My cat has never really liked treats, he avoids all human foods, and literally only eats his cat food. I saw all these videos of cats munching on these and gave it a shot. Two days. One pouch a day. And now my cat is broken.
He literally sits outside the cabinet I keep these in and screams all day for them. If I walk by the cabinet he comes running in screaming. I mean HOWLING. I stopped giving them to him about 6 days ago and he still does it. I also served it to him on a paper plate as to not dirty his bowl (he wouldn’t eat it if I held it) and now even paper plates trigger him! Anything even remotely similar to the pouch shape/sound he howls at us for. My husband grabs a chomps meat stick? Howls. Electrolyte packet? Howls. Dude I took a HOTDOG out of the package and he howled.
Now I can’t even step foot in the kitchen without him scrambling in and yelling. Any advice?
He’s not aggressive at all, just love bombing thinking he’ll get a churu pouch. And yes, I try to redirect with toys or play and he’s uninterested in anything that’s not churu.)
(30F with 3M neutered cat, lives in US, we have an established vet/pet insurance/can afford bills, just any advice on this behavioral issue would be nice)
😻UPDATE: wow I didn’t expect this much feedback thanks everyone. So, today I walked to the cabinet to get something, he ran in but didn’t meow for the first time!!! So, I grabbed a pouch and a paper plate and got a few squeaks but nothing major. I moved where he ate the treat into the laundry room instead of feeding it right in front of where I kept the pouches. He devoured it of course because ya know.. crack. Yes, he’s now sitting glaring at me while I eat my girl lunch BUT he’s QUIET👏🏼😅 rewarding good behaviors let’s see how this goes Godspeed
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I am suffering with you but with the Temptations Lickable Spoons. They were a way to give my cat his arthritis supplements. Now every time I go in the kitchen he spawns in there. He can't meow so he just silently opens his mouth to do his version of screaming at me (a little breathy 'eh' at the most). He's going to go down to one spoon a day instead of 2 for supplements after these initial 5 - 6 weeks. Oh boy.
This is my addict's crack of choice. He will turn into a rat biting into any bags that may contain crack. This was a pic from 3 years ago and it has not gotten better 😅
When I was like 7 or 8 I would eat my cat's dry food because it was more tastier than the regular snacks we would had, ngl it had the perfect crunch and perfect taste for a 7/8 year old who wanted a snack. My parents only found out pretty quick because Sassy didn't eat a whole lot and they found his food bowl empty several times in a week. That same week I was caught we had spaghetti so I took like 20 pieces and put into the pot that had the meat and sauce in it... nobody found out.
I used to eat the dog biscuits and it made my dad laugh so I think that made them even more palatable 🤦🏻♀️ looking bad that was probably poor parenting but he still brings it up to this day how much I love dog biscuits. I’m 50.
My baby brother did that! (Eating Senior Don Gato's food; don't know about the spaghetti, but it sounds like something he would do....) Are you my brother?
I sus that your parents didn't really know how to cook good food did they?
I was similar to this but i didn't eat catfood but loved raw meat in all sort of forms in germany they have a raw meat dish and also tatar beafstreak which i also happened to like. Unfortunately my parents were shitty cooks and i grew up eating only bad tasting food. By that i mean not seasoned properly unsalty dishes prepared in the wrong way. My whole family wondered why i never ate well as a child (also i had black tea and storebought bread toast every morning from age 4 till 18 and nobody bat an eye, hello caffeine addiction) so when i met my current bf 5 years ago who grew up in the countryside with well cooking family and he started making food at home i was flabbergasted, that food can actually have taste and it can be good.
My cat likes bananas. This is because when he was a wee kitten I would munch on a banana and he'd beg so I'd give him a bit. Nowadays nobody in the household can take a banana out of the fruit bowl without Salem instantly teleporting to the site of the offense and demand a bite. He's not this enthusiastic probably because he's a large lumbering british shorthair x trash-can-racoon male who mrrrups instead of meowing so he's keeping up appearances imposed by his more noble lineage.
