My Cat Loves Human Food

Question

I have an issue with my cat where he likes to eat human food. I give him plenty of food between him and my other cat. But he still tries to take food off of plates, and he'll even get on the counter to rip open packages of bread or tortillas. (He likes his carbs for some reason) I'm not as worried about when I'm eating as I police him very well but how can I stop him from ripping open bread packages? He'll even go as far as to pull it out of the toaster.

Answer 1

1. Make the bread inaccessible. You can get a breadbox, which are designed for properly keeping your bread, you could get some other sort of sealed food container for your bread, or you could go the less optimal but less costly route of keeping your bread in the fridge. Though they say bread is best stored at room temperature, I've lived in a bread refrigerating household and never noticed any issues with the bread.

2. Try to keep your cat off the counter. Unfortunately, your cat is extremely food motivated, and because you will always prepare food on your counter, and your counter is well off the ground, it will always have some attraction for your cat. Try to make your counter as utterly boring as possible. Keep food off of it or in sealed containers (a good idea anyways.) Don't leave any unwashed dishes in the kitchen. Clean your counters and sink regularly to remove food smells. Put a cat tree that is taller than your counters somewhere nearish the kitchen, but not so close to the counters that the cat will be tempted to jump from counter to tree. Keep any windows over the counter covered and not cat accessible when you aren't there.

3. You could also try things to actively dissuade your cat from going on the counters. Like, put cans with coins on the counters that will get knocked over and make noise when the cat goes up there, or put things there the cat won't like stepping on, such as double sided tape or upside down vinyl carpet protectors (the kind with the little spikes that would be annoying to walk on.)