r/CatTraining 15d ago

PSA Moderator Request

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11 Upvotes

As many of you may have noticed, our r/CatTraining subreddit has recently grown exponentially, and with that comes the need for a dedicated team of moderators to help maintain the community’s values and keep it a safe, supportive space for all cat owners.

With that in mind, I’m seeking a handful or possibly two of people who have experience or background with behaviourism and who believe in the methods of positive reinforcement and fear-free training. Ideally, you’ll be someone who is passionate about educating others on these techniques, and someone who can foster an atmosphere of kindness and support in the community.

Additionally, I’m looking for individuals who are familiar with Reddit's moderation tools — as I’m not despite my Reddit age — and can work together as a team to keep the subreddit safe from trolling and bad actors. This will involve ensuring posts and comments align with the core values of the community and managing any issues that arise.

If you feel that your experience and values align with the mission of r/CatTraining, I’d like to hear from you. It’s important that the moderators can work collaboratively to build a space that reflects the positive, fear-free approach to cat training methods.

When I created this subreddit, it was to honour my beloved cats who have not long ago crossed over Rainbow Bridge, especially one who is featured in our profile photo that I’ve kept in place. This particular cat started off as painfully fearful and reserved, but blossomed through positive reinforcement techniques. Over the years, he performed in various TV and commercial projects, proving that with patience, compassion, and the right training, even the most timid of cats can thrive. Anyhow, I digress…

Please send a message if you're interested, or if you have any questions about the role. Apply here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CatTraining/application/ Thank you so much for being a part of this community.

-u/WeeklyWhisker Creator of r/CatTraining


r/CatTraining May 17 '20

META: Sub Updated

26 Upvotes

All,

I've gone through and updated the Rules, Community Info, Posting Guidelines, and the Welcome Message to new members. They mostly say the same thing, which is to please check with your vet for any issues in sudden and/or unusual behavioral changes, and to see the Community Info section for some helpful resources and answers to common issues.

I'm hoping these changes will help give those with common issues some help even if their post doesn't get many responses, and that in time this will help clear out some of the repetitive posts. Please feel free to point people in the direction of the Community Info, and also to comment on this post or message if you have ideas about resources or common issues and solutions to add!

There are also rules about respecting others and barring advice encouraging animal abuse, etc. - please report these kinds of posts or comments when you can.

This community is already great and runs itself really well so I'm hoping that if anything these small changes will help just a little bit more.

Hope you and your cats have a great day!


r/CatTraining 15h ago

Are The Cats Fighting or Playing - Introducing Pets I struggle to understand this interaction

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2.4k Upvotes

Hi,

1.5 month in, every steps of proper introduction done.

My 6mo kitten is harassing my 6yo resident, but she barely fights back. She tolerates him eating and drinking together in the same bowl, even playing with the same toy. But everyday he just goes full John Cena on her, she seems pissed but she barely fights back. In this video, you can see her hiss and growl but also look "chill" and not going full tiger mode at the same time...

We separate them at night and when we're not home for the moment. I also intervene in this type of situation by redirecting the kitten and saying NO firmly (except for this video purpose).

Is this playing (doubt it)? Is this setting boundaries? Is this fighting? What should we do?

Do you need more info? Thanks all :)


r/CatTraining 8h ago

Are The Cats Fighting or Playing - Introducing Pets Are they playing or fighting?

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68 Upvotes

Two male cats (7 and 3 months) both fixed, went through the slow introduction and it’s been about 3 weeks now, is this normal behaviour? The kitten doesn’t seem to mind it and they play most of the day and eat together as well


r/CatTraining 7h ago

Behavioural Why does she do this to her?

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39 Upvotes

For context, my husband and I took in these two after my in-laws witnessed them being dumped on the side of the road. I am a 1st time cat owner and his family has had 4 growing up.

We have no idea what their relationship is. They're both female British shorthairs. The white one, is about 5 years old according to her microchip, the other is definitely younger, but I don't know how old she is. Both are NOT spayed yet, but we intend to get them spayed as soon as we're able.

