r/CatTraining

Background: Cat is roughly 7 years now, rescue, had behavioral issues like this before but it used to be based on introduction, and never an aggressive attack.

I left to Canada for 5 days and came back last night. I had an acquaintance take care of him. When I came back, he was his usual sticky self, purring and rubbing on me.

Today I woke up to him headbutting me and wanting to be fed. Nothing unusual. It's my day off from work and I went to sleep late, but they (2 cats) have their routine of waking me at dawn wanting to be fed. I get their dry food. I start putting everything away, and he's in front of me. Nothing unusual, I'm thinking that he wants more food. I walked towards him and he lunges, clawing my whole leg. When he gets off, I try to go to the bathroom and clean off the scratches with alcohol. He chases me when I move and lunges to my leg again. I don't move, he don't move, and this time I give him time to move out of the way so that I can move. When I thought I had enough distance, I try again, he lunges again. I was actually both angry and desperate for this cat to stop attacking me, so I knee jerk reacted by choking him, which is how my hands got scratched. It got the job done, temporarily, by having him leave my space and now stay in distance out of fear.

What caused this? What are some things I can do to alleviate the situation? He has Prozac from a year ago that I stopped using on his food, and I'm thinking of getting a pheromone purifier installed in the apartment again, but what was the cause and any non medical advice you can give?

I just got a used chair, and it's not new by any means but it's still indecent condition and as soon as we brought into the apartment me and my girlfriend have noticed the cat has started kneeding and scratching the leather putting marks in it. How do I stop the cat from doing this? I don't want my new chair destroyed!

Hi all , had a new kitten for about 2 weeks now things are going mostly well with meal times perfect litter training. However play times are just quite aggressive (biting ) and they’re not very cuddly ( made progress in that regard but went away for 36 hours and felt like progress was undone ). I do daily play time with toys and only pet him when he comes to me, any advice to get him more interactive and to control the biting.
Thanks in advance
Here’s a pic of him :))

Hello all,

I adopted the small torbie on the left in May 2026, she is approx 1yr female, and my resident cat is the large tabby on the right, 6 yr old male. We’ve been introducing over 2 months now with little improvement and I’m getting very discouraged.
My male charges at her randomly, he doesn’t hiss, growl or make any noise for that matter. Simple locks on and chases her until she is cornered in the bedroom, or some other small area. I cannot tell when he is about to do it.

Since bringing the female home, he has shown no classic signs of aggression or displeasure. The only behaviour I can note when they are around each other is dilated pupils, and meowing.

She largely ignores him but is justifiably cautious and terrified of when his next strike will occur.

I do believe in his mind, he is attempting some sort of play? It’s just completely impulsive, inappropriate and with zero respect for boundaries

She has never tried to reciprocate, even a little bit of self-defense, she simply collapses on her side and screams like he is trying to kill her.

I had a thought that maybe it’s because he is so big and overbearing, she is too scared to realize he is not intentionally trying to hurt her?

I’m not sure. She hates staying in her base camp but every time they’re out together it ends in a chase and screaming. Scent and site swapping for 2 months, both on low dose CBD to help with anxiety and arousal. They can share treats perfectly, and can be out around each other while meals are being prepared. If food is away, resident is obsessive.

Thoughts? Anyone have intros that took forever?
Pls give me some hope ☹️

Hello! This is our kitty that we found abandoned. Shes around 5/6 weeks intact, and has been relatively healthy.

Shes recently picked up the habit of peeing on our bed after playtime and yesterday she even pooped. We’re super relieved because shes been having constipation issues but we cant seem to get her to go IN the litter box.

We’ve made sure to stimulate her over the liter box after feeding, used her paws to cover up her urine, and have been using what looks like recycled paper pellets (Can’t remember the name of the litter off the top of my head)
We’re keeping her in a large storage container with the litter on one side and bed on the other, but she never seems to go on her own. We’re gonna try pine pellets instead, and have an apt with the vet tomorrow to cross out UTI.

Does anyone have any advice or have experienced any issues similar? She just came off a round of antibiotics last week for sneezing but im not sure if that might affext the possibility of a UTI.

Hi!
So recently we adopted a friend for our lovely boy Moth (he’s around 8 months old and neutered). She’s a sphynx and her name is Wisp (she’s around 14 weeks old and tiny)

We are keeping Wisp in our bathroom which has a mesh like door we attached for the intros, have been scent swapping daily and letting them see each other daily with positive reinforcement through toys and treats for both cats!

