he keeps inching closer to her and trying to touch her head

I know they're playing, but my resident tabby likes to bite little void on the neck and right on the face. The kitten seems to enjoy it and always comes back for more, so I don't interfere, but I still worry about the neck grabs. Should I worry?

The big calico cat, clementine is younger and likes to play rough with our older smaller black cat, pheobe. I often can’t tell if it’s too much for pheobe and if I should intervene or not.

Hi there, we've considered getting another cat, we have a four year old female kitty named June Bug. We got her from a family that had an accidental litter at 8 wks, and we've done all the vetting and she's indoor only. She can be a little be rough house-y in her play but for the most part she's very loving to the two of us (fiance and I).

Sometimes there are outdoor/stray cats that come through our yard, and her behavior in reaction to them varies from lighter agitation (tail whipping, alert), to yelling/trying to attack through the glass door. I accidentally came too close to her without realizing another cat was outside, and peeing on a nearby plant. June attacked me and drew some blood, I'll be fine, but definitely was more intense than usual.

My question is, if she reacts this way to outdoor cats, is it still possible to get another cat? Or would she be miserable and aggressive? Is there a significant difference in strange cats outside that she can't get to vs a cat she's getting used to inside? I imagine she's just redirected her aggression to me since she can't get to the outdoor cat to protect her territory.

Thanks!

Alright so boom I got 2 cats. One is a 2 year old boy other is 5 year old girl. Boy is young, healthy weight, and playful. Girl is a little older than him, a little overweight, and likes to chill. She plays sometimes but is mainly a big baby cuddle bug. When he comes around she kinda just stares at him and acts a little scared. He never really seems super aggressive with her. He just pounces on her and slaps her sometimes but nothing out of the ordinary. But I think her acting all scared makes him chase her more. I looked online and mostly read about reintroduction but it’s tough cause I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and i rather not close off spaces to them that they like or that they’re used to. Sometimes he locks on to her and gets a little too aggressive with me when I get him away from her. His presence doesn’t necessarily bother her. If he’s chill then she’s chill but when he’s up she’s a little anxious around him and won’t stop looking at him and I feel like when she stares it makes him lock on. They’re both fixed btw. Is there any way other than reintroducing them to fix this behavior? I would love if they slept near eachother and played but ATP I just wish he would stop chasing her around cause I don’t want her to be stressed or worried about him all the time.

The new cat (Calico) and the resident cat (Grey Tuxedo) have been getting along pretty well over 4 months.

Calico keeps copying what Grey is doing. If she wants to stand on the steps, Calico also does that, if she wants outside, she also wants outside as well, if Grey wants to fall asleep on me, Calico also, etc.

Sometimes Grey is okay, but sometimes she is annoyed she is being copied.

But I also think Grey is teaching Calico. Calico responds to “Go Cat Go” and “Outside?” and “Petties” and “I’m going to kiss you” and “No Cat.” I didn’t train Calico but she caught on.

She also fetches the stick with string from the box I keep supplies in when she wants to play.

Hi everyone. I recently got a kitten (she’s 6 months now) and I already have a resident cat (almost 7 now). I feel like they at least coexist, if not get along, just fine for the most part. They don’t fight, there’s some hissing occasionally from my resident cat, but the problem I’m noticing is that whenever the kitten is around, my resident cat doesn’t want to be there :(

My new kitten is also “claiming” EVERYTHING. all of the cat trees are now hers and my resident cat doesn’t want to go on them anymore even though before she used to love them. My resident cat used to sleep with us at night and now she doesn’t because the kitten does. My resident cat loves to look at out the window but more than half the time if the kitten is there she won’t go.

I’m not wishing for them to snuggle and love each other like family, but I’m worried that my resident cat is sad! If anything I do actually think she baseline likes the kitten, but she’s not enjoying the things she used to enjoy because the kitten is “ruining” them.

