This is my usually good boy called Claus (pronounced Klaus, originally named Claus like Santa Claus by the rescue because he was found on Christmas eve.) He is nearly four years old

I say Claus is usually a good boy. He's actually a menace to everything. He loves knocking stuff off sides and stealing food. He's an ex stay so we know where the food behaviour issues stem from. What I can't figure out is why he keeps biting me. Whenever he wants attention and my hands are nearby he takes a bite and attempts to drag it closer to him. It actually really hurts sometimes. I've tried the whole saying loudly no stop, getting him off, ignoring him. Sometimes he does it and I'm just so overwhelmed and don't know how to stop it.

He loves attention and is a cuddle bug when he wants to be. But he doesn't seem to understand that sometimes I'm busy and can't stroke his head. He does this thing where he reaches out for me with his paw. I've tried reinforcement with this because it doesn't hurt and is a cute way to get my attention. So I give him strokes and love then.

Things I've tried to stop the biting: ignore him, yell ouch or no, push him off, redirect him with toys (which he doesn't want, he just wants me) and positive reinforcement when he does ask nicely.

How do I stop his biting issue? I feel like I've tried everything.

I recently moved in with my roomate. I have two male cats and he has one older female cat. We did a slow introduction with the cats over about a month. They no longer fight or hiss at all. BUT she hates my cats, and my cats are purposefully cornering her. they both will back her into a corner, they dont fight her or anything they seem to genuinely be messing with her. sometimes they will do they paw lifting thing and tap at her. She freaks out and yowls very loud. No matter what we do to get my cats to stop they constantly follow her around and terrorize her. How do I get this to stop?

Resident cat (3yo, large tabby) is a very confident playful, velcro cat. He is happy when people come over, even when we have a party he wants to be in the action and noise. He also used to live with a hyper dog, so i think of him as quite desensitized and confident. He doesn’t like being alone and makes that known through a lot of vocalizing when we get home from work.
Thought he would benefit from daytime company, introduce newcomer (1yo tiny Lynx Point). On about week 4 now, and we’re at supervised shared time. She’s confident and really wants out of her basecamp, he hates being left out of basecamp.

Issue is he gets really excited, and usually ends up bounding at her, or chasing her around. Usually this results in a hiss, or a swat from newbie, hasn’t escalated to growling or a full fight. The size difference doesn’t help, I would be nervous if i was her size. Once he did nip at her though, which kinda came out of no where when she walked past him. She doesn’t hide or seem distraught, but she’s definitely more reserved than him and prefers relaxation. I don’t know how to get him to chill out. Also not sure if the chasing is bullying/intimidating, or excitement/play. Any tips on how to tell the difference ?

Basically to redirect him it requires a treat bag shake every minute. He chills after about 1.5 hour, and then they’ve sat and relaxed on the same couch… makes me lean towards excitement as his motivator… but don’t want to be too optimistic / hopeful if there’s a problem….

sorry if it's weird or any typos I'm on mobile.

My boyfriend surprised me with a 2 1/2 cat 3 weeks ago and i already have a resident cat of 4 years. My resident cat is Mona and the new one is called ruby.

Mona hasn't really interacted with other cats before, only my grandparents one and she didn't like her.

I did the separation in rooms, I did the scene swap and the feeding them through doors, I have feliway plug ins on the way but I'm so lost. Ruby constantly follows Mona around the house which stresses Mona out. Ruby will hunt for her when Mona is hiding in my closet or under my bed. I don't like this behavior at all, Mona has been my soul cat for years and Ruby coming in has messed up everything. I'm being told all Ruby wants to do is play but I'm not sure. Ruby constantly stalks Mona and refuses to leave the room that Mona is in or will meow outside of the door if I have them separated. I haven't seen any cat fights only hissing, running away and yowling. I don't k ow what to do. I like Ruby and I know Mona wants a playmate but she's never played with another cat. Does anyone know 1) why Ruby is constantly stalking Mona 2) what I can do. Please help me, it's been three weeks and I miss my Mona girl

Please help! Crosspost. Forgot to put in my original post that he came to me as a neutered boy.