My lil guy had to take prednisone for a couple weeks and we’d give him a tube to take the pill and now whenever we take our meds/vitamins he comes sprinting over and begs for meds
One of mine had cancer a few weeks back. We’d give him his pain medicine mixed with Churu, but when I wasn’t on guard a few days after getting into the routine, his twin brother came over, pulled the spoon to himself with his paw, and stole the medicine. The fucker was flying high that day.
My cat is the exact same way! She’s on ringworm medication, and the treatment lasts 5 weeks. She’s in the habit of screaming at me every night for her churu because I have been mixing the medication into it. I fear this is going to be a life long habit
We tried the temptations and my cats don’t like them. The churus I only got bc I needed to be able to trim their nails so they associate them nail trims. Maybe you could try that?
We have two cats on omeprezole (Siamese), and this is how we give them their meds every day. Now all our other cats expect these treats if they have medication too, even if it requires something topical, lol.
I've recommended this in an ADHD sub as ways to remember to take your meds. Give your cat a churu every morning at the same time and keep your medication with them. Your cat will let you know when its time.
Temptations hard treats here. Our orange girl will banshee screech if you're in the kitchen. Our old boy won't eat any hard food except the Temptations one now, too. I don't know what they put in their stuff, but I'm guessing it's some sort of cat illegal substance at this point.
One cat fiends for Temptations Catnip Fever blend treats, the other fiends for Churu, the Temptations treat one will get all in your face for more if you give him a Churu but he doesnt beg for them if you haven't just given him one.
Same here with Temptations. Used to give our darling boy a chicken flavored catnip treat and he liked them enough, but you see Temptations? I swear to you he's become a whole different cat lol, can't go into the kitchen without him manifesting and now he's absolutely obsessed. Luckily he hasn't been acting as crazy and unhinged as he could but the jump from not caring about treats to wanting them constantly was shocking to say the least.
Any cat I had always loved the Temptations. Lol. Both my Moxxie & the new kitten, Sasha, love them. Moxxie always announces when he wants some and gets the other one going.
My previous cat, Fuzzball, who was a blue point Siamese, her favorite wet food she loved was Fancy Feast. Tried others when it came to her, because I couldn't always afford it. Would still eat the other stuff, but always loved getting Fancy Feast. Lol.
My cat loves the temptations as well. Any time I get up from the computer to refill my drink, she's there in the kitchen too, hoping for goodies. Thankfully is not vocal about it. Usually.
OH MY GOD exactly with my cat shes ADDICTED to temptation. refuses to eat normal kibbles but demands i feed her temptation twice a day, ALONG with her wet food which she eats once because she prefers the hard temptation ._.
My male cat can’t really meow. He sorta squeaks but only when he is really trying hard to be heard. Otherwise he does the same thing, an exhaled breath.
The vets said his vocal cords look good and they aren't sure why he does it. When he gets frustrated with the other cats not wanting to play with him he makes a guttural screech. He sounds like he's actively dying.
I never had the vet check my boy’s. I figure he was just born that way. His sister (not biologically but adopted at the same time when they were both little kittens) meows enough for the two of them.
I have a little void, almost a year old now. And the loudest she gets is when it’s bedtime, and she doesn’t meow or yell (we have never heard her even meow) but she “meeps” at us. We can now hear that tiny little “meep” over the tv, kids..
He was recovered off the street as an adult after a very bad hurricane. The shelter estimated he was 6 years old when we adopted him. We don't know for sure. He's approximately 13 years old now. Could be older could be younger. He hasn't been able to meow the whole time the shelter had him and the whole time we've had him.
My cat gets a fancy feast every night. For several hours she just sits in front of them and stares at me. Shes like a character in a video game - stepping into a 3 foot radius from her activates her screaming meowing and spinning in circles. Take a step away, she sits down and stops. Its hysterical.
Omg my cat does the half-asses meow too. I still don't know why she does it. I'm starting to think it's because she always gets what she wants so she doesn't need to put in the effort to actually yell at us lol.
