My Cat Doesn’t Like Treats – 5 Ways to Increase Their Food Motivation

“My cat doesn’t like treats! What do I do?!” – a common question I see on my YouTube videos.

The quickest and easiest way to have success when training your cat is with treat rewards. Whether you’re working on harness training, adventure skills, or general clicker training, it is necessary to have a reward your cat responds to. Though other forms of rewards – like play, pets, or praise – will sometimes work, treats are generally the most effective.

But what do you do if your cat doesn’t like treats?

If that’s your cat, and you’re wondering why your cat doesn’t like treats and how you can change that, you’re in the right place! The good news is that there are steps you can take to increase your cat’s food motivation and get them excited to train for treats.

Why doesn’t my cat like treats?

When people ask me why their cat doesn’t like treats and what they can do about it, my first response is to ask what their cat’s regular meals are like. So I’ll ask you to consider the same thing: 

Does your cat free-feed? (meaning, do they have constant access to a full food bowl to eat whenever they want?)

If not, how often are their meals?

What kind of food does your cat eat?

More often than not, cats don’t respond to treats because they have 24/7 access to a food bowl. Free-feeding is the #1 killer of food motivation. Why would they work for food when they can just walk over to their food bowl and grab a bite whenever they want? 

Other reasons your cat doesn’t like treats could include:

• The type of food you’re feeding interferes with their food motivation.
• You haven’t yet found a treat your cat values enough.
• Your cat is a picky eater.
• Your cat isn’t used to having to work for their food.

Understanding the barriers that might be inhibiting your cat’s food motivation is a great place to start, and thankfully there are solutions to all of the above problems! 

5 Ways to Increase Your Cat’s Food Motivation

There are a handful of ways to improve your cat’s food motivation and get them excited for treat and training time. It may take some experimenting to find the perfect formula. You may even have to make more than one adjustment to get there. 

And let’s not forget patience – give your cat time to adjust to any changes you make. But I can almost guarantee you that at least one of the solutions below will work for you!

1. Switch to feeding your cat scheduled meals. 

As I mentioned, free-feeding is usually the biggest reason a cat isn’t interested in treats. Not only does free-feeding kill their willingness to work for treats, but it’s also not the healthiest or most optimal way to feed a cat. 

Cats thrive on multiple, small meals spread throughout the day. In fact, a cat left to their own devices (hunting outdoors) would eat a rough average of 10 small meals every day! And they have to work for those meals too – expending energy and burning calories in the process. 

So many cats these days struggle with obesity, and it often stems from the fact that they have constant access to a food bowl. Couple that with the fact that they often don’t get enough activity or exercise in their day, and you’ve got a recipe for an overweight, bored cat who isn’t interested in treats or training. 

Instead of leaving a big bowl of food out for your cat, try switching to portioned, scheduled meals. The smaller and more frequent, the better! I personally feed my cats 3 meals every day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Obviously this kind of feeding schedule isn’t possible for everyone due to work, lifestyle, etc. If you aren’t able to feed your cats multiple smaller meals, try an automatic, timed feeder. There are several dry food feeders and wet food feeders available. 

2. Change your cat’s food to wet or raw.

There is much debate about what type of food is best for cats – dry/kibble, canned/wet, or raw? While there are high-quality dry cat foods out there, there is enough evidence that supports the argument in favor of canned wet food or raw. 

Cats are obligate carnivores – meaning they depend only on meat for survival. Plants and other food sources do not provide adequate nutrition, and their bodies actually don’t even properly process them. So all those carbs and extra ingredients added to most cat food? Not necessary. 

According to veterinarian Lynn Bahr, our cats should be eating a diet high in protein and low in carbs. She says, “I’d recommend feeding more wet food than dry kibble because wet food is lower in calories, higher in protein, and full of moisture.” Plus, so much of the dry kibble is chock full of carbs with added flavorings and animal digest sprays that make it extremely enticing and even addicting.

What does all this have to do with the fact my cat is not food motivated or that my cat doesn’t like treats, you ask? Well, if you’re feeding your cat a kibble diet, the chances are much higher that they aren’t going to be interested in treats because they’re addicted to their dry food and don’t care about anything else. 

When we feed our cats a species-appropriate diet (high in protein and moisture), they will be healthier and more interested in treats. It also opens up the door for you to be able to use the dry kibble as treats during your training sessions rather than for meals. 