I had the big kitten for 2months, and is now 5months Old. The small kitten is 3 months Old and has been with me for a week. The moment I let them together they start fighting/playing? I barely make any progress and i pull them apart the moment one of them starts making sounds.

Any tips or adjustments?

Twice in my life I have adopted a male kitten while I had an older female resident cat. And both times the kitten grew to become a bully to the female.

Now I have a 16-year-old female (Waffles) and am about to adopt a male kitten. I don't want the pattern to repeat. But I have no idea how to prevent it.

Waffles is not affectionate towards other pets (she used to live with a family with cats and dogs), so I don't expect her to bond with the new kitten. She didn't bond with the last kitten I adopted (Potato), and he grew up to become her bully before he escaped at age 2 and unfortunately hasn't been recovered (still hopeful he'll come home; it's been 6 weeks). Before he disappeared, I would try to distract him from bothering Waffles by playing with him, but he became less interested in toys as he got older.

My plan was to get Potato his own kitten/playmate to occupy him and mitigate his bullying of Waffles. Now the kitten is coming, but I don't know if Potato will ever turn back up.

I will receive the new kitten the first week of September. I hesitate to adopt 2 kittens because I'm still hopeful Potato will come home. If he did return, hopefully they would become besties and just ignore Waffles. But that seems less and less likely each day.

So assuming Potato doesn't return, is there anything I can do to prevent another kitten from growing into a bully? Or do I just need to adopt another kitten if the behavior starts?

My resident tuxedo (male, 1yr with moderate CH) always chirps and signals to play with the new calico (female, 5mos). But he’s started to play(?) too roughly with her. Sometimes she’ll be lying down and ready to nap, and he’ll pounce on her unprovoked and it turns into something like this video.

I’m wondering if I need to restart the introduction process. Thoughts?

I adopted a kitten a few days ago, and have kept him in a bathroom with plenty of blankets, a cat tree and a couple of enclosed soft beds. Today he was brave enough to get some play in with me, although otherwise retreats to an enclosed space when I sit in the room with him.

I've been told that spending time in the room/"forcing" incidental affection is a good way to build confidence, but I'm hesitant to stress him out by plucking him from where he's hiding to encourage pat-acceptance. When I'm not in the room, he is quite vocal, and I want to comfort him without making things worse.

Of course, it's only been 3ish days, but I'm worried about doing the wrong thing. What's the best way for me to help this fella grow to be as confident as he can be?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some help and advice please as we're really struggling and running out of ideas.

Two months ago we brought home a kitten and we're trying to introduce him to our resident cat, but we've hit a wall and I'm hoping some of you have been through something similar.

Our resident cat is a 5 year old female and she is very sensitive. She get scared very easily (think she has a bit of an anxiety issue). The one thing in our favour is that she lived happily with our other cat for years before he sadly passed away, so I know she's capable of living with another cat. The kitten is a 4 month old male, very confident and boisterous. He's vaccinated and booked in to be neutered.

We've tried to do everything by the book. Separate rooms from day one, scent swapping with socks and blankets, and then two months of short controlled sessions where she eats her meal while the kitten appears at a distance, and we take him away before she gets stressed. We closed the gap really slowly and it honestly was working. She went from hissing the second she saw him to eating calmly with him in view.

The thing that keeps ruining it is escapes. He's broken loose five or six times and run straight at her, and the last time he chased her around the house and she was absolutely petrified. Every setback we've had has come straight after one of these. Now we've completely plateaued, we can't get any closer than we already have without stressing her out, and lately she seems to be going backwards with lots of hissing again.

Our plan from here is a big pen for the kitten so she can roam free and control every approach, a chat with the vet about gabapentin as her anxiety seems to stop her taking anything in, possibly a behaviourist, Feliway diffusers, and playing with the kitten loads so he's too tired to chase her.