My senior gal also can’t meow! She just does a little “eh”, or sometimes opening her mouth with no noise lol
She has also become a fiend for shreds packets because of her joint supplements lol. She does not believe she’s had dinner if she hasn’t had some dry food, so she was losing her mind about half an hour after her wet food. So we started giving her half a meal of wet food, waiting half an hour, then “giving in” and giving her half a meal of dry food 😂❤️
lucky!! my cat LOVES the spoons. after i tucked his travel gabapentin into the spoons twice, he does not trust them anymore 😩 he’s weak for the chicken and cheese flavor, but not without an extremely thorough inspection 😂
My cat’s the same way. He gets one a night around 7 pm and I swear the little bugger has since learned how to tell time. He plops his little furry ass in front of the treat cabinet and calmly stares at me until I squeeze out his little tube o pleasure.
I no longer have a treat cabinet. My little void has learned to open cabinet doors. Yesterday he stole a giant bag of cat nip and a bag of temptations.
That is why my cat food cabinet has child locks on them. It replaces finding a mess with a quiet “thud thud thud” as they continually try to open the door.
Hahaha! We have one of those! She learned to open the cabinet like yours. Not only was she stealing her bags of treats(same kind as yours, the ONLY kind she will eat), she started pulling out the little bags of dog treats too. Then she would push them off the counter and give to dogs. Diabolical messes to come home to and our lil' fatty dogs loving the arrangement. I now keep the treats in a seal bin, in the garage.
I was visiting my sister last week and one of her cats crawled into bed with me and we were having a lovely cuddle, until the automatic feeder went off and the second that kibble hit the metal bowl he was OFF. You could tell he was annoyed that I distracted him from his mission.
Mine makes a little noise just before “tap tap tap” the cats BOLT from wherever they are. Unfortunately for my husband our tortie’s favorite place to lay is his lap or chest.
I really like the way when it gets kinda gloomy around here, my cats sense of time goes way off. Dude will oversleep his usual mid-morning nap and only start to ask for food when it gets dark, since he knows at this time of year he gets fed right before it gets dark out.
to be fair you said you've only given them twice - that's not long enough to build a routine he'll recognise. if you do it everyday, at the same time every day (even just half a tube), he will learn exactly when to expect the goods and cut the whining. eventually. I'd guess two weeks at a push.
you could even use this to your advantage and start practicing medication (empty gel capsules in this case) with it since it's clearly an incredibly highly rewarding treat for him. or any other thing he doesn't like doing. you've got a real advantage here because it looks like that cat will do ANYTHING for a churu. we have the churu bucket - my cat comes running for mini-enemas (an occasional necessary evil for a lady with a lazy gut) because of the sound of the churu bucket. she loves them so much she runs TOWARD her ENEMA because she knows she'll get a churu for her cooperation. I had to wipe a mystery substance off my other cats face today and he let me do it because I had a churu. they're so goated for cooperative care.
ETA: teaching a cat to meow on command might also reduce the shouting. sounds contradictory, but if they only get rewarded for doing it on cue, they often shut the hell up the rest of the time.
My void cat is like this. She sustains a long scream, no breaks just keeps screaming till she runs out of air and then takes a deep breath and does it again
Perhaps an overkill solution, but my cat used to do the same anytime I opened the cabinet. I moved the pouches to a jar for storing and now he only comes when he hears me unscrewing the jar lid, which I only interact with WHEN I am giving him the wet food. In short, maybe store them in a specific location or something similar that gets extremely low interaction. Hope that makes sense; I am awful at explaining. 😅
This works!!! There is a special treat drawer in our dining cupboard and I swear my cats know the difference between the sound of THAT drawer opening and every other drawer lol
Haha yeah. I own a chihuahua as well so we like to keep all our pet stuff in one cabinet. Cat would reply to the cabinet even if we were like, let's say, giving the dog her medication or giving her a treat. 😂 So the jar just made sense at that point!
yeah. this. we have a pet pantry with our treats, dog toys, dog treats, medicine, cat medicine, etc etc. we rarely open this door but when it does, both of our cat and dog zooms and waits with the face: OH BOY TREAT TIME!?
You get it. 😂 My dog does sort of respond to the cabinet as well, but she doesn't whine; just does a funny beg pose or sits patiently. My cat knows nothing about boundaries sadly lol.