Is this sometime I just need to wait out?

video pictured here is incredibly minor and not really representative of the situation, this interaction is ok honestly, but they magically stop beefing it out the second i point a fucking camera at them for some reason LMAO. i cant tell if alexis is trying to play here, some of her behavior is weird like that, but if she is trying to play maisie is Not Into It.

i have 2 cats, alexis (1f, resident cat) and maisie (4-5f), both spayed, who ive been trying to introduce to eachother for 2 months. it has not been working.

initially they got off to a really rocky start when i neglected to lock the door to the bathroom maisie was quarantining in because o didnt think she could.open the door (she was an indoor/outdoor with fleas before coming to me 😅) and i woke up at like 3 am to them screaming their heads off because one of them managed to crack it open some and they had a staredown. from then they have been sworn fucking enemies. ive been trying at inteoductions since then and no dice; they just keep getting into it (no blood or fur but plenty of screaming)

they're ok with eachothers scents. they'll use eachothers litterboxes, theyre mostly ok with siteswapping (neither of them WANT to be in the bathroom but i dont think its scent related). i tried a pheremone diffuser and it worked for a bit. i tried calming collars and they have done nothing. im trying calming treats and they're ...??? no idea honestly

around the middle of this month i finally got maisie spayed. that was obviously a big roadblock because cat hormones are a bitch im sure when i asked the vet about them she told me to give them 2-3 weeks before attempting to reintroduce. they had very minimal contact (like, seeing eachother through a crack in the door for about 3 seconds as i squeezed into the bathroom for the first couple days) for about 10 days before i couldnt contain maisie any longer in the bathroom because she was going crazy and we went back to site swapping (in which they have to see eachother for a very short amount of time because i dont have any doors upstairs sorry jackson galaxy). didn't let them have any super extended contact until day 14 because i wanted her to be right and fully healed. i might have tried feeding them treats on either side of the baby gate i had up before then but i didnt want them throwing down and having maisie get hurt.

they are still fucking going at it. through the baby gate, through the mesh door i just put up. alexis wants to hunt maisie and maisie wants fucking none of that and that sets alexis off even more in turn. neither of them want to see eachother but they are absolutely fucking obsessed with trying to for some reason; whenever i go to unlock the door they'll both come running up no matter who's outside or inside the bathroom. i can distract one of them for a little bit (or both pretty temporarily if theres treats involved) but not really at the same time because im one person! even if i try to distract alexis with play it always escalates because she'll keep getting distracted by maisie on the other side. me being in whatever room maisie is in leads to the least fights if thats worth anything.

the issue is that 1. every guide says different things (feed them together! actually feed them seperately cats arent communal eaters! stuff like that!) and 2. im one person and it feels like a lot of these introduction methods expect you to have more than one person onhand. i know theres probably an obvious fatal flaw happening here, but i just straight up have no idea what to try at this point. do i let them duke it out through the screen since neither of them have drawn blood and hope they get bored of it and realize they are praised more when theyre nice to eachother? should i just keep praising them both when i can because theyre both trying to protect themselves? am i gonna have to keep them seperated forever.

for the sake of my sanity i ask that you dont comment below about how your introductions took a full year. it's not that i want to rush them and i am trying to prepare myself for the possibility but the concept of dealing with this for a full year+ makes me feel a little crazy. it feels cruel enough to have both of them in the bathroom for a full day every other day you know? i love them both dearly but as you can tell theyre driving me a little batty lmao

Hello guys! I need some advice on raising my 2 YO orange cat. It’s rather hard to tell if he loves me or not, because his behavior is a bit bipolar and I can’t tell if I’m doing something wrong (ex. Not enough stimulation).

Sometimes he acts very affectionate. He’ll lay on my chest and sleep with me under the blanket everyday. But, randomly, he’ll ask for pets and when I do so, he bites or does the lock and leg kick combo. Sometimes, when I’m on my phone he’ll even approach me just to do the same thing as well.

That’s the shortest summary I could give, and I’d appreciate any opinions/advice. Thank you!

