r/Catbehavior

I’m posting because I genuinely don’t know where else to turn, and I’m hoping someone here has dealt with something similar.
I’ve had my cat since she was a baby. She was bottle-fed and I’ve loved her for years. She has always had some behavioral issues and has had episodes of aggression before, but things have gotten really bad recently.
I got a second cat a while ago, and surprisingly, she adjusted pretty well to having another cat around. She was able to coexist with him and things were generally okay.
Recently, I moved in with my partner, who also has cats, and she has not transitioned well at all. I completely understand that moving, a new environment, new people, and multiple unfamiliar cats is an enormous change for her. I’ve tried to give her space and time, but her aggression has gone far beyond what I feel equipped to handle.
She is becoming violently aggressive, and I am genuinely scared of her. She has attacked me, and I’m at the point where I’m afraid of what might happen during an episode. She is currently on gabapentin, but she is still extremely aggressive even with it.
I want to be very clear that I am not looking for people to tell me to “just get rid of her.” She is my baby. I have had her since she was tiny, and I love her immensely. But I am also scared, overwhelmed, and honestly terrified that if this continues, I’m going to start resenting her. I don't want that to happen.
I feel like I’m running out of options and I don’t know what the right thing to do is for her or for me.
Has anyone dealt with a cat who became violently aggressive after moving or being introduced to other cats, especially when there was already a history of aggression? What actually helped?
I’m open to hearing anything. I just need help figuring out what my next step should be.
I love this cat and I want to help her. I just also need to be safe in my own home.

I have a one year old ragdoll kitten. He is beautiful but i find him extremely annoying. I feel horrible for even saying this :((

He keeps me up all night, to the point my partner hates staying the night at my house cause of the cat. He will randomly bite our ankles every hour and wake us up. The bite is so hard!!!
as a punishment i put him outside the bedroom and close the door, this makes him cry and scratch at the door for hours at a time and it’s very loud, i usually end up laying there for hours listening to it and then letting him back in all for the cycle to repeat. If he’s not doing either of these things he is going on top of my bed frame and jumping down on us. I know he just wants to be involved but it’s so hard to sleep with him around.

I’ll add i’ve tried so many things, playing with him before bed, we went to “kitty school” for a few weeks, he has an automatic feeder that goes off at 7am.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? Will a bedtime routine of some kind help him? i am so lost please help

Hello community, need some advice on what to do. So these past few months have been rough, I have 2 cats a male who’s a bit over 2 and a female who’s a little over 1. They come from the same parents just different litters. The past few months they have not been getting along and have had some pretty aggressive scary fights, this started in June and has only gotten worse they fight more often now. From what we know neither of them are sick. We have done reintroducing, two different feed bowl and litters so they aren’t sharing at the same time. So we’ve just kept them separated because they are still fighting. I’ve seen the male cat to be the one starting the fights and my female seems to just be afraid, but I don’t know what starts it. There’s been times I felt anxious with them being out and around so I’ll decide I should put one up before a fight starts. Well once I go to do that, it’s almost like my male cat knows so he’ll chase/block the room and a fight breaks out. There’s been times we go to switch them and my female cat is just growling at my male cat. So I’ve started to think that maybe our male cat just needs to be the only animal we have in the house. I hate seeing them fight and I hate that my female cat has to always be on lookout. I’d like to say that the fights have started out of no where and that they were getting along just fine before. This have been giving me a lot of anxiety and I feel really stumped on what to do. Finding a new home for the female was our last option and I don’t know what else to try.

Hi all, bear with me—I will try to make this a fact-based read.

My cat Mitzi, 8, was hospitalized over the weekend for suspected pancreatitis/IBD.

In the hospital she was doing great—her levels improved, vitals normal, and she was eating-yay!

I got her home last night and she immediately went into hiding; I gave her her medication, she ate (3-4x), but since this morning she is back in hiding and very sleepy.

I’m scared something is wrong again. Is it normal for cats to have an adverse reaction the day after a longer stay at the hospital?

