Cat have their reasons for doing what they do…even if they perplex us.
Cats have their fair share of quirks, from midnight zoomies to baking invisible biscuits to those weird alien chirps. But the one eccentricity that seems to go against their very nature as descendants of apex predators is their finickiness around food.
As any cat mom or dad will tell you, these critters take picky eating to Olympian levels, rivaling that of any toddler. To really put that into perspective, below is a delightful TikTok (shared by @thecutestcatseveryes) outlining the very logical “reasons” why on any given day, a cat might suddenly refuse to eat…despite yowling out of desperate hunger mere minutes before.
The “reasons not to eat your food if you're a cat," include:
- Bowl was placed down too loudly.
- The vibe was off.
- Don't like chicken, as of today.
- Felt like I was being rushed.
- I'm a cat.
Even the kitty featured in the video seemed to approve this message.
In the comments, other cat parents shared their purrfectly reasonable reasons to refuse noms noms, such as:
“Bowl was faced the wrong way.”
“Same flavor twice in a row.”
“I eat at 4:30pm, not 4:31pm.”
“I can see the center of the bowl is empty therefore there is no food, edges don’t count.”
“I want the other can, not the open one in the fridge. New can every feeding."
“I’d rather eat what my brother is eating, which is exactly the same as what I’ve got but I want his specifically.”
Listen, we can joke all we want, but it turns out that cats likely come by these picky eating habits naturally—and don’t do it simply to make our lives harder. As PetMD explains, wild cats subsisted on frequent meals of whatever smaller mammals they were lucky enough to catch while hunting, usually during dawn and dusk. Domestic kitties still might have this instinct, which manifests in a predilection to eat a variety of small meals, which feel fresh as to mimic a fresh catch, throughout the day.
Look at this wee little tiger munching on his meal. Photo credit: Canva
The site added that kitties could have learned to prefer a certain type of food thanks to their mother, or might have eaten a particular food during a moment of stress or illness, and thus maintain a negative association with it.
There are, however, certain things humans can do to make food more appetizing, PetMD explains. To mimic fresh prey, the site suggests warming up food to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit (same as a normal body temperature) and moisten dry food with a bit of water. Some cats might even respond better to food that has the specific shape and look of fresh prey.
And if there's a loud noise during dinnertime, forget about it. Photo credit: Canva
Of course, even if we follow all these steps to a T, we still might get some finickiness from time to time for reasons unbeknownst to us (though “vibes being off” is a good catchall excuse). Still, it won’t keep us from loving our furry little weirdos any more.
Mama cats don't always have the gentlest instincts.
Cat moms can get overwhelmed, too.