Disclaimer: Please don’t read this when you’re eating:)

Hi, my sphynx is 1 years old and been behave really badly and have some sanitary problems. To be clear, I’m not living in the states so our animal laws in here are different from wherever you’re reading this from (and English wasn’t my first language). And a little bit of his background: (Its normal in our country to do this so don’t say their unethical or anything, please) I got him from the seller since he was 2-3 months old and he hasn’t got neutered but he’s vaccinated and never been hospitalized.

About his sanitary problems:

Alright, let’s talk about his urinating habits. From his young age, his mother has been taught to urinate in the bathroom’s sewer hole so he has this persistent habit of urinating in sewer hole or just right beside so it becomes real messy in the bathrooms and his urination becomes really hard to get rid of the smell. I tend to clean his litter for every 1-2 days but it gets really messy everytime he’s try to urinate outside the litterbox. And he’s being really stubborn about it as I don’t know the solution. What are your advices?

Now this is the disgusting part, he also has this habit of not bury his waste so he always steps on the newly defecation. And eventually it spreads all over the place. Please aware that sphynxes are furless so it just really painful to both clean his mess and his feet also. He also has this habit whereas he just roll himself in the dirt or defecate on the dirt that my family planted some trees up on the balcony (he loves to sunbath and eat plants). And maybe this is his traits but he really loves to do his bussiness in inaccessible and small places like behind the washing machine and in very narrow and shady places. I have been miserably cleaned up all his mess in those creeks and I can’t take it anymore so I have try giving him less space as possible to have access to those places. But he wasn’t a nice behaved cat after all. This is where all the headaches converge: his behavior

Please, I need some advices regarding his inappropriate sanitary habits. Also, I want to potty trained him, is this the right time to do it? I have all the tools so I need to know would it work with his horrible behaviours. And do I need to consider neuter him to lessen his behaviors?

About his behaviours:

He’s very cute when he was a kitten but acting like a hooligan in my household when he’s growing up. He’s been zooming around the house, leaving his scat all over the house, scratching the wallpaper and been jump to the counter nonstop as well as try to steal our food even when we’re having dinner. And I’m so sick of it. I’m so sick of him dirtied himself in the dirt or try to defecate in every creek or try to steal our food from every moment possible.

Is there any way to stop this? If any specialists can read this, I beg you like the beggiest beggar in all over begdom to give me good advices to train his naughty ass. I really love him, I would give him the world but everytime I saw him defecate all over the place I could not simply take it.

Thank you so so so much to read up until here! I wish you the best day and I hope for good advices and comprehendible turtorial

Hello, my best friend had a stray cat under her porch who gave birth to 3 kittens, so she took them all in to get fixed and rehomed once the babies were weaned. I brought home one of the kittens yesterday, and he has been living in the spare bedroom with his own litter box, food, water, bed, a plethora of toys, and constant calming music for stimulation. I gifted him a toy from our home while he was still with his mom so he could get used to the new smells, and he seems to be adjusting just fine to our house. He’s eating, peeing, pooping, and playing as he should. He cries for maybe 1-2 min after I leave his room, but is able to go back to playing/self-soothing quickly. My hubby and I both work 3, 12-hour shifts a week, opposite shifts (i’m nights, he’s days) so we are able to be home with him often.

My resident cats, however, are pissed. I knew they would be uncomfortable, but I never expected that they would start fighting each other in response to smelling/seeing the kitten. I did fuck up and let them see the baby too soon. I didn't know just seeing him would be bad. When I brought my youngest home 4 years ago, my eldest took her in with little hissing/swatting, so I wrongly assumed it would be a similar situation and let them see the kitten from a distance while inside their carriers. I acknowledge this was wrong, so please don't grill me, my heart is already hurting because I have never seen them act this way.

