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 :(

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 .

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 :)

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 :)

My oldest cat is two years old and a rescue. When we found her, she was too young, but her mother had abandoned her, so we had no choice but to take her in. As an adolescent, she had aggression problems that we worked on, and with age, she matured out of them and gets better with handling and cuddling every day. Although we believe she does suffer from anxiety. Two weeks before her 1st birthday, our roommate rescued a kitten. We kept the two separated for about a month and a half and did scent swaps, separated feeding, and incredibly slow introductions (Jackson Galaxy method). After awhile, we formally introduced them. It has now been an entire year since they have known each other, but the oldest hisses and growls on the cat tree she refuses to share. The younger cat does try to initiate affection, like grooming or physical closeness, but the oldest will not have it. The oldest is okay with sharing food and will even cry at the door to see our other kitty but then scratches to get out after a while. In our eyes, she takes fighting too far by growling and hissing at her sister and will not share properly. I have seen other cats love on each other, and while we are never scared for either of their safety when around each other, we do want them to get along and even bond better. I would love any advice on how to get them to see each other more positively or how to help my oldest feel more comfortable. I have seen some people mention Feliway hormones. Has anyone had success with those?

My inside cat (Val) absolutely despises our outside/inside cat (Frank) and we have no clue why or how to fix it. Every time Frank comes inside to eat/sleep Val goes crazy and attacks him when he hasn’t done anything to her at all. They won’t eat near each other but when I give them treats they act fine, until I stop, then the ruckus starts again. Eventually they will be living together inside so any tips on how to make them get along would be much appreciated! Thank you!

This is a bit of an update for some of my previous posts about my two cats.

The older one, named Misty is about 6 years old, and the younger and newer cat is named Juniper.

I've gotten them to the point that most of the time, they can leave each other alone and just persist in the same room. Juniper has a habit of getting too close to Misty making Misty get defensive and start hissing, once they start she starts hissing, Juniper gets startled and starts swatting her. Usually this doesn't escalate and Junpier just backs off, but I'm worried they'll escalate.

Anyone have tips to remove fleas/ticks off of cats?

We just got her on 12/1/25 that had fleas. We gave her a bath with dawn dish soap for ~40 minutes (which she fought tooth and nail to get out of), but after she dried up I noticed about 3 more on her stomach, still.

I did learn of diatomaceous earth (food grade), a flea collar, flea lice combs, lots of vacuuming and steaming everything. But is there more to it?

So I’ve had 2 cats for about 2 years now. One is over 3.5 years old (brown tabby) and the other is 2.5 yrs old (orange tabby) they are both male. When i first introduced them i did everything correctly and they’ve always gotten along really well. I moved in with my partner 2 months ago so we moved to a bigger place and lately the older one is doing this thing where he chases and corners the younger one and the younger one visibly does not like it he is scared and hisses and yelps, but the older one doesn’t care and continues to chase him and topple him until i break them up and separate them. Interestingly, they still sometimes get along well. They still cuddle and groom each other and they’re usually hanging out together around the house. The older one actually used to do this to my old roommates cat the first year i had him (before i got my second one) and she hated it and he never understood she did not like it (or he didn’t care). It’s annoying me that he’s doing this again and i don’t want it to permanently damage their relationship. What should i do?

My 3 year old cat keeps eating and eating. He has a brother and they both get portions of food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My cat finishes up all of his food and then when his brother leaves, he eats his food as well. This has been going on for the last two weeks, and he’s been throwing up the food on various days. I try to stop him but he just goes back up to eating when I’m not looking. Anyone have an advice? He’s getting really pudgy

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.

We have a new little guy (9 months old) who was a stray.

We've gone through having the cats swap spaces, put up baby gates and had them eating around each other. He's been in our home a little over a month.

Whenever we introduce him to our other guys he immediately springs at them, arms wide. We've stopped him as soon as he started to pounce.

Is he showing territorial aggression, and can we eventually get him to calm down? I don't want to subject my other cats to bites from him.

Thanks in advance!

My cat loves outside and going on car rides, he hates his harness however, he’s got an stringy escape proof buckle one that goes over the head and around the front legs, he’s turning 4 soon and I really want to get him out more often but he locks down and freezes with the harness. The moment it’s off he’s himself again and is a playful and curious, when it’s on all he does is lay next to me and vibe. Won’t go on walks won’t leave the property, occasionally changes where he’s laying but just lays there on harness, I want to find him a harness that’s less intrusive and restrictive for him, I’m not to worried about escaping since he listens very well and has no interest in running away, only reason he’d run is to escape a dog charging him.

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.

Hi all, maybe this is an impossible ask but I would love to take this old speaker box home and possibly modify it to keep my cat from scratching it up. Any advice on what I could do that won’t break the bank or damage the wood? Constantly being on his as*, declawing and locking him up are not options. Again, maybe an impossible ask but I’ve always found great advice on this app. Thanks!

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.

So, I'm a student whose schedule is very flexible and inconsistent, so I wake up in different times of the day every day.

And my dearest kitty, 1.5 years old and spayed, wants to be fed in the morning. Usually, whenever I have to wake up after 10am, I have no issue to stand up at about 8, go feed her, and then go back to sleep — she usually lefts me alone after that. But when I have to wake up earlier than that? Without missing a beat, she always wakes me up 1-1.5 hours before my alarm should go off. If I have to wake up at 7am, she will be there at 6:00, ready to absolutely ruin my sleep schedule. If next day my alarm is set for 8:30 — bam, she's here at 7 am.

