis ball (carries it back in his mouth) - not all the time but pretty often.

Also - the mother cat teaches the kittens to go in the litter - no other training necessary. We used a spray bottle on the cats when they were kittens to keep them off stuff we wanted them to stay away from - and they have (by and large) learned it.

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screamincheetah

I've had cats my whole life, but it wasn't until I got the two I have now a little over a year ago that I really worked at understanding them. They are amazing cats. I agree with what many people have already said. People think cats are independent and take care of themselves so they leave them alone for the most part. If that's how you treat a cat, then yeah they're not going to respond to you the every-so-often you pay attention to them, and they may act out because of boredom. Cats like routine....makes them feel comfortable and in control. They need stimulation though. I got two at the same time so that they could keep each other company, entertained, and excercised. On top of that I hold them, pet them, play with them and talk to them very regularly. The more you talk to them the more they learn what your tones are, and that you are communicating with them. You will see them respond more to you the more you respond to them. Also, cats don't scratch to be asses, they scratch because it's instinct, and it's marking territory. If you give them a couple of good scratching posts in popular areas of the house, then they will use them and feel like they belong and won't tear your stuff up.

For training purposes, the squirt bottle is great. A couple of tips though. Don't yell when you squirt them, and if possible don't show them you're doing it. Stupidly enough, the cats don't always realize where the water's coming from. They just know that when they do that one activity they get wet and they don't like it. If they know it's you, and you're yelling at them, then they sometimes will withdraw from you and also act out more to get back at you. Once you lose a cat's trust or respect, good luck getting it back. Another product is called the TattleTell. It's a motion sensing little box. Set it on furniture, or in plants, and when the cat moves it in any way, it sets off a loud, high pitched beep that they really don't like. My male cat has learned to open the doors in my house, so to train him not to open certain doors I tied this device around the handle. Leave it on for a week or so, then leave it on but turned off. Finally take it off and typically the problem is solved.

As for feeding, growing up we let the cats free graze which is typical. With these cats after a couple of vomitting instances from eating too fast, and noticing the bellies growing quickly, I went to twice a day feedings no ifs, ands, or buts. Again, they like routine and after trying a while to feed them when I felt like it, I gave up and feed them on their schedule which is 6 and 6 (or as close to it as I can). This does a couple of things. One, it makes the cats need you and respond to you more, because your their feeder. If there's a big bowl of food out all the time, they really don't think they need you. It's a healthier set up for them too. In the wild their bodies are set up to eat, get very hungry, then eat. It's programmed into them. Also, I can control the amount they eat better which keeps their weight in line. Also, never give human food. I don't even give treats. People think they're being nice and the cats will like them more. In reality, it's just something else to eat, and you train them to beg.

Last thought....if you or anyone you know wants to get a cat avoid the kitten idea. I thought I wanted kittens too, but I stumbled onto this amazing not-for-profit no kill shelter group and went to a foster mother's house. She had 6 young cats for adoption. 5 were a few months or more old, and only one was a true 8 week old kitten. I ended up leaving with two six month olds. Lots of reasons for this. Most of all, they're through the tear everything, get into everything stage. They've also developed their personalities, have been around more people and other cats, and because of all of this are typically better adjusted. Also, you take cats that a lot of people are overlooking just becauase they're not the tiny kittens. Shelters have a terrible time getting rid of the bigger cats, so you do the world a better service. Please adopt and save the life of a kitten. It's makes owning a pet ten times more rewarding.

Okay, there's my book. I didn't mean to ramble on so much. I just love animals and especially cats, so if I can share knowledge or help someone understand them better that makes me feel good.

Squishor

Excellent post, screamincheetah. I can see you know your cats.