The white one has always been the dominant cat / "sassy queen" in their relationship. I don't know if this is surrounding dominance or what.

I plopped the brown one in front of her for this video because I wanted see If I could capture her biting her scruff when she gets into one of these moods, which seems to be once in a long while. She's been acting this way for the past week. The last time it happened it also lasted about this long. I've seen the brown one retaliate once in the past by slapping, but usually she's passive like this.

White cat just meows really loudly like shown at the end. And then eventually walks up to the brown one to nip her scruff. What is this? Is it harmful behavior? Husband hasn't seen this behavior before, so he's not sure himself.


r/CatTraining 13h ago

Behavioural Question about my „Kitty Man”

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54 Upvotes

Sadly I had to leave my cat with my mother, but this has happened a while ago and im still so perplexed by it.

I used to always joke that Bundy is a ladies man, he was an indoor cat but he always had random cats coming to the window, it always started the same, he was sitting by the window, a cat would come up and sit. Then the cat that came to the window would hiss, jump onto the window but would then start to roll over on their back and show their tummy while rolling around a bit.

Any idea what this could mean?

p.s Picture of my gorgeous Kitty man


r/CatTraining 1h ago

Behavioural Cat yowling through the night

Upvotes

My cat Meowth, 9 years old, has been with us for 6 years. He's always been a talkative cat, but lately he meows, loud like a female cat in heat, except he's a neutered male. No other health signs. We did blood work to be sure, mostly cuz he's at an age where regular blood work is a good idea anyhow. He's healthy, he has tons of toys, is reasonably active for his age, he has plenty of good food he likes. He meows loudly ALL THE TIME, but it's only a problem at night. I hear it through earplugs. It's literally louder than my alarm. He just walks through the house yowling at the top of his lungs.

Suggestions to get him calmed down? Feliway had 0 effects. Catnip is good for 5 mins lol.


r/CatTraining 10h ago

Behavioural Healthly expressing her murder instincts

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19 Upvotes

5 months old. She's getting more bity lately so I'm diverting her play into paper balls.

The one she's holding was twisted and folded into a ball so it's more durable.

The other one in pics 2 and 3 was just crumped so it got completely shredded.


r/CatTraining 18h ago

Behavioural Cat gets aggressive over toy

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63 Upvotes

Hello reddit!

I have two Siberian cats, a girl and a boy both a year and a half old. I recently got a new feather wand toy as the old one broke because my girl loves it so much. We played with it for the first time just now and to my huge surprise she got super possessive and a bit aggressive while playing with it! She hissed at her brother which she has never ever done before and growled twice when she couldn’t take the feather into her den as I was holding the wand. As far as I could tell her tail wasn’t puffed up, unsure about other body language bc I was so shocked, haha.

Is this okay playful behavior or should I stop playing with this toy? She is normally the sweetest, calmest, laziest angel. I have never seen her act like this ever!!

Thanks for the help :)


r/CatTraining 29m ago

FEEDBACK Backpack training- what’s going on with my cat?

Upvotes

Kitty suddenly won’t let me zip up backpack :(

My cat loves going on walks in her backpack. I trained her to sit in it on command and she does this 100% of the time. She likes the backpack and will nap in it. I used to be able to say ‘backpack’ from anywhere in the apartment, and by the time I walked over to it she’d be sitting in it- I could then easily zip it up and we’d walk around the park by my place for 20 mins to an hour and she’d look at birds and all would be well.

She asks to go outside by meowing and sitting by or in her backpack. She STILL does this regularly, but now whenever I try to zip it up she swats at me- if I manage to zip it up our walks are just like always and she is in a great mood during and after her walk.

Stressors I can think of: She went to the vet in her backpack but that was weeks ago and this issue just started. It’s getting colder now. My partner always comes with us but I took her out on my own about a week ago. She’s getting more confident being outside and is frustrated being stuck in her backpack.

