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My cat keeps craving chicken and human food generally. I thought I'd just cook for more people but I read feeding human food to cats is not healthy long term. I don't have time to prepare well balanced meals for cats.

So I thought maybe I could try out a psychological trick, of overfeeding the cat with chicken until she gets sick of it and maybe willingly goes back to cat food after 2 weeks or so. If, as I read, chicken doesn't contain the nutrient the cats need, her organism probably automatically makes her like cat food (I give her usually wet food) more again?

I read also many people say "don't spoil the cat", "teach the cat this and that" but I feel bad for her, since I myself also can eat what I want, when I want, and if the cat wants to eat chicken why not give her chicken until she doesn't want it anymore? Nature is wise and if this is not enough, the cat should soon want to eat something else.

Anyone has experience with this?

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3 Answers 3

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So I thought maybe I could try out a psychological trick, of overfeeding the cat with chicken until she gets sick of it and maybe willingly goes back to cat food after 2 weeks or so. If, as I read, chicken doesn't contain the nutrient the cats need, her organism probably automatically makes her like cat food (I give her usually wet food) more again?

I see a few problems with this.

  1. It may not work, in which case your cat is even more insistent on being fed chicken.
  2. It may only work briefly, until your cat starts craving chicken again.
  3. It works so well that your cat never wants chicken again. This could be a problem because chicken can be very useful for training, bribing, or disguising some kinds of medicine if your cat gets sick.
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  • Hmm. Judging by her usual behaviour I consider 2. the most possible. She prefers some sorts of cat food but usually after max. 2 weeks she gets tired and lets more and more standing. Then I give her a while other food and after a while the preferences "reset".
    – User
    Aug 3, 2016 at 17:04
  • So if this behaviour is reproduced with chicken, it shouldn't be a big issue, since she would automatically start eating something else and don't come back to chicken unless I offer it again. In the meantime she'd eat better balanced food. And after a few weeks she'd be able to eat chicken again, such that 3. would not happen.
    – User
    Aug 3, 2016 at 17:11
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It's very difficult to overfeed a cat to the point of discomfort, the cat will simply stop before they get to that, even for food they really like. The only likely outcome, from my experience, is obesity and the health problems stemming from that.

While allowing access to a favored treat every now and then is fine, you are the caretaker and need to restrict access to improper, or junk, food. If you feel sorry for your cat's desire, you're only going to feel worse if giving in to it causes harm. Your cat will get over the denial.

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Cats can eat the same thing every day for years and not get bored with it.

If you don't want the cat to demand chicken, simply stop giving the cat chicken on demand.

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  • Yeah, well, this cat usually gets bored of her food after 1-2 weeks. I'm not giving her any chicken currently, problem is not about "demands" but the cat wanting it, which is clearly noticeable.
    – User
    Aug 3, 2016 at 14:50

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