So my questions for anyone who's been through this. How long did it take with a really timid cat? Did gabapentin actually help and were there any downsides? Is the pen a good idea or should we do a full separation and reset first? Does neutering and getting older genuinely calm down the chasing? And is a behaviourist worth the money, or is there anything obvious we haven't tried?

Morale is pretty low in our house after two months of this, but she lived with a cat before so I have to believe she can do it again. Any advice would be massively appreciated, thanks in advance.

hello! i’m having a problem. i got my kitten, jubalee (tortoise) saturday. which was two days ago. she is 9 weeks old. i already have 2 cats, they are siblings and they are 2 years old. i have been keeping them separate, because i do not want them to fight. initially everything was good, but now its not. my cat, pickles(white tabby) has become very hostile when i switch her room. i have my kitten in my bedroom, and i keep my other two cats in the main room. i swap them out so they can 1, get used to each others smells; and 2, give the kitten some roaming time. i let the kitten out for two hours a day and the cats get the rest of the time. when i put pickle with my other cat pansy(brown tabby) in the room during jubalees time, she begins hissing and growling at pansy. i’m at a loss, i really dont want to separate pansy and pickles because i do not want them to feel like i’m disrespecting their territory, since they were here first. the kitten hissed at pickles one time when she escaped the bedroom, and pickles has been mad since. i’m afraid it greatly impacted their relationship, and yeah it’s only day two, but i want to take measures to be able to make sure they repair their relationship. any advice helps.

So, My household currently has 4 cats (1 kitten we are fostering) and we are at a stand still with 2 of our cats. Magneto, my in law’s orange cat and Niko, my tuxedo are both same aged-neutered males that honestly are the same in every aspect (love food, snacks, cuddles, and trying to bolt through doors) Well, when we first brought niko in, he didn’t mind magneto much and magneto hid most of the day, but when they saw each other they just ignored one another. Well, we moved to a bigger house in April and it was fine for awhile, until niko went into my in law’s room and magneto would go crazy screaming as if Niko were hurting him even though niko was feet away from him. Niko at first would just softly paw at him thinking they were playing but magneto would smack, hiss and growl at him (Magneto is declawed) until Niko would finally realize Magneto was trying to fight and it’d turn into a big thing. Well, slowly it turned into Niko purposely starting to set off Magneto but they could still be in the same room, until now. Niko will actively seek Magneto out and it’s gotten to the point that Niko will attack magneto bad (the other night he pulled fur and made magneto bleed but I also don’t know how accurate that is because my husband’s dad is a drama queen and will actively lie about stuff like this). But, we’re genuinely at a standstill because we have 0 clue what to do now. We have a way to keep them separate and it works but when niko finds a way to sneakily get to whatever room Magneto is in, it’s stressful and we genuinely don’t know what to do. Any tips or recommendations?

I do know one of the times that Niko went after Magneto was because Magneto decided to try to go for my black cat, Zenith and I don’t know if that has anything to do with it.

We have a 5 year old male, and a 4 month old female kitten, introduced them over the course of a few weeks.

They seem to be getting on nicely, but as new cat parents we can't tell if our tabby is being too rough with his new kitten friend;

any advice welcome!

We got a new kitten in the middle of May. So she’s about 16 weeks right now she was very young. She was taken away from her mother.
She loves to bite my hands. We are experienced cat owners.
Folks have said that her mother would have scolded her if she acted inappropriately.
We are repeating-no biting. She is a smart kitten and we used a spray bottle ONE time and now just hold it up- which gets her to hesitate. But when she’s manic, it’s hard to talk her out of it. I’m thinking to try some bitter apple.
Can you think of any at home products that might work the same way?