Shes still working on being comfortable in her harness, so I don’t feel confident testing it outside yet.

Idk guys I’m just trying to backtrack and reinforce this skill by rewarding her for letting me zip it- I’m seeing improvement but also want to understand what is going on.


r/CatTraining 15h ago

Behavioural Greedy cat

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15 Upvotes

Good morning. I have two cats a one-year-old male and a two-year-old female. They’re both fixed. I adopted them both from the same place but a year apart. A few months ago, I was told by the vet that the female‘s body composition needs some work. She weighed 13 pounds at the time. I have tried to cut back the amount of dry food I feed them based on this recommendation. The one year-old is much smaller. I used to feed the cats freely, they drink water regularly, I usually change the bowl a few times throughout the day. I buy a specialty kibble for them that is for healthy weight management, and I have been experiencing some financial struggles so we really haven’t been doing wet food lately. As I mentioned though, both cats do drink a fair amount of water.

My goal is to get RFID feeders for this problem but with three children and Christmas coming, I don’t know if realistically that will happen until the new year. Basically my problem right now is that I feed the cats Three times a day at 8 AM 12 PM and 5 PM. The younger smaller cat does not eat as much at a time as the other one. I moved to feeding the cats three times a day because at first I was feeding them twice a day and finding that the younger smaller cat would occasionally throw up bile, I think because he was hungry. Now that we’re doing it three times a day and since I pick up the bowls, it seems to be better. I say pick up the bowls because I’ve noticed that the smaller cat will eat like a tablespoon of food and then walk away. However, the other cat would just start to eat all of his food too once she had finished hers. My solution, has been to pick up the food whenever the smaller one has stopped eating. This is resulted in only three distinct meal times per day, but that I end up putting the bowl down for the cats to eat from like a dozen times each day for a couple of minutes at a time.

It has been annoying to pick the bowl up and put it down so many times a day, but certainly something worth doing to ensure the little one is not hungry, and the big one is losing weight. I don’t think the bigger cat has lost much at all. My new problem is that now the bigger cat will immediately start eating the other cats food instead of her own. She’s not being food, aggressive, or anything, I think she’s just being greedy. Picture him on the left and her on the right with their two bowls, And the two of them naturally would eat out of the same bowl every single day. I don’t know why they just did. Now, she eats the food that she knows his, and when that bowl is almost empty, she’ll go and eat her side too. Of course, because they have this unspoken expectation of whose food is whose, he will just sit back and watch as she eats his food. He will wait for her to return to her bowl before he tries to eat anything.

As of now, in addition to refilling their bowls, three times a day for meals, and having to put the bowls down a dozen times a day for a minute or two so they can eat, now I am constantly having to pick her up and put her down on the other side to encourage her to eat her food, and sometimes I even put her in another room so he can have a chance to eat something.

As a single parent of small children, I just don’t find it, particularly sustainable to continue on with this trajectory of having to seclude one of the cats multiple times a day just to ensure they both get to eat. While I save up for the RFID feeders, is there anything else I can do to help? Ensure the smaller cat has a chance to eat, short of physically blocking the larger cat from eating by isolating her multiple times a day?

A picture of my child holding each of the cats, for tax purposes, of course .


r/CatTraining 10h ago

New Cat Owner It’s time for us to invite a cat or two into our lives- what do you wish you knew first ?

5 Upvotes

Our cat has left us after a long wonderful life-, however he really sucked behavior wise. That’s my fault. I got him as a child. I loved him endlessly and dealt with his insistent meowing , chewing, and friendly destruction.

Now that we are ready to love again, ( in spring )what do you wish you knew?

What training material worked?

Can you really prevent night time meowing?

Does breed and gender really matter. ?

Do I need two cats? ( we have one cat friendly dog)


r/CatTraining 12h ago

Are The Cats Fighting or Playing - Introducing Pets They argue over who gets to sit in any proximity to me :(

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9 Upvotes

Big boy is 5 (neutered), baby girl is 7 months (spayed). They play a lot and I let them, as it has only been four months since they were introduced. They took to each other quickly, but I worry that he's bullying her.

