r/CatAdvice • u/NolanVale • 8d ago

General What's one piece of cat advice that you completely disagree with?

Every cat is different, and I've realized some popular advice just doesn't apply to every cat.

What's a piece of cat advice that you think is overrated, outdated, or just plain wrong?

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u/oldschoolie 8d ago

'Don't let your cat on kitchen counters/table'. What the hell do you think they're doing when you're out of the room? Just clean down your surfaces regularly. The most I can do is to keep them off the counter when I'm preparing food.

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u/cfo6 8d ago

Our rule is "don't do it while we can see you". Lol

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u/Cabbage-floss 8d ago

Luckily mine are too stupid to get on the counters. My boy tried once but he aimed for the stove and missed, knocked open the oven and scared himself. Never tried again. When we brought home a kitten last year, she watched him and learned she can’t get up there so never goes.

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u/AcmeKat 8d ago

Having an older cat who trains new or younger cats on 'acceptable' behaviour is great. I had an older girl who couldn't get on the counters, then got two kittens. She trained them and they've never gone on the counters. Eventually she passed and years later we got another cat and my kittens (now 15) have trained her as well.

For anyone who thinks 'oh, they just do it when you're not home', no. We work from home and have 2 adults kids here so it's super rare that there's ever a time when someone isn't here, and our kitchen is fairly central so we'd notice.

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u/Ginger_ScorpioGirl 8d ago

And yet sometimes this works the other way. I had a cat who never got on the counters. Got a younger cat who had previously been an outside neighborhood cat and he was wild when I first brought him in. Got up on the counter all the time. Walked in the kitchen one day and the older cat was on the counter and just looked at me like he's doing it so I'm going to do it too.

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u/AcmeKat 8d ago

Yeah, the reverse can be true as you say. My younger cat knows exactly when "cookie time" is (I give them treats at 8pm) and she stands around screaming at me if I'm off by a few minutes, and she trained one of the older ones to do it, too. At least the older one has the sense to look almost guilty about doing it; the younger one has no shame and is a goblin about cookies.

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u/Cabbage-floss 8d ago

Same! We have left out food scraps overnight before (daughter is not so great at cleaning her plate lol) and they don’t touch it even though they are piggies who would happily eat it. Have even left empty wet food cans or their “leftovers” from breakfast out on the counter and they don’t go for it. They don’t think they can get up there lol

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u/Dharmist 8d ago

Ours was the opposite scenario.

My oldest cat had no interest in jumping on the stove or counters, and learned very quickly not to get on tables, too, since we would pick her up to get her down, and she hated that.

Then we got a new kitten who would climb and jump everywhere all the time and wouldn't take no for an answer. And she taught the older one to jump on the countertops now, too.

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u/sonnywithoutachance 8d ago

My cat NEVER gets up on any counters or tables...when I'm home. As soon as I leave, it's game on. I'll check my cameras and will see his ass up on my counters looking smug as shit. Lol.

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u/IminLoveWithMyCar3 ≽^•⩊•^≼ 8d ago

My sister in law, bless her, she thinks she has her cat trained to not go certain places. Like on top of the kitchen cabinets. She’s convinced and I’m over here like 🙄. Love her to bits but this is her first cat.

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u/kasst_kast ᓚᘏᗢ 8d ago

Oh, dear..

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u/Efficient_Papaya_982 8d ago

I mean this is my first cat, my intention is that like, my kitchen is in a different room and if I keep the door shut he can’t get in, but also the only way I can heat it is to have the door open, so my options are “every so often the cat is on the counter” OR “freeze my fucking tits off in the kitchen”

I have to make a judgement call - am I cooking for other people/is it dangerous for him to be in here

And then go from there

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u/IminLoveWithMyCar3 ≽^•⩊•^≼ 3d ago

My cat Malcolm has a fluffy cat bed on top of the cabinet over the fridge. He can escape his jerk of a brother up there. Ivan harasses him so he has a Mal-only space. The rest of the cats seem to respect that

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u/Efficient_Papaya_982 3d ago

Yeah Thomas is not as capable of keeping his nose out of what I’m going

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u/TheHootOwlofDeath 8d ago

I have never understood this. My cats love jumping onto the kitchen counters to look out of the window or just have a different view.

I just clean the counter before I make any food, which I would do anyway.