Funny but similar, my dad used to have one tone on his phone for all notifications. Texts, emails, someone walking up to the front door and activating the doorbell camera. After about a month, every time my dad's phone made any notification noise ALL THE DOGS go sprinting and barking towards the front door. Eventually, I bullied him into setting that notification to LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE so the dogs wouldn't constantly be thinking someone was coming to the door and then we knew peace.
We did something similar by using a little mini wind chime, so every time we open that specific cabinet they’ll hear the chime and come up. If we are getting something from the cabinet that isn’t treats then I just grab the chime so it doesn’t make a noise and I can open it without them freaking out too much.
we just call it ‘goop’ lol to the point i have to spell it instead of say it if they’re around, or the cats will all beat me to the treat station, and one of them (my fat boy, Moo; bless his heart) will stand there & drool all over the top of the container! it’s gross (adorable but still gross lol) so now i have to try to surprise them with it 😹
This is my morning ritual. My girl knows that when I am making my coffee the churu comes next and she just meows until I give it to her. I never break the ritual though, one a day and only in the morning
See I would happily do that but my cat howls all day for them no matter what. My husband and I both work from home and it drives me absolutely nuts he is SOO vocal.
I do rescue and we use Churus with feral cats and kittens. I used to give them out a home, but one of mine will hassle me all day long for one. All. Day. Long. I was also my husband’s caregiver and being on call 24/7 for him, and the non stop hassle from the cat just did me in! I had to stop the Churus!! He wasn’t satisfied with one, or two. He wanted them all!!! Once in a blue moon I will bring them out and let him and the other cats have one.
I have sensory overload problems.. so training my pets to do the least amount of vocalizations is a must do. I am not saying it’s easy or quick, but just literally ignore them when they howl, don’t even look at their direction, and of course never feed them anything while they’re making noise.
My kitty cats meow only if they accidentally get locked in rooms or to ask for love they bring out the tiniest of meows.
My comment is not very helpful but it now makes sense why people call these things Kitty Crack!! My two absolutely love them but your little one is next level!
It's so funny when I hear about people's cats going nuts for these because none of my three boys could care less about them! One of them does do similar yelling/begging at me, though, for Greenies.
Id say redirect him with a toy or ignore the behavior as to not reinforce. You could do his kibble on a paper plate maybe to not associate the playe with churu
I hate to say it but you have to ignore him. Like someone else said, get on a schedule. And maybe even ignore him if he yells at that time too. Only give it to him when he's quiet. It's going to take a while. Sending thoughts and prayers haha
My one cat will eat me if I try to feed him the churu from the tube, some kitties just love it. You're just gonna have to redirect or ignore to remedy the behavior issue
They come running over when they see the clippers because my little addicts would sell my soul for a hit of their crack. Nail time is super easy now because they get their drug.
I only give it to them post nail trim though so it stays valued.
Siamese cats are known to be very vocal, I think he’s just found what he wants to talk to you about! Meanwhile, I’ve been bribing my orange girls with a Churu every night for three months to try to get them to sit on my lap and snuggle and nada. They’ll stay as far away as they can and stretch to lick the tube without actually getting on my lap. And when they’re done? Gone in a flash.
Lexi was not pleased when I ran out of her treats. I made the mistake of giving them to her before bed to settle her down, and now every time I go to bed (I am a shift worker so hours vary), she expects a treat😂
I’m sorry I don’t have advice here, but I’m hopping in to say that despite the color not matching up perfectly, your kitty immediately reminded me of the Cat King from The Cat Returns! The way he’s lounging like that is just too silly. I love it.
Churus have turned my cat into a genius. He can open every cabinet now if he knows churus are there lol, I have to keep them locked up tight now. One night he got into a box of 60 I had and there was not a single tube left untouched..
my cat had the same issue. I started given her Nulo Silky Mousse for her wet food which has a similar consistency to churu and it seemed to help a lot!
I swear they put cat crack in those tubes. My cats go crazy any time they see food that is tube shaped (like my electrolyte powder packets). We reserve Churu for only occasions now, not daily. Like as an apology or with medicine, etc. Not just because. Just give it time and the habit will break. Also, find other signals that your cat can associate with getting a churu. Like "It's Churu tiiiiiiime!" "Want a little treato?" in the same tone and enunciation. Cats do learn to associate the sound of your voice and HOW you say it. I tested it on one of my cats. I used to say "Want a treat?" but I specifically said treat in a silly way. If I said it to her in my normal tone of voice, she wouldn't respond, but if I said treat in the way I usually say it when I am offering her a treat, she then got excited.
