Hi!! Looking for some advice on how to help/understand my cat a little more.
My cat, goose, is a year and a half and I have had her since she was a small kitten. She spent the first 6 months alone, after which we got a second cat, and about 6 months after that, a third. Goose has always had issues meeting new cats, as all cats do😂, but maybe a bit to the extreme. After very slow introductions they are all fairly friendly with eachother, and we often find them grooming eachother/lounging together. The issues comes when it gets to play time, NONE of the cats seem to understand boundaries, but especially not goose; EVERY SINGLE!!! Play session turns into a fight, they scream and hiss and pull each others fur out. We have tried time outs, clapping, yelling, redirection, EVERYTHING. So that’s the first issue, just getting them to understand when to stop/how rough is too rough.
More so though, our issue is goose’s overall behavior, she is an extremely anxious cat, she has been on Prozac for about a year now due to this (we are likely upping the dose soon due to everything listed here, but I honestly have just lost hope that’s it’s actually helping).
A couple examples of her behaviors:
- hissing upon being picked up even when she knows/saw us/heard us beforehand (not just startling her)
- randomly attacking her siblings if they come near her/try to rub against her when she doesn’t want it
- CONSTANTLY! Knocking over any and every drink ever, only drinks, only when they’re full of liquid.
- biting/wrapping around your leg as you walk past (rare but happens)
- she’s also very very talkative, she will respond to you if you talk to her or even if you just look at her, if it’s quiet in a room for a while she’ll look at you and meow
Etc.

My problem is that she isn’t a cat from hell or anything, she is a very sweet cat, but it’s clear to me that something is wrong, it’s like a switch flips with her and she refuses any touch or attention towards her. 80% of the time she’s a normal cat, it’s just the 20% we cannot wrap our heads around.

Questions:
- to anyone else with anxious cats, is this just how it is when you need a higher dose for them? Does this all sound like normal anxiety?
- could this be some form of feline hyperesthesia or something of the sort? She does twitch sometimes, but not for 2-3 minutes straight, just a couple twitches and then back to normal
- is this just single cat syndrome?? Was the 6 months alone just too long and poor behavior solidified in that time? But I don’t feel that she was this angry as a kitten, she was just a normal kitten.
- BPD?? Idfk anymore man

We have a vet appointment coming up soon to talk about meds and about all of this, any and all advice is appreciated. I’m just worried about my baby.

We have an automated feeder in our kitchen with the exact same food and same bowl. After a recent surgery, I added a bowl in the bedroom so my little guy didn't have to travel downstairs in recovery.

Now, for some reason, they seem to wait all day for the bowl in the bedroom(it's closed during the day because they open all the drawers and cause general havoc🤣)

This bowl is empty by morning. I just don't get why.

My fiance and I moved in together at the beginning of May and he has one female cat and I have one male cat. They have both never been around other animals, and we knew it would be an adjustment so we did everything Jackson Galaxy told us to do.

Fast forward months later and our female continues to stalk, chase, and scare our male cat. Our male cat is absolutely terrified of her. If they are in the same vicinity, she will go after him. There have been no actual attacks, but the swatting and hissing and growling is bad enough to watch/hear.

Our male cat has his litter box in our bathroom currently, as our bedroom is his safe space. We recently got advice (bad advice) to put his litter in the guest room, which is where the other cat’s safe place is. It was working for a couple days, but we came home tonight to find our female cat peed outside of the litter box (very common for her, she’s marking her territory) and our male cat who has never in his life had an accident, pooed on our bed.

I can almost guarantee she was near the guest room and he had to go and saw her there, she chased him back into our room, and he just had an accident. But it makes me so sad. We are at the end of our rope and not sure what to do.

We are taking her to the vet to see if there’s anything we can do to calm her down, see if something is up, etc. This is making me so sad for both cats but especially our male cat who is my baby. If you have any advice please, I’m begging lol

I just adopted a new kitty a week ago, he was found outside as a stray. The boy has zero house manners and if he hears any sort of crinkly bag or he sees me prepping food at the table he immediately jumps up and tries to rip it out of my hands. Honestly anything within paw reach he will grab in his mouth and run with it. I'm trying to hide as much food from him as possible by putting it in cupboards but he's figured out how to open doors so that's not working the best lol. Any tips on how to help correct this?