I've had cats my whole life, and I've found that many of them can be trained. It depends on how smart they are and how stubborn they are, and my observation has been that there's a pretty wide range in both of these. The smarter cats won't be completely instinct-driven, so they'll be more able to modify their behavior based on whatever fuzzy reasoning they can manage. I've taught cats how to open doors and windows, to fetch, to roll over on command, to jump on my shoulder, to get down off the counter/table/desk on command, and to sit quietly to the side while I'm eating my dinner. Some of these (fetch, roll over, jump) were basically me building on things the cats tended to do already. In my experience, Siamese cats are the least trainable because they're too full of themselves (before all the Siamese lovers start yelling, please know that my family used to raise them so I have experience). I once witnessed one of them running off with an entire roast, our holiday meal!

raeanna74

I feed our cat once a day about 3/4 of a cup of dry cat food in the evenings. She's content with it and if I happen to forget she'll go and sit beside her cat food bucket (I put it in t an icecream bucket cause she'll tear open the cat food bag otherwise) and whine at me. Once in a while I'll give her a treat of some specialty canned food or quality tuna or salmon. Otherwise we rarely even give her our food. If she's begging and we want to feed her out food we try to take it to her dish. She's still eating from her dish then and not from the table. It helps to teach them NOT to eat from the table. It worked for my parents cats and it works for ours.

She mostly stays off the diningroom table and the counters. I don't have many limits for her. When she gets pissy or tries to get into my food I'll either flick her nose or put her in the bathroom for a while. She is the type of cat that wants to be around people all the time and doesn't appreciate being locked away for a while. It's what works for her. She's always very glad to get out of the bathroom even if she's only been in there for 5 minutes. Mine stays off the counter mostly cause she got up there as a kitten, investigated a pot of boiling corn, and singed her wiskers off. She's not interested in the stove except from a distance to sniff the smells. She's not really interested in outside anymore now that we moved. She's gotten used to her new home and learned about the next door dogs. If she does sneak out she finds a corner to hide in and just watches the door next door.

She HATES when I leave. If I get my purse, or coat, or shoes on she'll start attacking my ankles and post herself between me and the door. When I get home she'll be at the door rolling, mewing, and literally groveling. She's a disgrace to independant cats everywhere.

My parents taught their cat to stay off the table and counters. They did this with more than one of their cats. One of them was difficult to train but Mom did it. Eventually the cat wouldn't even get on the counter while we were gone. She accomplished that by smearing a thin layer of vasoline on the edges of the counter all the way around every time we left. It was a wide enough edge to it that more than once we came home to find paw prints that landed on one side of the counter and just SLID all the way across to the other side and off. The cat would be licking her fur religiously.

Get creative and don't get worked up. Figure out what matters most to you - sounds like you want her out of YOUR food - and defend that religiously. Don't make an issue of how many times wifey feeds the cat but ask that she work to cooperate with your goal. If you don't worry about her babying the cat then she may be willing to help teach the cat to leave your plates alone. It really isn't sanitary to have their feet that were in the litter box on the table or counter. It's not so much an excuse but a reason. Hopefully she can see that.

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Asta!!

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Met22

Cats can be training

I had a cat that use to fall to its side and play dead when I made a shooting sound. Wouldn't get up until I scratched her head.

This same cat would ring the chime at the back door when it wanted in.

This cat would follow me around the house when I got home from work and would sit down next to me when I settled in front of the TV.

This cat was extremely loyal and different than most cats.

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CityOfAngels

I have one cat. When it's cold outside, she's an inside cat. When it's hot outside, she's an outside cat. I've left her outside for two-three days a few times, and she feeds herself with birds and mice. She's a huntress. We love her, and feel that she's part of the family, so we're always giving her food from our plates whenever we feel generous, but if we don't want to, all we have to do is say, "No!" and she walks to her own food dish. If she pisses us off for any reason, we say, "Outside!" and she runs right outside.

She's a very independant cat, but she's also very loveable just as long as you treat her with respect.

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Squishor

My cat is so smart she understands when I'm giving her discreet signals to come get a treat in the kitchen alone so the other cat won't gobble it all down. I make eye contact with her and motion her over with my hand and she quietly jumps down from her perch and joins me in the kitchen. She also understands when I'm about to do something that bothers her, like grind coffee or turn on the shower. I tell her, "Watch out Heidi!" and she leaves the room. She will also leave areas where I don't want her to be (like the bathroom closet) on command, without giving me any trouble.

K-Wise

Thats pretty awesome. Used to have a kitty named Amber. She was sweet. She used to climb up my mothers body when she was sitting on the chair all the way up and sleep on her chest..haha...my mom would get the funniest looks on her face then she was just like "Ah what the hell" and then keep on watching T.V. n stuff. I think someone stole her from us!

Asta!!

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silverback

my wife has trained our cat to stand on its hind legs and catch treats with its front paws. thats about all the cat is good for however.