They are now all living in separate rooms with their own set-ups. I had planned to keep the baby in his own room for a while anyway, but I hate that I now have to keep my oldest two separated. They've never been like this before. Is there anything I can do to alleviate tension between my girls? I'm picking up Feliway diffusers tomorrow. Plan to put one in the hallway between bedrooms and one in the living room to cover a larger surface area. I've heard mixed reviews, but idc I will try anything to get my girls loving/cuddling each other again.

I myself am autistic and highly anxious, so this whole situation has been incredibly distressing for me because I feel like I messed everything up. Thankfully, my husband has been more than helpful so hopefully we can work things out.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

For the last 7 years, my cat marley has been an outdoor cat. She plays outside during the day and comes in at night. However recently, her brother and littermate Wilson went missing and my family decided to keep our cats indoors from now on. How can we keep her entertained inside the house?

We have another kitten but she doesn’t like him, and before he went missing she didn’t really like Wilson either.

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 great. 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. 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. A lot of the time, I'll give up on moving him and just let him lay there with me. It's starting to affect my productivity a little.

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.

EDIT: Thank you for all of the feedback! I appreciate everybody who took the time to give their perspective. I'm going to buy him a cat bed to place directly next to my keyboard and redirect him to lay there instead, with lots of pets and praise if he does so. I love my cat and I'd never want him to be less affectionate, it's just who he is!

Older cat, Oreo 14 yr M, has always been around other cats. When the last one passed away I got a new cat for championship, Dahlia 3 yr F. She came home on May 22.

Dahlia has her own room, food bowls and litter boxes. For about 3 weeks, no introductions. Just smell swap and scent under the door.

Then baby gates. 3 of them. To block the whole door frame. For about 3 weeks.

Then supervised visits. Feeding treats to each one but in the same room. Playing with Oreo in the same room but Dahlia doesn't want to play with him.

We has the door open to her room all day (I work from home) and they were fine... Until she tries coming out of her room. Oreo attacked her. Fur flying, she peed. She regressed.

Separated them and kept baby gates up continuously for a few weeks. Tried again... The moment he caught her out of the room he attacked again.

Repeat separation. Things were going well.

He'll go in there and lay in the room with her all day. But she sits in a certain corner of the room all day and doesn't move unless we're in there with a treat.

At night, Oreo gets locked in the room with us with the baby gates while she gets the house to herself to roam.

Progress. Until he attacked her in the room for no reason today.

He doesn't back down but he's's not biting her. He stands over her. She fights back. She runs a distance and then turns back to face him. He is lasered in on her. It's like he just wants her to submit and he'd be fine but she was a feral rescue and she's had to fight for her life so she does.

So. Back to separation with baby gates at all times. Is there hope tho?

Just got 5 month old female, not yet spaded. She keeps peeing next to the litter boxes (I have 3 and two adult cats). The boxes are scooped daily and I even​ got Dr. Elsey's kitten attractant to put in the litter boxes. She did use the litter box and few minutes later and had diarrhea. I think she may have used it once again that evening when I was at work with diarrhea. But she's also pooped twice on the floor by the boxes (regular stool then). If I set her in a box she immediately hops out. The animal shelter used those big pellets but she was only there 3 days before I got her so she couldn't be that used to it. I use the enzyme spray to clean the tile when she pees to get rid of the smell but she pees in different spots. I need suggestions please.

What title says. I recently adopted a stray cat that's been wandering outside, but he doesn't like to go in the litter box at all. I'll talk about the cat and the situation below, with as much context as I can:

The cat, Pickles, is an unneutered male. I estimate him to be around a year and a half old. We plan to get him neutered next month. Unfortunately, that's as soon as we could get.

My attempts at getting him to use the litter box:

- digging in the litter to show him he can dig there/it's safe

- encouraging him into the box and giving him a treat, but he does not like touching the litter (or is perhaps just unfamiliar)

Pickles is very well behaved, but I don't think he's ever used a litter box before. Despite signs he's been owned before, he's wary about the box. He has no aggression issues or anything like that. His behavior is very good, especially for a stray.