Moth stopped hissing and growling so we thought we would let the two meet, Wisp didn’t seem interested in Moth at all and he seemed pretty baffled at the new creature. He’s started following her around and pouncing on her and now biting her. There’s no wounds or anything but it’s almost constant following and biting her and she doesn’t fight back or anything she just sits there and meows from time to time when he is biting and then runs away and plays with something toys

They also did eat together one night and even swapped bowls and had no problems and then once they’d finished the chasing carried on

After we let them see each other we give both treats and cuddles and then put Wisp back in the bathroom and Moth has the rest of the flat. They keep meowing at each other through the bathroom door and it’s like Moth really wants to be with her and she really wants company.

I’m just not 100% sure on Moths behaviour, there’s some tail wagging but it’s not constant like the chasing. Wisp will also jump at Moth through the mesh door but not when she’s out.

If anyone’s had this before how did it go? I just want them both to be as happy as they make me

Hello! I brought home my first ever kitten just over a week ago, she’s a 14 week Maine coon.

She’s very confident and loves to explore except 99% of the time she just ignores me, walks away when I go to pet her, will not engage etc. We play a lot with her toys but that’s as much interaction I get out of her.

Honestly, I can’t help but feel disappointed and I’m really struggling to form any kind of bond with her. I’m
putting a lot in but getting absolutely nothing back. I get more engagement from my pet tortoise 😂

Any advice?
Thanks

We just moved to a new apartment two and a half weeks ago. Mooncake (age <1) has not taken it well. And while he's now well behaved most of the day, he spends 8pm-12am/1am/2am screaming his head off. I have not had a good night sleep since I got here. I have Feliway but he doesn't respond to it. I also set up a bunch of cat trees for him to play on. And I have lots of toys for him. And I play with him too. Do I just ignore him when he acts up and hope he settles down within a week? Because he's really frying my nerves.

On the plus side, it has been 48 hours since he last pooped/peed on the floor. Still not brave enough to lay a bath mat down, though.

Sooooo I don’t really know but I’m kinda curious on what I could do

So for a while now I’ve been feeding my cat dry food with water in it, I don’t do wet food cause she barley touches it and lets it dry up where she won’t eat it…

Now that I’m working more I need a way to provide food when I’m not there and normally I just give her a big meal and let her eat it whenever and it works cause she portions it buttttttt I wanna get a automatic feeder but she has a habit of throwing up her food if it doesn’t have water in it…

Idk what to do abt it and if I should get her off of the water in the dry food or is there something I could buy or use to help

One year ago we adopted Luna (grey, 2 yrs old) to keep our older cat Haru (black, 11 years old) company. We introduced them really well I think. It was very slowly over about a week or two following the steps correctly. They went from hissing at each other from either side of the door to now mostly tolerating each other lol. It’s been about a year and they’re still like this sometimes and I’m not sure if they’re playing or fighting. Most of the time they keep to themselves and do sometimes sleep next to each other on our bed or chase each other around playfully, but then sometimes Luna gets too playful and just attacks Haru like this. What do you guys think?

Recently I’ve adopted a kitten from a friend who was going to get rid of it but I didn’t really think about my old cat

Some info:
Kitten age is unknown but estimated it’s only a few month
Old cat is 14-15 years old
Old cats been neutered
Both cats are female

Old cat is roughly 14 years old and grumpy to almost everything new and I didn’t really take into consideration of her getting along I thought like our last cat she’d get along right away but that isn’t the case and I just need tips on how I can get the two to atleast tolerate eachother

Our old cat is a cuddly softy I have never seen her be aggressive or anything towards other people really only our dogs when we first had them but she got used to those quick like a week or so and she’s always been an inside cat

I’ve probably done a bunch of the no’s when I brought the kitten home she instantly took a liking to me and won’t leave me alone she has to stay in my room where old cat stays most the time food is separated and because of the kitten the old cat is very stand off ish but still comes to cuddle occasionally

My kitten is very bold and likes to push my adult cat's boundaries. I play with him every day and try to tire him out, but of course he has the unbounded kitten energy, especially after a nap.

I never leave them alone unsupervised but I'm wondering if I should continue to even allow this type of play. My adult cat never grew up with a kitten so she doesn't really know how to play. I don't think she ever hurts the kitten when he pounces on her (at least he never responds hurt) but she does sound very annoyed. That said, she is okay with him chasing her around and she likes to follow him around, she just doesn't like him jumping on her.

I distract him if he's ever too persistent but he does back off a little bit when she vocalizes. Is it okay for me to allow this play and for my adult cat to set her boundaries like this, or am I risking the kitten getting hurt? My adult cat has never intentionally lashed out and scratched me, she is not very violent. But I still worry about his safety.

Note: they are both indoor cats and both have breakaway collars on. He needs a bell on him or else he sneaks up on her and terrorizes her even more.

EDIT: Thanks all! Really appreciate the feedback! Glad it's just healthy play. My adult cat has been hissing and being vocal a lot with him during similar play so I was concerned, but this makes me feel a lot better leaving them together alone!

Hi all, I could use some experienced advice. I have a multi-cat household (3 adult residents) plus two kittens who are both currently isolated, and I’m trying to figure out the best path.

The two kittens:

**•Kolby** — a 4 months old deaf kitten I foster-failed/adopted. He has all 3 FVRCP shots. The problem: after a month of slow, proper introductions (scent swapping, barriers, supervised time), integration with my 3 adult cats is not working. He chases and pounces on them, they hide and are stressed. Because he can’t hear their warning hisses/growls, he doesn’t back off. Right now he’s confined to a room and only out \~10-15 min/day, which isn’t sustainable — he’s bored and destructive. Attached with this post is how he interacts with my 3 adult cats, constantly whenever he sees them. He loves ambushing them and being in wrestling mode all the time with them. And my cats would scream and run away to hide like in the video.

•**New Siamese kitten** — about 10 weeks old now. With me 1 week, currently caged in a separate room. Has had 1 FVRCP shot and been dewormed. At his previous foster he was caged separately, but in a room with other kittens (shelter-style). The previous foster had him for definitely more than 1 week but I don't know exactly how long.

My main question: Both kittens are now badly lacking cat and human interaction because they’re each isolated. Would it be reasonable to house Kolby and the new kitten together, hoping they become playmates — so Kolby can burn energy and learn to play appropriately with another cat, and neither is so isolated? Or is this a bad idea? I'm at my wits end and have been thinking to finding a new home for Kolby because that may be the best thing I can do for my 3 adult cats. The rescue encourages me to try letting the 10 weeks old Siamese kitten meets Kolby.

Thanks in advance — trying to do right by all of them and a bit overwhelmed.

We had them in separate rooms with their own litter and food however both got curious and after 5 days of bringing in the kitten, both left their rooms. My older cat will stay within a 2 foot distance of him. When he runs, she chases him, but doesn’t touch or bite. Just an occasional hiss.

Is this okay?

Tag is the only one I think that fits.

Juno (white) is 11 weeks, picked up last Wednesday. Nixie (black) is 13 weeks, picked up 1.5 weeks before Juno.

These kiddos are my first kittens since I moved out. And it's been a while since I was around any kittens at their age at all. I genuinely can't tell if Juno is growling because she doesn't like it or if she's just very vocal during play.

We got lou two months ago from the shelter and peaches I found while out on a job Almost 9 months ago. The issue we have is lou wants out from his base camp but everytime we do he is in edge always looking for her and on the prowl and sometimes can relax when they are both out but after awhile he gets anxious and can’t stop looking around for her. So far when have let the try to fight it out around 6 times already and in 3 of those times lou is always on top of her and when she can’t escape him she will just start pissing everywhere but mostly on him to get him off of her, now the only one who screams bloody murder is peaches but she also does those same ones when she gets annoyed with us by any minor inconvenience lol so we can’t tell if she’s just yelling to yell since there 6 fights there’s only been hair coming out no vet visits and no blood was ever drawn in their fights. They did so well with scent swapping and being able to eat in front of eachother on either side of the netting and when we leave them alone peaches cannot stop bothering lou she runs up to his netting and smacks and other times they will both be in there sides showing eachothers stomachs. Not sure what else to do we also have the diffusers to help calm them but it only does so much :/ we’ve also tried tiring them both out and bringing them out and same result he gets anxious when she’s not in his view :/. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated 🙏🏾🙏🏾