She smell checks almost every ingredient and never tastes. Best cat. Then she smells the end product and we’re both like ‘that’s that done, then’.
All the time! My dogs, too
I do this all the time lol, I feel like it helps the KitKats feel less ignored or whatever. They don’t need attention 24/7, so little things like that can help them bond without requiring lots of time or energy
Pretty much all the time. Whenever my cat is staring at me and I have something in my hands, if he’s close enough to sniff, I hold it where he can sniff. Doesn’t matter what it is.
If it’s food, and maybe the food is something he is interested in, I can see his expression/posture change, and I pull back and and separate a small, cat-sized bite for him to try, being careful to only give him cat friendly morsels, like a piece of meat or something.
Usually he doesn’t have any interest in what I’m eating, so that’s rare. Most of the time he sniffs, then retreats to a safe distance, uninterested in what I’m having… I just think he’s not sure until he gets a good whiff; so I give him one.
My parents cats love carbs/sweets.
Cats can’t taste sugar though
Most sweet things usually have a lot of fat which kitties love.
That’s what they say, but the cats sure do love it. They’ve eaten bits of donuts, potato chips, drank iced tea, etc…
One of mine would pick up mini marshmallows with a claw, lick all the powdered sugar off and then shake her paw to get rid of it, flinging the wet, sticky blob off into the unknown.
Sounds about right!
Who doesn’t love a good sniff?
Not deep heat! They hate it
Normally My Cat is my best friend, mostly in the kitchen !
Our cat was brought up on high protein and indulgence. Everything she wanted to smell, we presented; every sniffable light had a willing Sherpa to get the nose in range. Open the closet door. Added blanket in couch corner arranged for easy use by submarine cat. Toys to carry around.
You better believe she’s there for cooking.
Yes, but my cat is a dog
My cat is also a dog. And a second dog. We are legion.
My cat insists on it. With almost any new thing, she will meow until she gets to sniff it.
Yeah same here, new objects have to go through customs first lol
My cat likes to watch me prep, she’s only interested in smelling after we’re done cooking. We’ve started to look for her approval lol it’s her highest mark if she licks her lips
Human recommended, dog approved.
I used to have one that did that. He was aching to get on the counter and the first time he actually succeeded, I was terrified he was about to burn himself.
Nope. He just wanted to watch me cook. Sat very politely the whole time. It became a thing. Never even asked me for any of it. He just wanted to spend time with me. I miss him.
RIP good doggo
Or catto
My cat has to sniff the can of cat food after I dump it out in her bowl so she can decide if it’s worth the 4 steps it’ll take to get to the bowl. She’s a cat, she can smell the food in her bowl from less than a foot away. But if she doesn’t get to sniff the can, it might as well be poison for all she knows.
My parents have 4 cats, three of them willingly eat the wet food as soon as we put it down. Also, there 3 generations of cats (we started out with a brother and sister as kittens, my parents didn’t get them fixed in time, the brother impregnated the sister, we kept one of the offspring, my dad had a heart attack and we didn’t get to spay her in time and she also had kittens from an unknown suitor). The original female we started with is very picky, when we put down wet food for her and half the time she’s like “fuck this”. Occasionally she’ll dip her paw into it and then taste what’s on her paw to see if it’s worth eating. Cracks me up every time I see it.
As far as the cat knows, that can is a dead animal. Wouldn’t you want to check if the animal is diseased before you eat its guts?
Not to make them feel included, but to kill their curiosity. I always offer a smell of my food to my cat and then take it away. She gets to smell it and realize it’s something she isn’t interested in. I think that’s the reason she doesn’t bother people while they’re eating. She knows she isn’t interested in “people food.”
My cat does like some people food, but yeah most of it is “You don’t want this.”
Cats don’t like pepsi, but mine has to sniff every last can.
She gets to smell it and realize it’s something she isn’t interested in.
We have had very different cats then.
Yup, mine was way too happy about the opportunity to steal anything
I’ve never had a cat that wants people food, and I think it’s because of just showing them what it is and then taking it away.
My last cat was food-obsessed. I would do the “show, sniff, remove” thing and it would work depending on the food. But many foods only needed a fraction of a second for her to know she needed it in her mouth right now. If you took it before her attempt to eat it, you met the response of “hey, I wasn’t done with that!” and the paw would come out to bring your hand back.
For roast chicken you would have to actively defend your plate the entire meal. She would sit next to you and very slowly try to “sneak” her paw on to your plate to take what she could. As though I wasn’t watching her like a hawk and she had some kind of cloak of invisibility.
I miss my round dinner thief.
we always had to defend the table when we had two cats. They both would steal sausage, ham, cream cheese and butter and one of them would even take cheese and margarine.
i think the only people food they didnt like was purely plant based stuff.
Not to make them feel included, but to kill their curiosity.
That’s how she feels included. Even if you don’t mean it that way, that’s how she sees it. She’s important enough that you care what she thinks. That’s good cat parenting.
Yeah, I’m just saying it isn’t the intent of what I do.
I do this too. But of course some cat like some or most people food more than others. My cat eats ranch dressing, eggs, dairy, and oils. She’ll eat a few meats too. But she is mostly uninterested in human food, so I fulfill her curiosity often because it’s kind to my cat and it helps stave off her desire to beg. I also thinks she just trusts me more and is more fond of me because I engage with her in her interests a lot. Hell, that’s just good advice for raising children too.
You are all adorable.
I had an annoying day and this really cheered me up!
For cats it’s important to show them what you have so they can see and smell it, they are much more likely to leave you alone after (unless it’s delicious and they want it).
My cat doesn’t care for people food, but she does paw at my arm until she gets to smell my breath when I’m eating. Our routine is for me to take a bite, open my mouth and breathe at her, and then she sniffs and walks away.
Ya’ll are that weird couple that low key weirds out everyone but are so perfect for each other it’s also sweet and cute.
Cats are hilariously weird.
- Cats
- Logic
Choose one.
My cat immediately tries to eat anything I show him. Feathers, pinecones… he’s not the brightest.
Meanwhile, one of my parents cats refuses to eat wet food and will taste test it by dipping her paw into it and tasting what is on her paw, then usually decides it isn’t what she likes and yeows for something else. She pretty much only eats Temptations Cat Treats.
