“It’s great to pay attention to your cat, but spoiling can be detrimental,” Molly DeVoss, a certified feline training and behavior specialist who runs Cat Behavior Solutions agency, told Bored Panda in an interview via email. Molly says there are two types of spoiling: “indulging their species’ needs and indulging in human spoiling.”

“The difference is feeling responsible for relieving boredom, and providing proper nutrition and outlets for natural behaviors and inherited skills, versus things like dressing them up in clothes and feeding them pate,” the cat behaviorist explained.

Molly also said that “if you 'spoil' your cat by providing everything the feline species needs, you will very likely be preventing any potential future behavior issues.”

“On the other hand, if you 'spoil' your cat with dress-up and foods that are not healthy for them, the cat may eventually let you know how unhappy he really feels about it—and that might be aggression or destruction issues down the road,” she concluded.

Molly recently did a wonderful podcast for any cat owner who’s struggling with a demanding cat (or demanding too much of them) called “Helicopter Cat Parenting.” Find out Molly’s insights on the subject matter right here.