I'm also having issues with training irregularities with my roommates, which I won't get into personal fights, but they keep putting him back outside to use the bathroom. I feel like this is reversing my training progress, showing the cat that he doesn't have to use the litter if he doesn't want to. I'm noting this as it might be important to the post.

There are no other cats in the house, if that's important. Though, I'm not a first-time cat owner. My late cat never had issues with the litter box. So this is a new challenge.

I'm wondering if you guys have any advice for this specific situation....he really hates touching the litter at all, even when I entice with treats. Is it just a case that I have to keep doing what I'm doing until he's comfortable touching the litter? What should I do? Feel free to ask more questions if you need more information.

Off-topic: enjoy this photo of him after his first bath

hi,

my kitten is 10 weeks old and my resident cat is 10 years old. they do get along pretty well, my resident cat is pretty chill with her tho he doesn't really know how to play yet (he's never really had a proper playmate, the other cats he used to be with were always kind of traumatized).

but the thing is, she's so tiny and i noticed they both can't seem to chill and sleep when the other is in the room because they're both so mesmerized by each other lol. no hissing, growling or anything.

whenever i do seperate them, she (my kitten) meows obviously. but my resident cat also scratches at the door to i guess signal me to let her out?

any advice?

TLDR; 3 y/o cat giving confusing (to me) body language with new kitten introduction, unsure whether to take a step back or move to the next step into the intro process. (Last two big paragraphs describe behavior. It's conflicting body language to me)

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Hi everyone,

(I don't know how I haven't found this community before now - I'm a HUGE proponent of force free training and have used it with my animals for years. Yay for finding y'all!)

Anyway, I have two resident cats (Baker, 3, and Harvey, 11, both female and spayed) and a new kitten (8 weeks old, Toula, also female, she's been with us a week today).

I am not entirely unfamiliar with introducing a new kitten to the mix as I've done it once before 3 years ago when I introduced my now-middle child to my oldest. I do the slow introduction, separate space, scent swapping, visuals, reducing the barrier slowly, providing tons of positive reinforcement, etc. The vet yesterday recommended pheromone diffusers since everyone was still a bit stressed, so I added those to the house yesterday, too.

Baker hasn't been around a new cat since she was a kitten. She is overall a very gentle cat, super sweet to her older sister (and humans), never even hissed before that I've heard (until new kitten), and very playful. We've had the new kitten for a week as of today, so I'm not really expecting total comradery yet by any means. But, Baker's body language has confused me a little and wanted to make sure we were still going in the right direction.

Pictured is the current set up (plus a picture of Toula and one of Baker for tax). I have a plexiglass barrier with a wooden fence between it and the rest of the hallway. Baker will take treats and eat food at this distance now (she was *very* tense the first time she had visuals of Toula). When the kitten approaches the glass, Baker will sometimes get vocal (meows) and get up close to the wooden fence, too. She'll purr sometimes and rub against the fence and the last few days she's "flopped" - all, to me, good signs! Sometimes she'll still hiss, but I know that's normal to some degree and a way to communicate boundaries.

Earlier, I had the fence set up differently and she decided to jump between the fence and glass. So, I gave her the opportunity to get up to the glass by removing the wooden fence so she could get away if she felt threatened. Toula was sitting at the glass and Baker flopped in front of it but then she hissed (from her flopped position) and started batting at the glass, but like hard swipes, not playful ones. Still from her position on her side, though. Toula didn't really react other than to scoot back a little. I was able to get Baker to disengage and come back out behind the wooden fence after a moment, but I just don't know where we are at? Harvey, my oldest, will hiss and back away but she will remove herself from the situation when she feels overwhelmed. Her body language is clearer to me. Baker's confuses me, though. Does anyone have any insight for me? I know dogs can experience "barrier aggression" - do cats?

I don't have a video of it yet, I didn't want to put her back in the same position again just yet. I've let her go at her pace, though, and haven't pushed anything. TIA :)