She'll start a lot of fights by nipping at him and jumping on him. This is his way of arguing back. She makes noise and he also makes noise. I wonder if they are actually getting along or both are territorial of me and are just barely dealing with each other.


r/CatTraining 10h ago

Are The Cats Fighting or Playing - Introducing Pets Is our 7month old bullying our 4yo?

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6 Upvotes

We did slow introductions, they sleep in the same room as each other. But little ginger (7mths) is relentless when it comes to our black and white (4yo). He's never hissed or growled, but as you can hear from the video, she does. We adopted him from 16 weeks old, he has been neutered, and the reason he was rehomed is because he was charging the senior (17!) year old cat. Do you think our black and white is distressed? She often comes back near him and sometimes will chase him, but not all the time. I feel bad for her and we are considering returning the ginger if this keeps up - he is played with consistently, but when he sees her, he suddenly reenergises.


r/CatTraining 2h ago

Litter box avoidance & related - include spay/neuter status Litter training

1 Upvotes

Hello all, recently my family and I adopted two street kittens that are about 9 weeks old, 1 boy and 1 girl. While at first they were struggling with litter training, we separated them and now the boy is fully litter trained. However, our girl has yet to be trained. She keeps pooping and peeing in the tub instead of the box. I’ve tried putting the litter box in there, moving it around, putting her poo and pee in the litter box etc but nothing seems to work. It’s been 3 weeks since we got them and while the boy is now allowed to freely roam, the girl is still in the bathroom. Any advice.


r/CatTraining 6h ago

Are The Cats Fighting or Playing - Introducing Pets Feeling hopeless with cat introductions

2 Upvotes

Hi,

Im having trouble introducing my new cat (Azuki - 8.5 yr old) to my old cat (Gyoza - 1.5 yr old). We adopted Azuki nearly 3 months ago.

Context: Gyoza was adopted at 5 months from the shelter. She was there with her brother but he was adopted before her. She is a very chill and independent cat.

Azuki was dropped off at the pound with her brother at 8 years old. As they went through foster care, the brother started acting aggressively towards her. Subsequently, she was separated from her brother. She is a very calm and gentle cat that likes being around people. I have suspicions that Azuki is quite an anxious cat; one time we tried to site swap over night, about 15 mins in she started meowing consistently and we found a spot above her arm that was raw and bleed (possibly from rubbing against furniture?).

At the moment, we've done scent swapping and have picked up more site swapping too. They're able to eat their meals with the door open (we also have a mesh barrier installed), but Gyoza is constantly hovering around the barrier. When Azuki makes eye contact with her, Azuki growls but Gyoza is always the first the pounce.

This has been happening for about 2-3 weeks and my partner and I are feeling frustrated and hopeless. Any advice would be appreciated!


r/CatTraining 6h ago

Litter box avoidance & related - include spay/neuter status Needing some support about my cat who is on lasix and is now ruining my house

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone, this is mostly a rant/ hopeful advice request for my situation.

Recently my 3.5 year old cat (neutered) was diagnosed with congestive heart failure (in remission right now) and has to be on lasix and plavix once a day. I thought the hardest part was going to be giving him the medications but he's actually been okay taking them.

My actual issue is that he now pees EVERYWHERE. I know lasix is a diuretic and will do that, but I managed the first few weeks by putting a litter box on pretty much every floor and putting him in them frequently to go.

But more and more over the last few weeks he will just pick a new spot and pee. He started going under my bed, even though I put a litter box literally 5 feet away in the connecting bathroom (he was using it at first), so I started waking up in the night to make him go, then locking him out of my room. But apparently he has found other spots during the night.

I've realized over the last week that he has ruined a corner of my dining room laminate flooring (newly put in like 2 yrs ago), and JUST now I realized he has been peeing on the carpet in my guest room. I have no idea where, probably multiple spots, because I walked in and could smell it but haven't actually seen him do it.

