Owners Show Their Cat Bird Videos as an Experiment, Now the Cat Hilariously Demands TV Every Morning and Night “Like a Toddler”: 'I've never experienced this in the 20 years of having cats'

Mariel Ruvinsky • Writer and Editor

Jun 5, 2026 12:45 PM EDT

Every cat owner, at some point in their lives, will discover that their cat has one extremely strange habit.

There is a turning point in the life of every cat. Everything is normal, simple, calm - up until that very moment. One day, they will wake up and discover their thing. The one thing that they are not supposed to care about at all, but are obsessed with with all of their hearts. We have seen some cats obsess over sweet peas. We have seen some cats choose the sink as their favorite napping spot. We have seen cats obsessed with almonds - but not eating them, just attacking them over and over.

And today, as told by a very confused and frustrated owner on r/cats, we have a cat who has become absolutely obsessed with watching bird videos on the TV. It's the owners' fault, really. The kitty didn't even know such a thing existed until they showed it to him. And now, every morning and every night, it is the same story. The cat demands that his owners turn on the TV to the specific videos that he loves, and he will stare and commit kitty crimes until they cave to his demands.

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"My cat demands TV time like a toddler"

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This is exactly the way that we would expect a cat who demands to watch TV every morning and night looks like. It's purrfect. This face is the face of someone who knows he's being a menace. He knows he's being a hooligan. He knows, and he has no shame about any of it. He's just living his best life, and it's his owner's fault for introducing him to the concept of a television in the first place, so…
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iPad babies are enough trouble, really. We were absolutely not ready for iPad cats. iPad cats are going to be one hundred times worse than any iPad baby ever could be. They will be more demanding, they will be more annoying, they will be more tenacious and less willing to give up. Every cat owner knows that when a cat wants something, it stops at nothing until it gets it. Maybe getting them an iPad is the easiest solution at the end of the day.
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