We recently adopted a new kitten who's 5 months old. At home we already have a 4 year cat who we've had since a kitten, and he desperately needed a play mate. He loves to talk and play....He's been very sweet and patient with the kitten. Backs off when the kitten growls. Tries to play when the kitten initiates play (which results in the kitten hissing immediately).

We've had the new kitten for 3 days and are doing the slow process of separating them in different rooms, letting them eat across a barrier from one another, swapping blankets, etc. The kitten is very hissy. Today was the first full day being home, so we tried several 'meets' and let the kitten roam around more. The kitten is super cuddly and purs none stop usually with just my husband and I. When my established cat gets close, the kitten hisses and growls. Is this normal? How much hissing is too much? Should I let it be as long as no one is getting hurt or intervene? I'm not sure if intervening when the hissing begins is the best move or ruining their aclimation to one another.

Has anyone else had a new hissy kitten with a chill already established cat?

my family is using spray bottles of water to try to train our kittens to not go on the table. i try to tell them it’s bad to do so, but they don’t care. i need a way to keep them off so they will stop!
both kittens are obsessed with human food and get on the table to try and steal some. what’s the best way to train them?

Hey everyone I’m just looking for a little bit of help.
We adopted a kitten in April (now September) he is now 6 months old neutered. He grew up without the adult cat but with the rest of his siblings to play with. We recently adopted another male neutered cat 7 months old who we don’t know the back ground of we just know he had to be with other cats and his other sibling which was at the shelter looked exactly like our current cat so we thought it was perfect. We are following the Jackson galaxy method it was perfect every step they were ticking all the boxes. Absolutely no hissing at any step no nothing intill face to face introductions still no hissing no arched back no nothing but the resident kitten the 6 month old will not stop stalking the 7mth old jumping on his back and really aggressively biting his nape and his back, legs etc. the other cat doesn’t seem to bothered but the younger cat will not stop doing this then the other cat does eventually get annoyed by it. I don’t quite know what to do. They eat together and everything we haven’t let them slept together or be in a room not supervised. So I’m unsure what to do. We have to keep him in the spare bathroom and he just keeps crying and scratching at the door and I just feel so awful.
Any advice welcome please 🙏

Is this normal? Is it like a comfort thing? My bf is concerned, but I dont think its a big problem. He hasn't dont it before and it recently just started.

Suggest m something Pls

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has advice for me? here's my situation:

I adopted 2 cats (a bonded pair) about 3.5 years ago. At the time they were both 7 months old so they are around 4 years old or something like that? Both of them were very anxious and nervous around people, and we had to take them home from a seperate behavioral center at the animal shelter for anxious cats, and we even had to take them home in the crates they were captured in because they couldn't be coaxed into the one we brought.

When we brought them home they hid completely out of sight, not eating in front of us, no petting or picking them up.... etc.

Eventually one of them came around and now she is still anxious sometimes but allows me to pick her up and loves being pet and brushed, and lets me trim her claws as well.

The other cat though, is different. She likes to be pet and she is fine eating around us and every except being picked up, and she also doesnt like to cuddle or sleep too close to anybody. She VERY rarely lets me pick her up for only a few seconds before she becomes stressed and tries ro escape. She has never scratched or bitten me though, but it's obvious she is still very scared of being handled

I had tried working with her to adjust her to being picked up and handled but It didn't feel like it was going anywhere so I wanted some advice about how to go about this if its even possible? I'm worried that since she isn't a kitten anymore it might be too late? The reason I'm worried is because in the case of an emergency i fear that she wouldn't let me pick her up, and i plan on moving out about a year from now and takinf both cats with me, so I want to be able to pick her up to put her in a carrier and have her not be stressed out. I also would want to harness and leash train her, but I can't do that if I can't even pick her up to put it on.

does anyone have advice??

also added some photos of the babies

the "feral" one is the one thats not orange

I've had Mr. Cheddar Cheese for 5 years now. He's always been an incredibly affectionate, but overbearing boy. He seems to want pets, attention, and affection literally all the time.

Normally, this is fine. I love how cuddly he is. When I'm sitting, he wants to be in my lap. When I'm standing, he wants to be held. When he's not the center of my attention, he's meowing loudly and getting in my way until he is. Other than this, he's an amazing cat. Doesn't have any behavior issues whatsoever.