So for a lil backstory, we have had a male cat (sat on the drawer) for a little over a year now. He is 1yo and a few months old. Unfortunately he got neutered quite late. He keeps gunning for my 2y 10month old female neutered cat (on the TV) and I have no clue how to make them get along.

I’ve tried a mesh door screen, which didn’t work as the male got through it. We keep them apart (which we pretty much do all the time on occasion), my bedroom has a window hammock which both cats love, so I let the male in to spend some time on it. Both cats use it together after my female cat stops hissing and growling, but then when the female jumps off it the male cat goes after her.

I know his behaviour could’ve been prevented if he was neutered at a young age but unfortunately he got neutered pretty late, so just wondering if anyone has any advice how to navigate this?

Writing this on mobile while in bed so apologies for any typos/grammar errors.

For background - I got my first ever cat about three years ago (tuxedo male, about 5yrs old) and he’s a VERY energetic cat, always running around a like crazy. It got to the point I couldn’t tire him out after hours of playing and the vet recommended I consider a second cat to give him a playmate, though maybe one who is a bit more chill.

In comes my second cat (Calico female, 3yrs old and had kids before I adopted her) and she is such a sweetheart with always wanting pets and butt pats from literally anyone. She’s a social butterfly, he’s socially awkward lol.

They’ve lived together for about 2 years now in two different apartments. While I was hoping they would bond and get along well, the best way I describe them to the vet is they are “tolerant roommates”. The tuxedo always wants to play, and she likes to chill. He would jump on her playfully and she would yell, bat him and runaway and he would get scared and runoff. It was never a full on physical fight and minutes later they would genuinely play together and/or fall asleep together, so it wasn’t a huge concern aside from the occasional separation.

Reason for this post - last week during a movie night with the GF, she was carrying out tuxedo downstairs when she accidentally stepped on the calico’s tail and all hell broke loose. She dropped the tuxedo who ran away to hide and the calico screamed. The first thing the calico saw was our tuxedo and she leaped at him for a full on fight, chasing him upstairs into our room. Long story short we separated them physically, checked both of them for injuries, and immediately went into quarantine mode (door with towels blocking them, swapping them around, etc.). And even went and got a screen door to visually reintroduce them. They would sniff each other and go on about their days.

Today we unzipped the screen fully while monitoring and everything went smoothly, they sniffed and walked past each other. We thought things were well until later in the night when the tuxedo got the zoomies and jumped on her, and again she screamed and went after him. Separated them with the screen door and he was terrified while she was fluffed and growling/hissing at him, we’ve never seen her do that before.

I usually tend to keep calm during stressful situations though I’m really worried that their relationship is permanently damaged given how energetic he is and how aggressive she is towards him after the accident. My GF is also devastated thinking that she’s ruined our family and starting to think the worse that this’ll never be fixed and one of them will have to leave which brought us both to tears, we love both of them so much. I’m trying to keep positive and reassuring the GF it was an accident that I could have easily caused too. I am trying to keep us positive though I’m very sad/ scared about this all.

Any/all advice or previous experiences would be immensely helpful.

Hallo zusammen,

ich hatte vor zwei Jahren einen Kater als kitten bekommen und hab ihn seit dem ersten Tag ins Herz geschlossen und liebe ihn über alles.

seit dem ersten Tag war er immer sehr daran interessiert was ich am Computer mache und es war anfangs auch kein Problem, bis er anfing auf meinen Schreibtisch zu klettern. anfangs nahm ich ihn noch runter doch dann hätte ich den Fehler gemacht ihn mit Leckerlis vom Tisch zu locken. jetzt zwei Jahre später kann ich mich nicht mal nur an meinen Schreibtisch setzen ohne daß er sofort da ist. sobald er hört das ich den PC anschalte kommt er auch aus jedem versteck oder anderen Raum und setzt sich direkt vor meinen Bildschirm. ich kann mittlerweile nicht mal mehr am PC arkeiten weil er immer wieder über die Tastatur läuft oder versucht mit seiner Nase unter meine Hand zu kommen um nach Leckerlis zu betteln. selbst wenn ich ihn runter setze oder ihn in ein anderes Zimmer trage ist er sofort wieder da. ich hab ihm auch schon ein Bett an meinen Tisch gebaut und gebe ihm nur noch Leckerlis wenn er in dem Bett ist aber das hält ihn nicht davon ab mich permanent zu unterbrechen und zu hindern.

habt ihr ein paar Ideen wie ich es ihm abtrainieren kann?

ich möchte ihn nicht in ein anderes Zimmer sperren oder ihm beizubringen das er Angst vor mir haben muss.