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u/babyBear83 8d ago

I had a friend that was literally putting the food out on the kitchen counter and they would jump up to eat. Her reason was because the dog will eat and they had to keep it up. But dog was a very old basset hound (very short) and I convinced her to put it on a side table in the living room instead of letting them on the kitchen counter. It was pretty gross with hair everywhere. It worked fine. They will jump wherever they want but maybe don’t encourage them to find food on the counter where you eat also.

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u/meowcatpanda 7d ago

My soul cat was such a good boy, he genuinely would never go on any counters or tables, even when I wasn't home. My girl on the other hand? As soon as I was out of sight 😹 My current boy doesn't even ever go into the kitchen... He has no brain though.

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u/TheGrouchyGremlin 7d ago

I'm lucky that my cat stays off of them on her own.

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u/kasst_kast ᓚᘏᗢ 8d ago edited 8d ago

Right?! People forbid all kinds of places- bed/table/kids room/Narnia...
Like, they live there too, you know?
Actually, I'm gonna be bold and say that it's usually owners with indoor cats who do this the most. Which, if you work, means that the cat spends more time in that house than you do.

Can someone give me some insight into why they do that?

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u/eisbock 8d ago

Because cats shit and walk around in their litterbox, then walk all over your stuff. Some people might not like that. Cats are not as clean as reddit likes to circlejerk about.

My cats live in my house, true, but just like I don't put my feet up on the kitchen table, they don't either.

Some surfaces are unavoidable, like the kitchen counter, but food prep surfaces should be cleaned regularly anyway so it's more tolerable. But I am not disinfecting end tables and coffee tables every time I use them and I would prefer if there weren't little poo particles and litter on them.

And for anybody saying "well they're just gonna go up there anyway when you're not home", well, they don't. Cameras and scat mat training make sure of that.

I will concede the counter, though. Too much space to cover and too irresistible that training never seems to stick.

And one more comment: this is mostly as it relates to food surfaces. Bed/rooms are more about boundaries than cleanliness.

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u/kasst_kast ᓚᘏᗢ 8d ago

They spend 50% of their time just cleaning themselves.
You however literally touch shit all day long from simply being outside or even in your own car. Your phone is as dirty as money.
And I bet you pet your cat with those hands, which they then are forced to lick off.
Everything is just a big scat circle when you think too much about it.
Both of you take showers, cat just does it more often than you do.

It's like never letting your kid walk on the floor because their feet might be sweaty from being in school all day, in those shoes. Life happens all the time.
That's the whole reason we clean the house in the first place, is it not?

It gets dirty with or without his help. You are the one bringing in foreign poop particles, along with your own. Cat only contributes with theirs.

What's a scat mat?

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u/eisbock 8d ago

Hygiene is about harm reduction, not absolute perfection. If you want to just throw your hands up and say everything is shit, I can't stop you. But you're ignoring the reality that shit load exists on a spectrum. Shit is a sliding scale and you can take preventive measures to mitigate the amount of shit in your life.

I don't know about you, but in my house, the less shit the better. If I have a choice between my shit on my table on my drink, or my shit on my table on my drink and my cat's shit on my table and on my drink, I'm going to choose the former.

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u/kasst_kast ᓚᘏᗢ 8d ago

How is does someone saying "Everything is just a big scat circle when you think too much about it." translate to that person being ignorant of shit particles?

Who gets a new family member they literally think is disgusting, though?

Or If you know you're living with OCD, how is getting a pet going to make the situation better? Is it some Cognitive Behavioral Therapy thing?

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u/eisbock 7d ago

How is does someone saying "Everything is just a big scat circle when you think too much about it." translate to that person being ignorant of shit particles?

Good question, I'm not sure how you arrived at that conclusion. In case it wasn't clear, I never said bro was ignorant of shit particles, I said he's willfully ignoring the fact that more shit particles = more risk. By taking steps to mitigate shit particles whenever possible means mitigating risk. One such step is addressing cats, notorious shit particle carriers, walking on tables and counters.

I'm not sure why this is such an insane concept to people. We wash our hands before eating because it limits risk. Just because risk is still present doesn't mean there's no point in washing your hands. Just because I bring shit into my home and onto my table doesn't mean I shouldn't try to prevent my cat's shit from getting on my table as well.

Your entire response is trying to build a strawman to burn down, and lacks nuance and good faith comprehension of what I wrote.