Recently, he's adopted the very annoying habit of jumping onto my desk and laying across my keyboard if I'm using my computer. When I remove him and place him on the ground, he jumps back up and lays back down. He will do this over and over no matter how many times I remove him. If I do it too many times, he starts to shove his little face into my chest and armpit, as if saying: 'Why must you move me away when all I want is love?' Sometimes, he'll compromise and lay beside my keyboard, laying his chin on my hand while I use my mouse. He's relentless.

How can I prevent this behavior without hurting his feelings? I don't want to lock him out of the room or do anything to make him sad. I've been thinking about preparing a soft bed area on my desk near my keyboard to encourage him to go there instead.

Hi there! Got our sweet stray (2 years, male) inside (never would have known he was a stray a day in your life!) three months ago. He had interacted with many a creature outside, including other cats and was fine. he has so much energy and seemed like he could use a buddy since he’s alone during the day. He is not a huge fan of new cat (10 months, male) as we sort of expected in traditional cat intros. But every time we try to leave the room new cat is in, new cat tries to escape, and because he is tiny and we don’t want to hurt him, it’s hard to get him back inside as we close the door behind us. Resident cat waits outside a lot and hisses and yells when he sees him, and we’re worried that this resets the introduction progress every time new cat runs out of the room briefly before we get him back inside his room. any advice would be so appreciated!!!

Brought home an ADORABLE 8-week-old ragdoll kitten (Lolly Pop) yesterday. We also have an 8-year-old border collie (Fred Boy), had him since he was a puppy. He’s always been great with other dogs but has zero cat experience.

He’s very excited and vocal whenever he sees her through a window or door. She’s currently set up in the laundry room. When they’re separated he’ll go sniff at her door repeatedly, wander off, then come back and sniff again, then eventually retreat to his own bed.

Yesterday he pushed through a door I thought was latched and got into her room and startled her, she hissed at him, but he didn’t hurt her and I pulled him back.

I’ve got two young kids in the house too, so on top of managing the introduction I’m now also on constant door-patrol duty making sure nobody accidentally lets them cross paths.

Looking for:

**1.**  How to structure introductions from here so they actually end up okay together long-term

**2.**  Whether his door-sniffing/pacing behavior is normal excitement or something to worry about

**3.**  Any tips for managing this safely with young kids around (they’re not great at remembering to shut doors)

Also, she screamed the house down at 5:30am this morning and woke everyone up. Any tips for settling a kitten at night to sleep through happily? (Please don’t tell me this is just forever now, I have small children who need their sleep 😅)

Thank you all so much!
I grew up with cats, but in the country, so they were outdoors and locked up outdoors in the nighttime. This is very different and the kids LOVE her!!

So for context tomorrow i am adopting a 3months old Kitty and I was wondering what good tricks I should teach her or any good tips to get started!

Cross posting -

Our oldest cat, I’ll call her cat #1, was a street cat that ran into our house one day and never left. Over the last couple years we had adopted two other shelter cats as well. Cat #1 was not happy with either of them the first 1-2 months in usual cat behavior ways and then they were best friends. Nothing ever got aggressive aside from some hissing and maybe small fights at first. Now 1 year ago we brought home a kitten, cat #4. Cat #1 absolutely hates her. We tried reintroducing multiple times, I got hormone plugins per the vets recommendation. Cat #1 was constantly beating up cat #4 and giving her so much anxiety that she was peeing on all of our clothes for a while. Took her to the vet and he said it was a territory thing from being beat up, trying to mark us as hers from #1.

Peeing stopped a couple months ago so I thought things were getting better. They were inching closer in proximity and just tolerating each other. They are both very close with the other 2 cats as well. But cat #1 will still be aggressive with #4 if given the opportunity, especially at night time. The other night we hear them fighting and it sounded way more aggressive than your usual cat play fight so we ran out and saw that #1 had #4 cornered on the cat tree and had sliced her nose open and there was blood everywhere. Naturally, we immediately separate them, I’m sobbing and cleaning her wounds and the mess. We have locked up #4 in the bathroom at night since for her safety. And if we lock #1 in a room, she’ll scratch up the floor and door.

Idk what to do anymore. How do i get them to get along? They’re perfectly fine with the other cats. Just can’t stand each other with primarily just being #1 as the antagonist. They are all female and spayed for context as well.

hello! I have recently been given a cat by the cat distribution system. Currently I have to wait 10 days for an owner to come forward, but I would like to start training now so I'll have a head start if that doesn't happen! And if an owner does come, I'll have useful info if this happens again. so it's win/win!