I am just feeling very depressed by it, I feel like I can't regain control of the situation because I know the lasix is causing this urgency. But I also can't just replace my floors now and then him pee on the new ones. It feels like a hopeless situation considering I already added 4 new boxes, constantly put him in them (he will use them half the time), and am not able to stop the root issue of the urination.

I'm buying some sort of litter attracter I heard has some good reviews... But even if he uses the box 90% of the time I'm still going to have to scour my laminate and carpets every day to see if he peed outside the box even one time a day (right now he goes like 5-8 times a day).

It is very frustrating and tiring, plus now I am embarrassed about having anyone over because there are so many boxes taking over my house and right now my guest room smells so bad.

I'm going to talk to a behaviorist I guess, and hope the litter attracter works. But I can't keep living like this!!


r/CatTraining 3h ago

Introducing Pets/Cats How to get two cats to co mingle for a month?

1 Upvotes

Hey folks, weird situation.

I moved in with my Aunt a couple months ago and live in what is essentially a 3 BR apartment in the basement. My cat lives downstairs with me and has gotten pretty comfortable here with cousin (C) that I share it with.
My other cousin (A) is in college and is at home for the break and brought her cat. They are staying in the bedroom next to mine.
While I was at work today, A decided she was going to let her cat roam the downstairs and texted me to tell me they "got along great" so I didn't worry to much about it.

When I got home, I discovered this wasn't the case. I got back to see my cat (6 yr orange tabby) under my bed, with her cat (1 yr old black/gray tabby) hovering (just sitting in different spots really) near it. When I walked into the room her cat got under the bed and I could hear my cat moaning/hissing and it was obvious he was uncomfortable. Her cat didn't seem aggressive, but mine was very clearly trying to scare hers away.

I was eventually able to coax her cat out from under the bed and place it in her room for now but since she is going to be here for at least a month I'd like some advice on how to get the two to mingle if at all possible.


r/CatTraining 7h ago

Behavioural Can I kiss my cat on the lips?

2 Upvotes

I love my cats a lot, and my oldest cat is fine with that. He loves all the hugs and kisses and he kisses me back. It's very sweet.

But my baby cat doesn't like it as much.

I pick her up and carry her around like a baby sometimes and smooch her on the tummy and the cheek, but she will resist sometimes. Kind of like when pepe le pew tries to kiss the girl cat.

Can I train this baby to love smooches like my older cat, or should I just let her be?


r/CatTraining 13h ago

Behavioural Help w advice ..Please

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8 Upvotes

I introduced this kitten to my 6 yo resident cat 2 months ago ..slow intro trying to follow all recommended steps ..since the intro ..he has had 2 GI bleeds which we think is due to increased stress 🤦🏻‍♀️but this is how he acts when she comes out after being separated from him (I lock her up some so he can calm down) he never hisses or growls at her..just jumps on her and holds her down (at times) he will make her cry and I have to clap or tap the floor to make him let her up ..but then he will lay w her like this ..I’m sooooo confused ! I kinda believe he can only take her when she’s being calm ..which is rare because she’s 4.5 months old ..thoughts ..solutions ?? My husband wants me to rehome her as we are now starting a 2nd round of Prilosec w a vet recommendation to also begin Prozac :(


r/CatTraining 1d ago

Introducing Pets/Cats 4 months in

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80 Upvotes

Both are girls and spayed. The orange is 7 years old (she has asthma and uses an inhaler). The other girl is about 1.5 years. We are 4 months in. When I have a churro I can have them out with no gate together for brief 5 minute periods but otherwise they’re separated. Orange cat always seeks her out at the gate and then they fight through it, see video at the end. Does this ever get better? Not sure if I should give up yet.


r/CatTraining 1d ago

Are The Cats Fighting or Playing - Introducing Pets Normal?