3. Experiment with different treats.

Is your cat already eating canned or raw food at scheduled meal times but still not interested in treats? It could just be that you haven’t yet found the right one!

There are so many different types of treats – regular kibble, crunchy treats, soft treats, freeze-dried treats, puree treats, and even regular canned food. And within each of those categories there are seemingly endless brands and flavors. It can definitely be frustrating to have to go through so many options without any success. But maybe there’s a category, brand, or flavor you haven’t tried yet that is “the one.” 

In my experience, the squeezie, lickable treats are irresistible almost 100% of the time. My cats’ favorite ones are the Catit Creamies, but Churus and Tiki Cat Stix are also popular. If you haven’t already tried this type of puree treat, I recommend starting there! 

My cats are also extremely willing to work and train for Meow Mix kibble. I call it “potato chips.” For humans, potato chips are considered junk food – not at all healthy for us, but we love them anyway and could sit down and eat a whole bag in one sitting (or is that just me?). They’re reserved for the occasional treat and not something we eat all the time. Meow Mix is the cat version of a potato chip! 

4. Keep things varied.

Variety is the spice of life, as they say! This is true when it comes to cat treats too. To prevent pickiness when it comes to treats, it helps to rotate the flavors and types you give. 

Most of the time, I couldn’t even tell you what treats I have in my cats’ training pouch. I buy different brands of crunchy and soft treats (usually based on what’s on sale at the pet store) and dump them all in together. When I reach in for a treat during a training session, there’s no telling what I’ll grab. It keeps my cats on their toes since they don’t know what treat to expect with each reward.

I started doing this because one of our cats, Gryphon, started being super picky about treats. He’d work for a treat or two during training but then quickly lose interest. No matter what type of treat I tried, I got the same result. But when I started mixing the treats together, and Gryphon wasn’t getting the same one with every treat toss? Problem solved. 

It also helps to create a tier system for your cat’s treats. What is their most highly valued treat down to their least valued treat? Once you know that, you can appropriately choose your treat rewards based on the skills you’re working on. Easier skills earn a lower value treat, harder skills earn the higher value treat. If your cat hasn’t been willing to work for the treat you’re offering, the problem could be that you just haven’t been offering a high enough value reward to make it worth it to them. 

5. Make your cat work for their food. 

As I mentioned way back at the beginning of the article, when cats are left to their own devices, they will eat several small meals throughout the day that they have to hunt and work for. Unfortunately, indoor cats often miss out on getting to act on those natural hunting instincts, which can cause frustration.

I’m not advocating for letting your cat free roam outdoors to hunt, but I do think it’s important to give your cat the opportunity to put their hunting skills to use. One way to do this is with food puzzles and snuffle mats. 

There are various ways you can use food puzzles for cats. You can use them as an occasional enrichment activity or to deliver meals. My friend cat behaviorist Ingrid Johnson delivers all her cats’ meals through food puzzles. Listen to my podcast interview with her to learn more about how she advocates for and uses them, and read her research paper, “Food puzzles for cats: feeding for physical and emotional wellbeing.” 

The basic idea though in regards to training is that if your cat is used to putting forth some effort for their food, they will be more willing to work for those treats during your training sessions too.

Bonus Tips

If you’re still struggling to keep your cat’s interest for training, here are a few other ideas to try –

1. Break the treats into smaller pieces. A cat’s stomach is the size of a ping pong ball, so it fills up pretty quickly. To keep your cat from getting full so fast, break the treats into smaller pieces. I do this anyway to make the treats last longer.
2. Train before meal time. If your cat is at least slightly hungry, they’ll be much more excited to train for treats. Try timing your training sessions about 30-60 minutes before a normal meal time. 
3. Try another form of reward. If treats truly aren’t cutting in, you can try using pets, play, or praise as a reward. It can be more difficult to incorporate these types of rewards, but they can work for some cats. 

Just because your cat doesn’t seem food motivated now doesn’t mean they never will be. As you can see, there are a lot of factors that could potentially be influencing your cat’s food motivation and whether or not they like treats. And the good news is that the suggestions I’ve made are beneficial for your cat’s overall health and happiness – not just for getting them to like treats. It’s a win-win-win all around!

Just remember that every cat is different, so be patient as you make any changes to their diet or routine. It might take some time, but the effort is well worth it!