Losing my patience with my kitten who is food crazy

Context: we have a male kitten who is about 7 months old and we've had him since he was around 1.5 months (found as a stray), he was neutered almost 3 weeks ago (if that is useful information, idk). We just impulsively adopted a female kitten around 2 weeks ago who is about 2.5 months old. They are both American shorthairs. We have been introducing them slowly to each other but our new female kitten is NOT having it. Even when she sees him she'll start hissing and growling. It doesn't help that my male kitten is SUPER energetic and playful and I really think it's stressing her out. We have been slowly letting her roam around (with supervision) and at every chance he gets, my male kitten will pounce on her and bite her neck, I'm talking full mouth open on her neck. He will also bite her legs and back and really anywhere he can. She goes crazy with howling and hissing and growling (understandable). I truly think he is just playing because he doesn't show any signs of aggression other than his airplane ears. But he never hisses or growls. But then again, I am no professional. Unfortunately, our bathroom now has ants because of her food being in there, so we have to move her out of there. We have a big crate that has several tiers that we are going to put her in. It will have her food, water, litter box, bed. It is like a dog crate that is open so he will definitely be able to make contact with her, but he will not be able to jump on her or bite her. Please anyone who has advice is greatly appreciated!

Long story short, we found a female kitten in the garden and took her inside while we looked for any owners or a mother cat.

No one came forward, but while we were trying to figure out what to do with her, our neutered male cat basically took her under his wing. They would play together and snuggle together in bed, so eventually we decided to keep her since we didn't have the heart to separate them. He was the perfect older brother and she adored him and followed him everywhere.

But fast forward a couple of weeks, and he's completely changed his tune - literally. He growls and hisses at her when he sees her, and even at us if we try to touch him when she's close by. He even attacked my partner once. He also chases her and swats at her, not like he's trying to hurt her, but definitely not in a playful way. Meanwhile, he's fine with our other cat (an older spayed female).

Has anyone had a cat change their mind on a new cat after they were successfully introduced?

Could he be in pain or some kind of discomfort? It seemed to start when they all caught a cold and he was crabby for a few days, but even now that he's recovered, he still does his demon growls whenever she gets too close, yet is completely fine with the other cat.

Has he just decided that fatherhood isn't for him?

Kitten hasn't been spayed yet, but we have an appointment booked for next week. We think she's about 5-6 months old, but she hasn't started her first heat cycle yet.

It breaks my heart to see her try to play with him or even just approach him only to be met with aggression.

Hello everyone!

Me and my wife recently rescued a young cat (male, around 1.5 to 2 years old) after he lost his right hindleg to a snake bite. He's recovering well (around 7 weeks after surgery) and is almost ready to stop using his cone and needing bandages.

We also have two older cats (two girls, one 13 and one 16) and we are trying to slowly introduce them, following the usual steps.

With the older one it's been going fine. She is very calm and passive, and after a couple "hissing competitions" they've started accepting each other and just hanging around. Great.

Now, with the 13 year old one, it's been very hard. She is EXTREMELY skittish and will run away from anyone and anything. Even when she comes around to the sofa or the bed wanting to be petted, if I move my hand a little too fast she gets frightened and runs away. And despite their initial OK phases with each other's scent and having a baby barrier between them... when we try to have them both in the same environment, the new cat just CHASES HER RELENTLESSLY.

No matter what we we do (tiring him out a lot before getting them together, having food and toys for both in the room, etc) he will just always start chasing her and making her very stressed and hissing like crazy while laying down in "fight for my life" mode. It's very hard to get things done properly as she is very skittish and despite our best efforts, nothing is working.

What can we do in this very specific situation? Keep in mind that the skittish cat is hard to even get standing still, since she runs like crazy from everything and everyone. Please help!

My cat is un playful please give me some suggestions to make it more playful please

It's been with us for the past three months yet it hasn't played only ate

Please help

My velcro cat has taken the title bit too seriously. He is constantly digging his claws into me. Not in an aggressive or playful way. He’ll just be sitting on my lap or cuddling in general and he’ll sort of grab/latch with all of his claws.

It’s constantly waking me up, and it hurts so much.