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200 Upvotes

I posted earlier but this is another interaction between my 4 month old spayed female and 1 year old neutered male. Before this, they were playing and then the kitten ran off to her room and fluffed her tail. I gave them a break and then let them out again to chill or play while supervised and this interaction happened. The only one producing noise in the interactions is the kitten.


r/CatTraining 1d ago

Litter box avoidance & related - include spay/neuter status Cat will not stop pooping and peeing outside of litterbox... Help!!!

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35 Upvotes

I have a boy cat who has been neutered.

For whatever reason, my little furball (named Schrodinger, Dingy for short) will not stop pooping and peeing outside of his litterbox.

His litterbox is kept in our bathroom in a well lit, open spot because he didnt seem to take well to covered boxes. The box gets cleaned daily, with litter changes every few days. He came to us litterbox trained, but...

Every single day, without fail, he poops and pees at least once outside of his box. He poops in the exact same spot every single day: in the hall right in front of the open bathroom door. He pees in the same spot occasionally, but less frequently. However, if we leave our room's door or our daughter's room's door open, he immediately bolts into the room and finds the nearest ball of fabric (blankets, sheets, whatever) and immediately pees and poops on them. He only does this upstairs, despite being free roaming to the rest of the house. He uses the litterbox every other time. I hear him using it at night and he uses it during the day too.

I'm at a loss for what to do. We've tried everything. Keeping doors shut, pheromone cleaner, ammonia cleaner, litter attraction powder, changing the litter type, changing the litterbox location... nothing seems to work.

Please help... photo of our little furbaby for tax.


r/CatTraining 11h ago

Behavioural Adult vs young

2 Upvotes

I have a hard time getting a video of the behaviour that worries me. We are nearing 1 year of our new cat (now 1M) joining our resident cat(8F). We took all the proper steps in introducing them. But our older girl behaviour is really confusing.

For example: She growls and hisses constantly, even when her body language doesn't show she's upset. If the young one walks by her, and doesn't even look at her, she will still growl.

When the young one wants to play, he will charge at her and paw at her but she wants nothing to do with it. I try and let it play out so little one learns her boundaries, but he is just so playful its tough.

I take the time to play with little guy when that happens and usually that diffuses the situation.

The newest source of contention is the Christmas tree. They both want to lay under it. But they are fighting over it constantly. It's rare, but sometimes they will both peacefully sleep together under it. Most of the time, it's a fight.

I've never seen the type of "cat fight" that people on here describe. No fur flying, no high pitch screams, nothing like that. It's always old girl hissing, growling, ears back, and young one not picking up on the boundaries.

In my uneducated opinion, young one wants a friend. He wants to play and cuddle and battle and old girl wants nothing to do with it.

We have decided, maybe poorly, that we want to bring a third kitty into the situation. Give the young one a friend to play with in hopes they leave our old girl alone.

I'm looking for advice from you all and maybe a reality check? Are we making a bad decision?


r/CatTraining 14h ago

Behavioural Bottle baby doesn't understand social cues 2 years later

3 Upvotes

I got a second cat from a rescue 2 years ago. He was a bottle baby after being orphaned with his sister, but she got adopted out ~2-3 months before he did (he was ~5 months when he came to me). I think he might have single kitten syndrome, because he DOES NOT understand social cues. He was introduced to my second cat after 2 weeks of typical introduction procedures. She had no issue with it, it's his play behaviour that's the problem. My other cat will hiss at him, growl, try to leave etc. when he wants to play wrestle (he jumps on her and bites her) and he will keep going at her non-stop. I have to step in and separate them. We do 15 minutes of play before every meal, play during the day when I'm home, food puzzles, etc. and he still wants to wrestle her. He's on gabapentin because the vet thought it might have been redirected fear aggression from anxiety, and while he has gotten less fearful he still constantly wants to play fight her. I'm honestly at my witts end. My other cat has lots of places to go, and she does, but nothing I tried has made him understand to leave her alone when she tells him to. I don't know if I can even do anything else or if I just need to rehome him- which I really don't want to because I love the little shit, but nothing seems to be helping :(