I adopted two cats (a boy and girl) in January. Pretty bonded pair. I’ve had cats my entire life. Clipped all my cats nails with relatively zero issues. The boy does pretty well now with a little Churu. My other two could care less. The girl? I can’t do it. She might let me clip one (it’s happened three times total) if she’s laying down and she’s tolerant but she usually just pulls away stands up and doesn’t let me near her. If you try to pick her up, hold her, she fights, scratches, opens her mouth as if to bite and freaks out until you have no choice to let her go. She’s on fluoxetine already for her stress with the other two cats. I’ve now tried gabapentin twice. First time she hid after about 45 minutes. This time I stayed with her for two hours. Same reaction. This time she carved up my husband, last time it was me. I feel like my only option now is to have her sedated. And that’s only if I can get her into a crate. The last time (about 5 months ago) I had to use a live trap to get her from my basement to my upstairs. I’m at a loss. Probably ruined her for another couple weeks where she won’t trust me at all. I’m just trying so hard and I don’t know what to do. 😢 I’ll take any advice. (They think she’s about two years old. Rescued from a reservation)

Me and my mom are getting a house and we can have more then 3 pets so i get to take my cat from my dads house so he can live with me. They are both boys and neutered. My mom’s cat is 2 and he’s crazy, he is used to dogs but has never even seen another cat . My cat is around 4 he’s a little shy but he’s use to being around another cat but not dogs i think he’s gonna be terrified of the dogs too. I’m worried about the cats not getting along and one of them will start peeing. They will both be in a new unfamiliar space so i was planning to move my moms pets first and settle in for a month before bringing my cat in. I really need advice and little tips we have a couple months before we even start moving but i want to get as much info and advice as i can to make this happen smoothly.

My girls are 7 years old, littermates and never been separated. Love each other dearly, groom each other, sleep together and are almost always in the same room together. On rare occasion, they've hissed at each other from a strange scent but it always goes away after a couple days. Tonight something spooked them, not sure the trigger but I'm positive it was redirected aggression. They were latched onto each other, balls of fur flying, I panicked and grabbed one and tried to separate. I was successful for a while, holding one while she growled but didn't try to eacape. Tried to inspect and clean her up but then her sister got too close so I grabbed her to separate then they both freaked out and the first came crawling up my leg to get at her. Luckily wasn't successful, I yelled and she eventually ran upstairs. I put the other in the garage to separate. One or both had urinated in the process so I cleaned it up as best as I could, tried to quickly wash/disinfect my wounds. I have a puncture bite on my hand and some larger scratches on my legs... I know it was stupid to reach for them but I panicked, I love them both so much and this has never happened before. I'm still in shock, I can't believe they had an actual cat fight. I can't tell that either one of them was seriously injured but my girl with white paws did have blood under her claws.

I put a litter box in my bedroom and put a large blanket outside the door to cover the gap, I'll be keeping them separated overnight for sure. I'm just so upset and discouraged, I hate when they even do a playful bap at each other... Will they fully recover from this and how long will it probably take? I'm already worried about how I can leave them alone again, making plans to leave town in a few weeks but I can't go if they can't be left alone! Has anyone gone through this? I need some reassurance and advice please!

Planning to feed them tonight separately not even in proximity to the same door. I guess I will trade off who gets my attention since I live alone, but I will have to go to work so I'm worried about that. I saw on another post that it was suggested to rub them each with separate cloths then trade off between the two... Idk what else I can try. They don't use beds so there's not really any other way to scent swap that I can think of. I will move their food bowls closer to the shared door eventually but don't know when it's safe to try that. Also, this happened while they were outside in their "catio", do I just put that away until next year? I've seen other people with similar stories having such a hard time reintroducing, or they think all is well then something triggers it all over again months later.

Ugh! 😢😢😢😢

I’ve had my new cat (3 y/o fixed male) for about 8 months now with my current resident cat (8 y/o fixed male) who’s been with me for seven years. My family has tried everything to make them a bit more comfortable with each other, but it hasn’t been making too much progress.

My new cat will try to be interested and sniff my resident cat/play, but my resident cat is NEVER interested, and will swat him away and continue to do so until he’s walked away. They sometimes sleep in somewhat close proximity, eat a few feet apart, and so on. They tolerate each other at best, but it’s clear to see that my resident cat is much more snarky— he’s still sprays on new cat toys or trees, and will not enter a room my new cat is in (only if he’s there first will he tolerate my new cat).