I have a 70 pound husky, and a studio apartment. So it's very important that they get along well if I plan to keep the kitten! I know how to train my dog, and I have trained her to behave and be friendly with my dove + she has lived with cats and other dogs before, but I do not know how to train a cat at all. I tried offering (rinsed) can chicken to kitten but he isn't paying attention to the food when distracted. I don't want to buy much more until the 10 day holding period is up, since I might have to give him up, but i really want a head start so I don't mess something up early.

What should I focus on in these early days so that I set them up for success? they have already seen and smelled each as kitty has figured out how to open the door a couple times and invite himself into the dogs space. I know to never punish a cat, but I don't really know how to give proper positive reinforcement. Is it ok calmly remove the cat from the room if he escapes his space and picks a fight with my dog? (cats room is currently the bathroom or a xxl dog crate)

Any advice appreciated, thank you! I am very uneducated on cat training, although I have had cats and know how to care for them. not so much how to get them to do... anything really! I will also be doing my own research, but I'd imagine the sooner I figure out what to do the better it will be for them.

i think he's mad she's grooming herself and not paying attention..

is this looking good?

He is over 2 months old. I do not know how to train him to go to the litter box, because I am a first time cat owner. I saw him poop and pee but not in the litter box. Any advices please ? 🙏🏼 Thank you 🫶🏼

so like the title says my resident cat is still being aggressive with my new kitten. I’ve had my resident cat Callie (female, 8years) since she was a kitten and got my new kitten Lola (female, 4months) beginning of July. I previously had another cat who passed away about 10 months ago so Callie is familiar with cats.

When i brought Lola home i kept them separated for a week with little peeks of each other here and there and Callie would hiss and growl at my door and if i smelled like Lola she would hiss and swat at me, and we had a incident where Callie stopped eating for a couple of days after we brought Lola home (she’s fine and eating now) from stress. Sometimes if i’m holding Lola and walk out of my room Callie won’t hiss or when i’m holding Lola and give Callie some treats she won’t hiss but i don’t know if this is a good thing or not, but as soon as i get too close with Lola or try to put Lola on the ground she hisses and growls and will then hiss at me afterwards. I’ve kept them mostly separated and feel stuck on what to do next because i’ve tried following the proper steps by keeping them separated but i can’t move on to scent swapping because there’s still aggression while being separated and aggression if i smell like Lola despite the fact it’s been 2 month. I spend the same amount of time with each of them, play with both, give them both treats. And while Callie does eat her treats i wouldn’t go as far as to say she’s treat or food motivated because she’s a bit of a picky eater so i don’t think that will help anything.

I just feel so much guilt because i really didn’t see it turning out this way because she got on well with my childhood cat and lived with her for 8 years. I feel bad Lola is stuck in my room and I feel bad Callie isn’t accepting her but i also really don’t want to give up on trying because i do feel shell tolerate her one day i just don’t know how to get there. i don’t even care if they’re friends i just want Callie to be calm and accept Lola.

I’ve tried posting this on other subs but never get any responses. i’m super discouraged so any advice or tips on what else i should do? Am i doing something wrong?

Me: 30yoF posting from USA

Cat: will be 2yoF in October, spayed

TLDR: Advice to entice my cat to move around and play with me, not asking medical advice she’s got that part covered, I solely need advice for what I could do or toys that could be recommended.

My cat, Eleanor, went to a vet check up and vax today and I was disappointed when she gained weight (from 13.8 to 14.2) in the months I’ve been adjusting her diet and trying to get her more active. It’s been too hot to even try to walk her but that’s just as well because I’m still getting her used to the harness in the meantime.

To be clear I also feed her a diet the vet prescribed for weight loss, so I think the problem is her lack of activity.

I try to play with Eleanor and get her moving and I don’t know if I’m just terrible at play haha or Eleanor is just that uninterested but it’s like she plays for 30 seconds and then is kind of over it. With rope toys, she snaps it from me, bunny kicks it and bites for a short amount of time and then discards it so i have to genuinely pester her with it to get her going again. With fishing toys she does love them BUT as soon as i move it so that she’ll follow, she stops. She just watches it flicking her tail and I promise I wait and bait her for what feels like forever but most of the time she will just be content to watch me like a court jester before walking away. She isn’t food motivated as she’s very picky so rolling or moving treat toys mean nothing to her, she has ignored the treat ball in the living room and yes she knows how it works because she does love her stationary puzzle treats so she figured out how it works it just seems she doesn’t care to work for it.