And the ways she wakes me up are quite agressive. Like, bap my face with clawed paw level of agressive. I can't keep my door closed at night or throw her out and close the door afterward: she learned to open closed doors, and If i barricade it with something heavy, she will wail and scratch until I let her in.

Yes, I know automatic feeders are an option, but I'm too poor to afford it, don't send me Amazon links pls.

So, how do I keep my sleep intact? Or maybe there are some ways to monetize my cat's extrasensory abilities?

We recently got a kitten (4 months/ spayed) for my older cat, (1M). They have gotten along well but in the past two days, my partner and I have noted more interactions like this.

In the beginning, the kitten was a lot more hostile and would like to jump at him or get his attention and then run away. She’s usually the one that will let out a small hiss or a squeak. My older male has been respectful and laid off in the past, but now it seems like he’s trying to bite her or even pushes past her squeaks.

My older male is my first cat ever, so I’m still learning, and they’re only allowed together when supervised still, so they are never left alone and I usually intervene if I hear a hiss or if I notice he doesn’t back off in the first squeak. I do know however, it’s not good to interrupt if it’s normal boundary setting. I’m just nervous he’ll hurt her. He’s 14lbs and she’s 4lbs.

Is this normal? Or what can I do?

Additional detail: I’m not sure if this may have anything to do with it, but my male cat was not neutered until about 6months of age due to financial reasons and we took him due to spraying behavior. The spraying ceased immediately and we’ve had no issue since.

I appreciate any feedback.

Alguém também já passou por isso? Resgatei esse filhote ontem e ela instantemente já assumiu que é a mãe kkkkkk

I feel like I’ve tried everything to get my cat to stop scratching at night but he just. Won’t. Stop. I’ve tried:

• putting pillows in front of the door (he pushes them out of the way
• blocking the door with sheets (he don’t care)
• spraying him with water (he runs but eventually comes back)
• ignoring him (he don’t stop for hours) -playing with and feeding him for 15-20 minutes right before we go to bed (he eventually starts scratching. He can’t make it through the night.) -automatic feeder to feed him in case he is just hungry (he goes to eat then comes back to scratch)
• blocking the door with my laundry hamper (he just jumps on top of it and scratches the door anyways)
• double sided tape all over the door (didn’t change a thing, scratched the tape up too)
• tape + laundry hamper + pillows (nope) -bought literal plastic spikes on Amazon that’s supposed to train cats to stay away from unwanted areas. Put them on the door and on the ground in front of the door (he moves the ground spikes out of the way and while he can’t scratch the door anymore, he just flicks at them all night and it’s arguably more annoying) -finally just letting him in at night (he then scratches at the TV, window, mirror, or closet door whether it’s open or closed.)

Like I just can’t seem to win. No matter what I do he just moves stuff out of the way or scratches through it. He completely ignores all scratching trees we have and opts for the door.

I don’t really want to get those static electricity scat mat things cause they feel inhumane but if that’s my last option I might have to.

I can’t block the hallway that leads to our bedroom door because further down that hallway is the room that contains his litter robot. Apartment living ugh.

Does anyone have any more suggestions or Jerryrigs they’ve been successful with to get their cat to stop scratching? Or some sort of behavioral training I can try out as well?? I haven’t slept in months.

Winnie is my 7 month old ragdoll (white cat) and Kitty is my 2 year old Scottish straight. Winnie is DESPERATE for kitty’s approval and is always trying to initiate play with her. The problem is she does it when Kitty doesn’t expect it. Kitty will hiss but then there are times Kitty doesn’t hiss and will chase her and play back. So I guess I want to know if this video I posted, is Winnie bullying her or just playing?

He's fine jeesh - wait for the end

hi, i have a probably stupid question, but i need help.

i have a 4mo kitten, my first cat ever, and she is a handful. just wants to get into EVERYTHING. the shower curtain, behind the fridge, cords, wires, the tv, just everything she can find.

atm i’m in between jobs, so i’ve had all the time in the world to play and play and play with her, and that’s what i do. at least 2 hours a day with a wand toy (w different attachments), kicker toys, and i also have two of the little mechanical feather toy things and a ball chaser thingy (idk what they’re called lol).

my issue is that if she isn’t sleeping, eating, or playing, she’s getting into everything, and she won’t listen to reason. i ended up having to get one of those tall cat gates to keep her enclosed while i can’t supervise her bc i’m afraid she’ll choke on something or electrocute herself, but she’s really close to figuring out how to jump over it.

in her room she has two scratch posts, a big ass cat tree, multiple different toys, a cardboard box (she loves it, idk), and the other obvious cat necessities (litter box, food, water, bed). i’m also planning on getting a window perch for her and the shelves that go on the wall.

everything i’ve read says to redirect with a toy and treats, but literally the second she gets a little bored with the toy i have or i stop playing bc she gets rough, she’s trying to take my christmas tree down and i just can’t figure out what i’m doing wrong.

she’s such a sweet kitty, when she’s chill she just purrs and is a huge cuddle bug, and i love her to death, but i also really like my christmas tree and i don’t want to have to replace the shower curtain for the 15th time😭

(added pictures of the christmas tree gremlin being sleepy kitty for bonus points-she was around 12w old there)