Said It Here

Why do cats beg for human food?

Cats mistake human snacks like yogurt, applesauce, and cheese for their own treats because the packaging or sounds closely resemble wet food and lickable tubes. This causes them to scream, jump on people, and demand food even shortly after being fed.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Letting the cat smell the human food package to realize what it actually is
  2. 2
    Giving the cat their own treat while eating

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

We stopped eating Gogurts in my home because the cats kept yelling at us thinking we were eating their Churus 😂source ↗

anonymousp69 · r/cats · 42 upvotes

when I have any sort of can in my hand they are immediately standing next to their plates thinking they are going to get their wet food as if I didn’t feed them 20 mins ago.source ↗

SkyOkay · r/cats · 13 upvotes

My cat thinks apple sauce packets are lickables and will freak out until I let her smell it and realize what it issource ↗

Spirited_Film6045 · r/cats · 10 upvotes

My cats do this with those string cheese sticks. Scream when I get one out of the fridge and then jump all over me, then sniff my mouth in betrayal when I eat it all.source ↗

Timely-Cry-8366 · r/cats · 2 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised