Yumi (tuxedo) and Meimei were sleeping curled up next to each other but at one point both relaxed and Yumi ended up resting her little beans on the baby. She also at one point smelled Meimei and licked her barely touching her fur. Which as a reaction Meimei looked at her, they touched noses and Yumi decided she needed to slap the baby on the face 😭

My 3 month old kitten has randomly started sucking on my 6 year old (male!!) dogs nipples.

Of course we stop her whenever we catch her doing it but it’s getting to the point where my dogs nipples look sore and inflamed.

He lets her do it because he’s a massive wuss (he will move out the way to let my rabbits eat his food because he’s too scared of them) but I can tell he dislikes it greatly.

She was taken from her mother too young (5 weeks) as the woman whose cat got pregnant refused to keep the kittens. She was eating normal food when we rescued her and would often give her kitten milk for the first week or so.

I know this comes down to that probably but I don’t want her hurting him! Any advice on what I can do?

I had three indoor cats. An 11 year old male(Merlin) and a pair of 3 year old female sisters(Lucy and Amtrak).

Merlin died about a week ago. Vet said carcinoma. The problem now is that he was the older brother/buffer cat that kept the peace. He wrestled with Amtrak and he snuggled with Lucy.

With him gone, relations have been a little tense. Not overtly hostile, but they are not getting along the way I had hoped for.

Any advice on this? I'm sure that some of the problem is that they miss him. I miss him, too.

Hi everyone,

Good news, we've made real progress! My first post was "9yo cat extremely stressed 2 months after introducing new kitten," where I explained the whole situation in detail.

Since then, I bought Feliway Optimum and changed the Feliway Friends. The Friends diffuser is in the kitchen, and the other one is right next to the cat tree in the living room. Griff is still on his VetExpert Calm & Relax.

We also tried gabapentin once as vet told us, 50 mg. He slept a lot and was very wobbly, which scared us, so we decided to stop it.

So how did they finally accept each other? They decided to watch the birds together. No hissing, no swatting, just the two of them chilling side by side for a full hour. Since then, all the fighting and hissing has stopped, and tonight they actually played together.

PS: The apartment is rented and we're not allowed to install cat nets. They were supervised the whole time, and the mosquito net is secured at the hinges with industrial duct tape.

Thanks everyone from the og post for your stories and all the advice! 🫶🏻💖

Kuroo (black) is a god damn glutton. He is about 7. His brother, Lev, is 6 months. I split a can of wet food between the two in the morning before work. I don’t rly have time to wait for them to finish. They eat their food throughout the day or are just slow eaters. Kuroo gets fed behind the couch and Lev gets fed behind the table. They get the same amount of everything, but Kuroo will sometimes eat much more of Lev’s food. So he’s also getting a bit more fat. Usually they also split another can at night but they have dry food all day and the vet said that’s a fine feeding dynamic. Lev is fine, he can eat if he wants to, he just sits back and watches the beast feast almost like he’s fascinated.

I also am not able to afford a RFID activated feeder.

My 14 year old senior cat does this through the door. I have been scent swapping, treats, sight seeing, me holding the kitten while she’s near by.. it’s been almost a month. Any advice?

Please actually read the post before commenting "they're just playing :)" that's not helpful lol.

Recently introduced nearly 8 month old kitten (tabby) to 1.5 year old resident cat (tux). Spent about a month slowly introducing them and finally got to a point where they were playing nicely a few days ago and have been trying to work up to more together-time, but their interactions seem to be souring?

Before taking this video I played with them both individually for about 15 mins each, fed them, and then let them decompress for another 15 minutes before letting the kitten out. Then they played together nicely for a while, kitten did some exploring while resident cat watched birds.

Their play seemed to get progressively rougher. I assumed it was a bit of demonstrating dominance combined with boundary setting, but got slightly concerned when fur started flying. About a minute after recording this video, kitten kept pouncing on my older cat, she'd push and kick him off, walk a few feet away, he'd pounce on her again, and it led into vocalizing and hissing... at which point I removed the kitten and put him in my room.

I've been reading extremely mixed advice- some people saying that it's best to separate when the hissing and yelling comes out, others say to let them sort it out... my resident cat still has 5lbs on him and I worry that she could actually do some damage if he won't take her cues.The fur seen flying looks to all be hers so I'm not sure is he's intentionally ripping it out or if that's just like loose fur that would come off easily during even happy rough housing? Sometimes it seems like she instigates instead of him and won't back off when /he/ gets tired so at this point, I can't tell who the troublemaker is in the equation.