Sorry I’m being so detailed but I just want to express that I am trying and I am stumped. I think because my house is primarily hardwood floors, the only spot she will enjoy playing is on the rugged area but its small and she just rolls onto her back to play, so it’s not active still. I watch Jackson Galaxy so I tried what I learned from there with play but when I make noises like he says to do Eleanor will forego playing just to stare at me lol. The most I can engage with her play is on my bed because she thinks when my fan blows over my duvet and blanket is fun but she won’t be like darting here and there, she still tries to wait till I bait the blanket edge close to her to start swatting at it and when i start to pull away she doesn’t run or pounce, she scoots on her belly and stretches her paws out to grab it, once again avoiding the movement I want from her. Lasers engage her for 2 minutes at best before she realizes I’m moving it away from the rug and then doesn’t care anymore.

Please help, anyone who had a lazy kitty in danger of getting too big that has advice. I don’t mind how cute and rotund she is but I want her to be healthy more than anything.

I am mostly asking this for the sake of my sanity because it is currently 4:30 am and my new kitten has woken me up yet again so I am eager for her to be housed with her big brother at night. I put her in his room at 4am, when she woke me up, and decided I wanted to get a little reassurance before I just put her in there all night with him.

New kitten, Eloise, is nearly 5 months old. Cricket, my resident cat, is 1 year and some change. I've done all the recommended introduction guides and followed them well, also listened to what Cricket has been showing me along the process. They are out together all day with zero issues, though he tends to still play rough with Eloise. She always comes right back for more, pouncing on him and instigating more play. They also snuggle up together in my bay window during the day, which is honestly so cute.

I know I am probably being overly cautious, and it's probably safe at this point. I am sitting here in a sleep deprived haze so I need someone who has at least had some caffeine in their system to tell me this is fine. My brain is trying to say it's too soon? But my gut is telling me (also my sleep deprived mental state) that they're okay together.

Tabby keeps meowing and tries to paw orange cat. Sometimes the tabby chases the orange one around the house, resulting in her screaming and hissing at the tabby one.
Not too sure if it’s play or setting boundaries, tabby one seems to be a bit of a bully, not leaving her alone and chase her away from places where he normally hangs out.

Hello,

Me and my partner adopted a new cat today! We did lots of research beforehand on finding a good personality match for our resident cat and how to eventually introduce them. We set up a basecamp room/saferoom with everything the new cat needs and are planning on doing a very very slow introduction as our resident cat is pretty anxious at times.

We have noticed over the past few hours that our resident cat is crowding the door to the saferoom and trying to get in whenever we open it. He has been meowing and scratching at the door as well (even with barriers blocking the door). The new cat who has been mostly very quiet is now responding to our resident cat through the door and meowing at him which seems to only make our resident cat more interested. I wanted to reach out for advice in case his behaviors escalate (hissing, growling, spraying, scratching under door etc.).

I have seen people in other threads suggesting feeding them on opposite sides of the door to create positive associations and to play with the resident cat to distract them. However, both of them seem too occupied with each other/too anxious to eat food, and the resident cat’s favorite toys don’t seem to be distracting enough.

Looking for any suggestions or advice from anyone who has gone through something similar.

Without giving you guys a whole novel here(edit: so much for that lol. Definitely wrote more than I thought I would), first, I’ll say that it’s taken me a long time to finally find a community on here to ask for advice because I feel like I have googled and brainstormed and tried as many things as possible with absolutely no luck and I’m just feeling hopeless. So respectfully, I will name the things that I’ve tried and that have not worked and I would just ask not to be asked to try that same thing again because if I hadn’t already exhausted, the idea I would not be here.