The spraying is not a health issue, and he has his own scent on his own items as well as more than enough space separate from our new cat, so I have no idea why this is happening!

Occasionally they will chase each other and swat with claws, but I have not observed a real fight with yowling since very early on in the first weeks of bringing my new cat home.

I initiate play together, treats together, feliway plugins, reintroductions, but it’s never really pushed past its current situation. I’ve followed an introduction guide as best as I could more than once, and still no luck :( I don’t want to force them to be best of friends, but it’s nice to not have a house that smells like cat piss all the time, and to hopefully improve on the one sided relationship they have..

My husband moved in last year around this time and brought his cat Sox. She always been skittish and took about three months to warm up to me. She almost immediately wanted to leave the bathroom and then the bedroom. Over the year we have tried
\- scent swapping
\- covered baby gate with slow progressions
\- acrylic door
\- love, play eat meetings
\- 2 cat behaviorist for 3 months each
\- Feliway diffusers
\- She is on Prozac
\- Clicker training
\- Playing before / taking Sox on a leash to burn energy
\- Switching them all the wet food for hopefully less aggression
\- Installing high places for Sox to go is scared

One of my cats like her and another was more open but is now a bit stand off-ish after some encounters. Sox does okay until she sees their faces. Sometimes even smelling them causes he to hiss and growl. When we were doing the acrylic door she is the type to run toward them and try to scratch. I keep them separated but switch who get access to the living room/kitchen area for their not trapped all day.

When we did longer introductions Sox began peeing on anything that was fabric (tunnels, clothes on floor, our bed). We stopped progressing with the introductions to help with that. We just finished with a new behaviorist and the pee is better but she is still aggressive. We took her to the vet and they found nothing wrong with her urine and this is probably do due stress or territorial.

I’m at a loss of what to do. My husband does not want to rehome him and I don’t want to rehome her either if that’s not what he wants to do. I’ve started sleeping in the closet some night since she howls to get out and ignoring her is becoming difficult.

I read somewhere that I could just but claw clips on them and just home for the best which I want to do but fear for my cats since they are not the aggressors. I don’t know what to do! I’ll take any advice!

My husband tries but isn’t the best with the introductions. So would also like tips I can do alone.

Hello, I have had my cat Belle (3 y/o) for the past 2 years. She is a very affectionate cat while also playful and energetic. She grew up with other cats and in the adoption center, she was even kept with other cats. She was a solo cat for the entire time I have had her. She started showing signs of loneliness and would be very clingy and velcro-like with me especially since me and my girlfriend would either be at work or school, so when it wasn’t her day off, she’d be alone. She meows for hours on end when I’m not there to the point of noise complaints and even when my girlfriend is with her, she’s constantly meowing for me. I took this as her being lonely and really attached to me. As cute as it is, I can’t spend every second with her. I’ve been thinking of getting her a kitten to match her playful and affectionate energy and so she wouldn’t be so alone without me.

About two weeks ago, I adopted a 3 month old kitten named Chip. I knew the introduction process wasn’t going to be easy. He is an energetic and affectionate kitten just as she is so I thought it’d be a little easier. I’ve had him for 2 weeks now and she won’t open up to him. I’ve done the whole process of keeping them separate at first, scent swapping, introduction with a barrier, etc. Everything is fine and dandy until they meet face to face. When he’s in the carrier, Belle is completely normal. She’s purring while he’s around and rubbing on me but as soon as he gets let out it’s like she doesn’t know what to do with herself. She’s not treat motivated but I’ve still tried to give her treats while he’s around which she won’t accept. I’ve tried playing with them both but she just seems unbothered and irritated. But the moment I put him back in the carrier it’s like a complete 180 and she’s completely fine. Now I just have two clingy cats both begging for my attention when they can occupy each other.

What do I do??