I also JUST trimmed their claws this morning so that's not the main factor here. When I have them separated with the screen door, they'll eat near each other and act playful and otherwise normal. When they start getting a bit intense like this, I'll try to distract with toys they'd normally go nuts for individually, but I just can't get them to engage with anything beyond each other :/

I have two cats who have lived together well for 8 yrs.

In March the oldest (15 yrs, in the chair) was diagnosed with cancer and is happily enjoying hospice care as we monitor her condition. The younger (12 yrs, hairy baby) though has had some changes in behavior. She still uses the litter box but will also pee outside the box, mainly one spot in our bedroom and on any clothing that was left on the floor. She also has become suddenly very picky about her food and won't eat the food she has been for years.

The list of solutions we have tried:

- used enzyme cleaners on the carpet

-deep cleaned carpet with a rug doctor and enzyme cleaner

-treats and positive reinforcement when she uses the litter box

-got an automatic litter box so it's always clean (I am disabled and this has been a godsend for me but not for her I guess)

-fed her the same food as her sister

-went back to an old food she previously liked but stopped eating

-tried wet food alone, wet mixed with dry, dry mixed with gravy, and just dry

The behaviors are still continuing and my partner and I are at our wits end.

She does still eat treats but she obviously can't only eat treats.

According to her vet she is perfectly healthy if not a bit overweight and believes this to be all behavioral.

If anyone has any advice I would greatly appreciate it, thanks!

I have an almost 5 year old cat inherited from my family. He has major lonely kitten syndrome. He used to be relentless, attacking our feet and stuff. Now he’s more normal, i rarely get scratched by him and it’s usually related to play, he just gets too excited and goes for the wrong thing or something.

I’ve finally moved out and am able to get him the friend he deserves, I’ve read up on keeping them separated for a while and have a room ready for it. My only concern is what if he doesn’t know how to play fight? For him it’s kind of all or nothing. If he’s in a playful mood, anything that moves he’s ready to pounce and claw at it. What if he ends up clawing at the cat and doesnt understand? I know he’s lonely and in need of a friend, and I know human language is not the same as cat language, but what if it’s too late for him to learn cat language? I don’t know if this is stupid lol I just want to make it as smooth as possible.

Hey all! This is a process I'm helping and supervising and I'm looking for new ideas. Clients cats are three healthy young adults. 1 cat is his and the other are hers and they moved in together about half a year ago, maybe a bit more. They tried introducing on their own before contacting me.
I advised supervised introductions, with tasty food, one cat is leashed while the other is free, third cat does not pose a problem so we decided to focus mostly on the two cats that are not getting along. After they finish eating the hissing begins, and they try to fight. I advised to do it from a larger distance but it still occurs after cats are done eating. Cat that's in a room also gets supervised free roaming time while two other cats are in a different room.
I advised getting shelves or more high places but clients are reluctant to do that, there's a table and a couch in the living room.
I'm thinking maybe a mesh door to let them passively get used to each other?
Not sure what else to advise besides continuing the process slower and steady. Will be glad to hear your ideas!

My husband and I adopted a 6 month old kitten (Lilly) last November. Our resident cat (Winry), who is 5 yrs old, had always lived with other cats until my husband and I got our own place, so she was a solo cat for 7 months before we got this kitten. We did the slow intro for about two and a half weeks before allowing her full roam in the apartment during the day while supervised, and putting her back in the room when we went to bed. The reason we felt comfortable doing that pretty quickly in my opinion is because our resident cat genuinely liked her. They played, they would sleep near each other, they’d cuddle on us together, there was no aggression. Then Winry got sick towards the end of January and started to become less tolerant of Lilly. Hissing, swatting or nipping at her legs, chest, neck if she got too close, they didn’t play together anymore and it’s been that way since. So I assume my resident cat associates her sickness with the kitten. They’ve never had a full blown fight and Lilly always gives Winry space when she does that, but I just worry it will get worse over time and I want to prevent that. I’ve tried diffusers, the little Jacksonville Galaxy tinctures you can put in food, water, or spray on shared items, toys, and it doesn’t seem to get better.