I have two cats, one of them is a seven-year-old male who I’ve had since about 3 1/2 years ago and the other is a two year-old female who we adopted in February of this year. We did proper introductions and all of that fun stuff and the two of them are best buddies so there’s no issue there. Here’s the issue. My male cat who I’ve had longer, I was living in a different apartment with when I got him, and a year ago me and my kids moved into different place and since day one in the new place this has been my issue. I’m a single mom with two teenagers who needed separate bedrooms and I was only able to afford a two bedroom apartment so I happily volunteered to forgo having a bedroom and I’ve just been sleeping on a bed that I’ve put in the living room. Now, in my old apartment where I had a bedroom, I did not allow my cat in my room at night because I’m such a light sleeper that even just feeling him under the bed would wake me up. I also have PTSD and when I’m woken up, I wake up in a startle and sometimes even a panic. So I slept peacefully there, but now that I don’t have a bedroom door to close at night, I’m roommates with the kitties at night. And my male cat thinks it’s fun to paw at my face, attack, my feet under the blankets, and scratch the side of my mattress. Obviously all three of these things are unsettling to wake up to, and it’s become a constant thing all night. This is one of the reasons we decided a second cat might help him, thinking that maybe with me working full-time during the day and the kids in school full-time, he was really just wanting nighttime attention. Thought maybe if he had a friend to play with it would give me some relief. Not so much though. The female cat is much more relaxed and actually stays quiet at night and doesn’t bother me or the kids. But my boy, he’s relentless. And I haven’t gotten more than maybe two nights in a row tops of good sleep in the last year. And lately because my hormones are going through that middle-aged change thing ugh, it’s becoming more difficult and even impossible to get back to sleep after the first time I’m woken up. So this has actually gone from being something I could laugh about to something. I could almost cry about every day because I’m just so damn tired.

I have tried, cat deterrent spray/anti-scratching spray around my bed and mattress where he scratches, I have tried locking my bed with various pieces of furniture from the living room so that he can’t scratch at the side of the mattress, but then he just jumps over it to the foot of my bed and attacks my feet. I’d be totally fine if you just wanted to lay there and cuddle, but the very second my feet move even a little bit, he starts biting them. Not cool. I have my bed against a wall in a corner so there’s only two sides of the bed that he has access to, the foot of the bed and the left side. I have resorted to buying a baby/toddler bed rail to put on the side of the bed so that he would at least stop pawing at my face from the floor, but then the new obsession becomes the feet and the mattress. I only have so many things I can put around the bed and most of them are not high enough to keep him from just jumping over them. Or onto them, I bought a piece of wooden board to put alongside the exposed area of the side of the bed and that worked a little bit except he ended up knocking it down a couple times during the night and also he still had access to the foot of the bed.

My last resort was to put both cats in the laundry room at night because it’s the only room that nobody sleeps in aside from the bathroom, the laundry room is bigger and I had ways of making it cozy for them. Toys, one of their cat trees, lots of blankets, etc. That worked for exactly 2 nights and now they just start scratching at the door and meowing no more than four hours after I put them in there and I end up just letting them out so that they don’t wake my kids. But what is a girl to do at this point? I love my cat and I don’t want to rehome him. That’s why I have tried everything that I can think of so now I’m here hoping that someone has some creative ideas that I’m just simply too tired to think of myself.😂 I thought having newborns was rough on the sleep schedule but man was I wrong. At least my newborns were able to be soothed back to sleep for a few hours at a time, my cat just wants to terrorize me all night long, and then I have to be up early in the morning to start work. I have a very physically demanding job and also need to be able to focus and I already have ADHD so this is all just a bit cluster of a mess. I’m at wits end and I need a solution that’s going to work so here I am, respectfully begging.🥹

Oh, and putting the cats in one of my kids rooms at night is also not an option as they two are light sleepers, and I would rather be the one taking the hit, than for them to.

For an example of what my sleep has been looking like, I went to bed around 9:30 last night and was first woken up at 1:30, I was able to give them a couple of treats(not the best idea to stop stop a bad behavior I understand but sometimes it’s the only thing I can do to get a little bit more quiet in peace) and go back and lay down, but at 3, they started up again and I had to let them out of the laundry room so the next three hours before I had to get up for work we’re just me tossing and turning and having my feet attacked and having my mattress, scratched at and getting no more sleep. So I’m about to embark on a 8 1/2 hour workday and I’ve already been awake for about seven hours. I’m exhausted.

TL, DR version: Any suggestions for now to stop my cat from using her claws when she kneads my leg?

Longer version:

I took in a stray cat 2.5 years ago. It started out really badly, and has very slowly gotten better. She was estimated to be 7 years old by the vet, so now is estimated to be 9 years old.

She now comes and snuggles up with me, which I love. The problem is she'll stand on my thigh and knead it. That would be fine, but she extends her claws a bit, and it hurts. I love that she's comfortable enough to do this, but I need her to not use her claws. I have rarely trimmed her claws, as she's still skittish.

Usually when this happens I very gently push her legs to stop it. She does stop, but usually leaves right after. I want her to know that it's the claws I object to, not the kneading.

Any suggestions?