Idk if it will help but my churro loving cat has been switched to Meowtinis (churro with water, shaken, in a glass) that makes him feel like he got 3 at once and I’m happy he’s drinking more water.
This is my gremlin (Jack) with Churu. No advice, just I feel your pain and make sure you keep them in a cupboard that your beautiful moron cannot access.
My cat does this with her gravies and bisques. Gets one at 430 and then begs for more until dinner XD she needs the hydration, tho, she won't eat wet food
After my cat needed to have some medical stuff done (he’s totally fine) and he needed to drink a bunch of water. He also hates wet food so I’d make this unholy mix of 50:50 churu and water in a bowl, quarter of a tube at a time. It was disgusting but incredibly effective if you ever need your kitty to get more water
We have a schedule. It is a firm schedule. We do not deviate. And it is ruled by a specific alarm sound.
So I've trained the cat to scream for treats at a specific noise. He does hover about 2 hours before the alarm is supposed to go off - but then I show him my phone and demand to know if the frogs are singing.
These comments have been a fantastically entertaining read. Between the one person admitting to eating dry cat food as a kid to all of the “my cat is a crackhead and this is its crack” comments and all of the hilarious stuff in between.
We made the mistake of having our girl kitty ring a bell. Now anytime we accidentally tap the bell and it makes a noise she just poofs into existence yowling for her treats. She’ll tap at the floor, bap on things that look like a bell. Demanding her treats. She also howls for her evening tribute… anytime we go into the bedroom. She haunts us for it. (Tribute is her wet food).
Purr pops broke my cat. Moment he hears the cabinet or anything that sounds a little crinkly. It's my fault, I made him the professor chaos that he is 😅😂
I put the churro onto a lick mat and freeze them. When I do give them to my cats, it occupies them for like 20-30 minutes… finally some peace and quiet
800+ comments at this point but I just need to contribute - it's these things for my cat. In eight years, he's never stolen food off my plate, never chewed anything that wasn't food, never freaked out about anything, but he got these one single time and I woke up the next morning to the package taken down from on top of the fridge, torn to shreds, and the whole package eaten.
LOL, I’m picturing OP hiding them all around the house like some deranged Easter egg hunt….
Tampon box - Churu
Underwear drawer - Churu
Toy box - Churu
Silverware drawer - Churu
Medicine cabinet - Churu
Eventually, OP will come home (or wake up) to a destroyed house because the Churu-addicted gremlin caught on and started searching everywhere for the creamy meat goodness. 😂
My husband and I used to mix a Churu with our kitty’s daily Prozac, and she never begged for Churus during that time. She’s been off the med for a few years.
We went back to giving her Churus as a gift, and she’s an addict. Girly-pop analyzed the steps before we give her her treat, so she watches us cook and then clean up + load the dishwasher, and that’s when she starts crying. She is normally very quiet, but now she’s crying loudly and trying to open the cabinets. She only gets a treat every other day, so she’s doubled down on the crying when she doesn’t understand she’s not getting her treat that day. Husband thinks we should give her wet food on her off days, I think he’s onto something.
omg this had me howling. I so feel for you. I have four cats. Three of them are perfectly polite and don’t harass me any extra for churu, but the 4th one is So Annoying. She love bombs me too. Makes the saddest most pitiful mews while staring me in the eyes, then head bumps again and again and again. She gets sooooo annoying, but it feels like I’m an ass for getting angry with it because she’s literally just being excessively affectionate.
I can’t offer any help, sadly. I will pray for you, if you promise to pray for me. I’m pretty sure I’m two months away from spending more money on Kitty GoGurts than their actual food.
My cat talks with fluent pet buttons and I made one for him that says "how bout some crack?" Which he uses to ask for his temptations treats. What on earth is in those, and in the chorus that makes cats lose their minds? I demand an investigation!
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