I have 4 cats, all females. My issue is with one of my twin cats.
I adopted the twins when they were about 3 months old, and that was 3 years ago. When I first adopted them, they were both very curious, adventurous, naughty, playful, and affectionate. It took about a month for them to fully adjust to my resident cat, who was 5 years old at the time.

However, sometime before the twins turned 1, I noticed that one of them started becoming extremely skittish and fearful.
Now, she hides as soon as she hears footsteps or someone approaching. She’s very cautious about everything and isn’t nearly as affectionate as she used to be. She mostly shows affection at bedtime or when she wants me to brush her. Other than that, she’s pretty antisocial. She usually stays in one room and sleeps for most of the day.

Her twin sister is completely different and is still much more outgoing.
I honestly can’t pinpoint anything specific that happened that would have caused such a big personality change. It feels like she went from being this curious, adventurous kitten to being afraid of almost everything.

Has anyone experienced something similar with their cat?
She’s 3 years old now. Is it possible to help her become more confident, social, and affectionate again, or is this probably just her adult personality now?
I’d especially love to hear from anyone who has successfully helped a very skittish/scaredy cat become more confident.

we have four cats, all female, all spayed. all friendly to people and content for the most part. our first two, a tabby and a tortoiseshell (not siblings, about ten years old now) were adopted at the same time and get on ok. about three years later we got two new kittens, a calico and a ginger (same litter, about seven now).

anyway, our main problem is the tabby and the ginger HATE each other and always have. well the tabby kind of hates all the others but will tolerate them, but she’ll hiss and growl at the ginger if they happen to want to pass each other. like if they’re coming down a corridor in opposite directions she’ll freeze, crouch, puff up, yowl… a few years ago they had a bad fight and the ginger ended up with an infected wound. they have their own spaces to sleep, eat etc. usually the tabby stays downstairs and the ginger stays upstairs. she has a healthy fear of the tabby and won’t go near her if it can be helped which at least keeps the peace.

however lately they’ve both been peeing outside the litter box and it’s getting to be a real problem. were renovating our house so things are moving a lot, so i’m guessing it’s a combination of stress at the change, needing to claim territory from the other etc. no utis, diabetes etc as far as we know. what can we do to stop them peeing everywhere? renovations will be ongoing for a long time, they have plenty of litter boxes, private spaces, feliway etc. after years of hating each other is there a way to make them tolerate each other or is it too late? and how to discourage peeing when the whole house is being changed almost every day? should we get them to the vet and have them doped up with something while the work goes on? could be another year before everything settles.

hi! i have a 3 year old male cat, he is my baby and recently i just moved in with my girlfriend to an apartment where we can have him. he’s been with my parents while i’ve been living alone previously, but i took him back a week ago after moving to my new place.

he’s taken the move very well, he’s very social and friendly. his “issue” is that he will stare at walls and meow LOUDLY, roam at night and meow LOUDLY, go into a different room than us and meow LOUDLY. like repeatedly until someone comes to him. i think he’s bored but he doesn’t really care about solo toys, especially electronic ones. he doesn’t care for wands really either, he loves hair ties and springs but i cannot shoot those across my apartment at 4 am 😭

he did well at my mom’s where he was accompanied by 3 other cats and a dog. he would cry for food but that’s it, even when i lived at home i did not witness him act like how he does here. he was a lot more playful at my mom’s, played with 2 of the cats a lot, chased each other all the time. he’ll play here for 20 minutes, then sleep for hours (which i know is “normal” but not for him i guess!). he’s still super sweet and friendly, but he’s very clingy, like is running to be under our feet or run to where we’re going to lay or sit and then smother you, wayy more than normal. he has cat trees, scratchers, tunnels, toys; i feel like he’s just missing another cat-presence!

i’m wondering if getting another cat would benefit him and his boredom? maybe he’s being a weirdo because of the move? everything else seems completely normal(bathroom behavior is normal, eating and drinking normal)!
thanks!!! :)))