Help 😬

*I did not want to cover or zip but I had to travel sadly this wasn’t negotiable and I’d like any future (smaller) stuff like vet visits to go decent

I have two kittens and I’m trying to prevent them from going g under my bed and hiding any advice also just tips on keeping them happy and well🥹thank yall in adavance

About two years ago, my coworker rescued a cat off the street who she couldn’t take care of, and I offered to take him in. The vet estimated he was a year old, which makes him three now. He is the sweetest little guy, he’s so playful and has such a big personality, he is constantly purring and getting in my face to lick my nose and my hair.
The only thing is, I think because he was a stray for the first year of his life in Phoenix, he’s adapted to staying cool/hidden in the day, and awake from dusk to dawn. This has led to him being extremely active at sundown and sunup, but he sleeps during the day. I am a light sleeper, so I’ve had to shut him out of my room at night due to him climbing all over my desk and knocking everything over, or trying to climb my blinds, or trying to play with my other cat, who sleeps in bed with me and does NOT want to play at night. Lately, he has started jumping up against my door, and meowing VERY loudly. In the morning, he switches doors and does the same to my brother (who is awake earlier than me because of his job’s hours). I live in an apartment in an older building so the walls are pretty thick, but I don’t want to chance him bothering our neighbors, especially when I know one of them has younger kids and one of them has a reactive dog, and he is already bothering my brother, who did not ask to have another cat living in the apartment with us.
I have tried everything I can think of. Playing before bed, establishing a routine he can follow easily, changing where his food/water bowls are, making sure everything is clean, clearing off my desk of EVERYTHING, cleaning the litterboxes even more frequently, sleeping with headphones in. The inly thing that seems to have any effect is turning a dimmable light on, so I think he might be afraid of the dark? But I don’t know what to do. I don’t want him to be stressed out, I don’t want my neighbors to be stressed out, and I don’t want my brother to be stressed out. Do you have any tricks or tips? Resources? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated

My 10 week old male kitten (not yet neutered) uses the litter box to poop, but pees in corners of the house (behind the toilet & heater). I’ve put litter boxes in the corners where he likes to pee, but he still pees outside them. I keep those areas clean/odor free so he doesn’t associate smell there, but he keeps doing it. I have 4 boxes between 3 cats, including the kitten, and I clean the boxes like 2x per day. I use wood pellets, and I have 2 other cats who both use the box just fine.

Tips for litter boxes training? Why would he be pooping and peeing in separate places?

So when kitten came to our house, they got along perfectly for the first 2 weeks. They were such good friends and my 9 year old is amazing with other cats and usually always wants to be with a friend rather than alone. (He cries when left alone) and he lost his younger brother few months ago so he's been so sad.

First 2 weeks with kitten was amazing, our 9 year old was so so happy and I've not seen him that happy since he lost his brother. He was playful, purring and excited again.

But now suddenly things shifted. He stopped wanting to play with kitten and instead gets panic when the kitten bounces on him (before he enjoyed the wrestling) and so we've separated them when that happens.

But here's the issue. Back when he was 3, he had this condition that if he got too stressed he'd panic and faint. (He was otherwise healthy so he got diagnosed with panic disorder) now he fainted once with the kitten and we immediately brought him to a vet.

Multiple tests later (expensive ones too) He was perfectly fine, nothing wrong, he even came to greet the kitten happily rubbing him the moment we got back home??

Vet says he just got cornered by the kitten and that caused a panic reaction again. (Hes been panic free for 6 years) Anyhow vet suggested that everytime kitten bounces on him, we put the kitten in 3min timeout so he'd learn "bouncing the old cat = no more fun" and play with him to get his energy burned when he's in the same room. That works sometimes.

How long should I keep this up? Vet says it can take a month, I feel bad for the kitty when he cries being in timeout but I can't risk my old cat fainting either and yet my old cat tries to go into the same room with the kitten too after he's calmed down.

He's very friendly cat and loves the kitten clearly (even groomed him happily just now when the kitty slept next to him) but to him play means he will do forward roll in front of you and expects you to ruffle his belly, he nibs at you, gets up and does it again. His younger brother would just whack him gently when he did that.

but the moment the kitty thinks its invite to play he goes for wrestling, my old boy just hates it and cries and the kitty doesnt get it. He loves the kitty every single other time, wants to be near him but it's like 180° the moment the kitty wants to play. So he's happy but scared?

I'm doing what vet suggested for now but if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them 🥺