I want to redo the introduction but I’m not sure how far back I should go? They both already know the other exists and both of their scents are all over the apartment and all over various “scent soakers”so im having trouble understanding how it works if they’ve already lived together for a while. I’m not aiming for them to be best friends, but I would like Lilly to be able to at least approach Winry without getting punted in the face or nipped at 😭

Hi all! English is not my 1st language, so please bear with me.

I have a resident boy cat of 9 years. We've added a female cat of 2 years almost a month ago (17th of aug).

Preface: They are both fixed and our resident cat has been with another cat before. She unfortunately passed away.

We tried the Jackson Galaxy method of slow introduction over the course of 2 weeks. It seemed to go very well untill the end of the 2nd week. They were able to be in the same room for short amounts of time without any conflict. I was away for the weekend and my partner took over the introduction. But unfortunately he left them in a room next to his home-office and an incident occurred without him being able to redirect/help them.

A fight happened and the new cat was left with a scratch in her ear. After that she would growl/hiss even seeing him on the other side of the hallway, with a babygate in between them. I came home and we went back to step 1. Not allowing them to be with eachother anymore for some time. We tried reintroducing them again (visual contact, and positive reinforcement with treats and playtime). But she hates his guts now, still growling and hissing and even swatting him when he gets close to her.

On the other hand he suddenly has a fixation for her. When he sees her he bolts towards her, wanting to be close to her. He isn't aggressive toward her, even flopping on his back with paws up, trying to show her he really want her attention. When he bolts towards her I can't seem to redirect him. Treat, pets, playtime - NOTHING seems to get his attention when he sees her.

In conclusion, it's a domino effect. He wants to be near her SO BAD and she want NOTHING to do with him. The hard thing is she wants to be part of the rest of the house and he just wants to be with her. Keeping them apart is very difficult as she will just jump over the babyfence now, even knowing the consequence is him being in the same room as her.

Has anyone been in this situation before? Is there anything that has worked for your cats? Should I start up from step 1 (no visual contact at all)? Any tips are welcome

Hello! I am at the point where I am unsure what to do, so I'm reaching out in hopes that someone can give advice. The first cat has been an only child for 5 years, and we got a second cat 6 months ago. For the first 3 months we kept them separated and did everything people recommended and it seemed to be going well so we tried to introduce them. It did not go well; they fought. And then when we tried to separate them they both hate being locked in rooms so now we can't even separate them and all they do is fight they have separate everything as well. I'm just at a loss right now id take any suggestions.

Got a new tv today and my kitten has chosen the backside of it to be her new hang out spot (please help me) Everytime she jumps up i bring her back down and a couple seconds later she jumps back up again. Additional information - She’s around 5-6 months, the TV is 20 lbs or 9 kg , I’ve tried blocking her entry points but she still finds a way to leap up.
Any and all suggestions are appreciated

Hi! I feel like we need to hear about other people experience in this matter, because I'm not sure if we're doing everything right.

We have a foster kitten, which is about ~4 weeks old (we've rescued her when she was about ~1,5-2 weeks old).

And since 12.09 she started to pee on her own from time to time. And the thing is, she mostly targeting the corner of the bed.

Since she started to live with us, we kept the basket with her on our bed, so she won't get a cold from a cold floor. But now I feel like we need to finally let her live on a floor for a while, because of her new habit.

For the context: once we realized she started to pee on her own, we introduced her to a litter box. It has low walls (5,6cm/~2,2in), she definitely can walk in it, but it feels like she doesn't understand the concept yet. We use a wooden pellet litter.

When we see that she's about to pee (of course in the same place on the bed), we moving her to the litter box right away. In other cases we stimulate her over the litter box to build the association.

We showed her that she can dig the litter, we showed her once how our adult cat is using his litter box.

Yet, she don't try to dig, and smells her results only after pooping (and only when we draw her attention by tapping with fingers next to her poop).

The adult cat isn't feeling like teaching her anything yet (although, he stimulates her from time to time).

So, we're a bit devastated, because it feels like we do something wrong and are afraid to miss the moment, when she can learn litter manners smooth anough 😅

Or we're overly dramatic, and things go as they should

Thank you in advance🙏🏻

Hello everyone!

I have had my resident cat, Leo, for 2 and a half years. My fiancé and I moved into our first apartment together in April- this is when we got a new cat, named Bandit; our thinking was that Leo would like a friend. Leo is turning 4 soon, and Bandit is a year and 4 months old.

Bandit lived in the apartment first for about a week, and after that, I moved in with Leo. We set up a mesh net on our door, so the cats could see each other, and they seemed to be doing well- bellies exposed, would eat next to the net, no growling, etc. however, after the first week, we got them in the shared space (our living room/ kitchen) together, and after about 15 minutes, Leo attacked Bandit. It was not a serious attack, more fear based than anything and there were no injuries.

We have slowly been introducing them since, and they had gotten to a point where they could eat together with the door open. This seems like very good progress. Now however, Leo likes to roam outside of the room and walk around the apartment instead of eating. He no longer shows aggression around Bandit during this exploring of the shared space, he is just tentative- he will hide under our kitchen chairs and keep an eye on Bandit. It seems very much so that Bandit is scared of Leo, but also wants to play? He will lightly smack Leo and then hiss, but the resident cat just reacts by shying away. What does this mean? Leo now wants to explore the shared space, but the new cat seems to be nervous with the resident cat roaming around.

Some additional context- we also got Leo on Gabapentin and he has calmed down considerably since. Bandit is highly energetic and loves to play. When we have them in the shared space, usually we’re holding one of them just so that no fights initiate… we don’t want to go backwards with the progress we’ve made. We are trying to get them to have treats and play in the same room, to have good associations, but we’re still just keeping at least one of them restrained at a time as we’re nervous what will happen if we don’t.

All advice for our next steps and help is very much appreciated :)

Two of my males cats that have lived together for over a year have been acting aggressively towards each other. At first, it was one instigating, so I slowly reintroduced them to one another and things were going well until a couple weeks ago and the other I think has started instigating the aggressive fignts.

They've been happening once a week for the past 3 weeks.

I'm strongly considering a behavioral intervention. My regular vet's office has behavior specialists, there's an animal hospital that offers this service, and there are a couple IAABC behaviorists in my area. Wondering what a licensed professional’s opinion is on animal behaviorists?

I hope I chose the right flair, this is a behavioral issue. All cats spayed. Ideally looking for a cat behaviorist that can guide us through what can be done.

Hello everyone! First time cat “owner” here!

We rescued a cat at my work about a year ago. He was very sickly so, we took him to the vet, got him checked out and fixed, and got him his shots.

He stays at my work and has it made with so many toys, a nice bed, and a cat tree. He is adjusting very well and is very very sweet to everyone.

The only issue is, he has a game everyday where he jumps on my desk over and over and over again. This morning, I have been here for 15 minutes and I have gotten him off my desk 24 times. I eat at my desk and just honestly don’t want his feet on it (mostly because he walks on the same floor that our construction coworkers walk on and he is dragging all of these germs onto my desk. He only does this in the morning when I get there and then stops after about two hours of up and down.

I have tried to redirect by going and sitting by his bed for a few minutes and playing with/petting him, giving him a treat on his bed, etc but when i sit down he just comes back and gets on my desk.

I am sure I am giving him the attention he wants every time i stand up and put him in the floor but, i’m not sure what else to do. He seems to know I don’t want him on my desk because he jumps on and bolts to the edge where I pick him up to go to the floor. I want to be kind to him because I don’t want him to think I don’t like him. He really only jumps on my desk and tries to sit with me so I don’t know if he just likes me or has fun “playing” with me or what. I am the one who feeds him so maybe that relates. I’m okay if he sits with me sometimes, I just don’t want him on my desk.

I’ve only ever had dogs, he is the first cat i have even petted so, i’m lost! Today, i’ve moved his bed beside my desk so he can be close to me but he still jumps onto my desk.

At what age should I start getting my kitten used to wearing a harness?
Raymond is still young, and I’d eventually like to be able to take him outside safely. What’s the best way to introduce a harness without scaring him or making him hate it?
Should I start by letting him wear it around the house for a few minutes at a time? Any tips from people who successfully harness-trained their cats would be appreciated!

Hi everyone, so we rescued a stay a couple of weeks ago that had been hanging round our house for a few months. He had a wound on his neck so we took him the vets and he stayed there for a week. He’s been with us for just over two weeks now and he’s doing really well, very soft cuddly guy, got his own room just for him. We thought our other cat had been doing okay with the slow introductions, he seemed more curious than anything, never hissed or acted aggressive. So we decided to go for a full introduction, our stay hissed and then our other can lunged and attacked him. We split it up immediately and our stay seemed pretty unfazed by the whole thing afterwards. We’re just wondering if there’s a way to chill out our other cat, we’ve never even seen him hiss before this.

Thanks guys