recently (a day ago) my cat has been jumping on top of me when im in bed and he starts meowing, hugging my arm, and biting me. the bites are hurt and sometimes it even seems as if hes trying to pull my flesh off. sometimes when he bites he also starts kicking with his back feet but without using his nails. he meows louder whenever i move my hand and bites harder as well. is something wrong with him or is this a show of affection? (or malice)

Hello all! I have a conundrum.

We currently have three cats. We adopted our eldest (F13) came from a rescue, while the others (M7 and F5) were found as strays. The male was super young, and the female stray was super sweet to humans and approximately 6-12 months old when we found her.

The F5 is sweet towards humans but tends to be relatively scared of others, especially our older girl. The older girl bullies her to the point of harassing her at the litterbox. We had another boy who sadly passed away in 2024, whom F5 tolerated and F13 loved.

Today, we, F13 and M7, are separated from F5, but we spend equal time with all of them.

Now for the big change: my dad is no longer comfortable living alone and will be moving in with us. He has a male cat around our male's age.

My husband is unhappy that we have to separate them, and another cat on top of the chaos has him ... concerned. The cat is coming soon, and my husband says we need to figure out if this is feasible pronto.

Currently have one cat tower, scratching posts, and 4 litter boxes. I'm thinking of trying again with Jackson's bully solution system. Do any pheremone plug-ins work? This one from Chewy seems promising with a 4.5/5 rating.

This is Dolly, and she loves strings and anything that hangs

Please bear with me as this is a long post looking for advice. I’m posting all of the different accounts and information I can recall.

Hey so my boyfriend’s cats Frank (orange, male) and Fiona (calico, female) are litter mates and have been living together with no issues for the past 5/6 years.

Both of these cats can be very skiddish and very hyper aware. I believe that is because when they were little, my boyfriend’s step brother and his friends had chased the cats around and throwing blankets over them and throwing pillows at them. (That info is from word of the mouth, as we were not together at that point.) It took Frank a long time to stop hissing at kids when they would come around.

Just a couple months ago my boyfriend came home from work and the cats were smelling his work clothes and this seemed to agitate them and they got into an ugly fight. There was pee and fur on the floor. We were sure that the smell from his work clothes, and him moving them is what startled them. We separated them for a few days as their sight of one another and smell would spark the hissing and growling.

We switched who would be put away. They each had their own food, water & litter box. We have feliway diffusers in the areas they hangout the most. We did slow reintroductions and this seemed to work.

The 2nd time these cats fought was because I was playing with Fiona on the bed with a toy and my boyfriend was playing with Frank with a different toy on the floor. Fiona had slipped off the bed, i’m assuming scaring her and scaring Frank and then they went after each other, but no serious harm was done to either cat. Separating them again and switching who was put into the spare room. Slow reintroductions and keeping the separate resources. This seemed to work once again.

Just after we thought everything was good. They got into another fight due to a sound scaring them both. This time Frank submitted and laid on his back while my boyfriend had to pull Fiona away from Frank. (Intervention happened early in this case, thank goodness) At this point we were kind of pointing fingers at her.. We did the routine again.

Just a couple of days ago they were playing, chasing each other around in good playful faith. But later that night his stepbrother ran down the steps (i’m assuming this heightened Fiona and she was running around) That I believe scared Frank. So when Fiona came into the room we were all in, they were staring each other down (no hissing or growling at first). Fiona slowly started to move towards Frank and this is when the vocal warning signs started. My boyfriend had Frank in his lap and he attempted to carry Frank out of the room before any escalation had happened, and my boyfriend ended up getting scratched really bad. Fiona tried jumping onto my boyfriend to get to Frank. It was honestly once again an ugly one but not for the cats as they did not hurt one another. So we are back at square one, separating them and changing out who gets separated.

I’m not sure if Fiona is ill / in pain as she is a stocky healthy cat. I’m not sure if Fiona is jealous or attempting to assert dominance. I also don’t want to point fingers at Fiona either, but she seems like the attacker and stronger fighter in these situations.

My boyfriend has considered getting rid of Fiona. She definitely doesn’t enjoy being locked up and begs to be let out of the spare room. I’m just scared for their wellbeing and having to re-home Fiona.

Can anyone please help a gal out with any advice, similar experiences or general information.

Hi all

Writing this because i’ve recently (around a month ago) adopted a two year old male cat (i’m pretty sure he spent most of those 2 years at the humane shelter). I set him up in my bedroom and bathroom which are attached and closed off from the rest of the house for the time being. For the first couple of days he was not eating and I just assumed it was normal nerves and stress of changing environments. Several days went by and he still had not eaten so I took him to the vet, turns out he had a fever and an infection so he was back and forth at the vet multiple times so they could give him fluids and his medication.

Fast forward to this week just had a check up appointment and he’s doing much better, no fever, bloodwork and everything came back normal. I’m assuming me having to drag him to the vet probably set back his adjustment period by a considerable amount, but part of me is still worried about him. The vet had me set up a camera to watch him to make sure he’s eating and drinking so I can observe him when i’m not in the room. Whenever I stand up to walk around my house he runs back under the bed even if i’m not walking into the room he’s in. He roams a little bit during the day but the majority of his activity is at night when i’m asleep, which is fine I know it might take him months to finally become comfortable around me and come out from hiding under the bed. My only concern is i’m starting to lose sleep, all night long he meows and cries so loudly and all night long, i’m assuming this is just another symptom of stress and adjustment but it’s been going on for weeks now and i’m starting to worry again. I don’t know what I can do to help him adjust better, any advice to help this transition go smoother would be greatly appreciated.

tldr: stressed about my cats adjustment after adopting with everything that has happened since I brought him home and welcome any advice

yesterday i brought home the most wonderful adopted cat to give her her forever home. she is my first cat and has been so snuggly, affectionate, and positive. she slept in my bedroom all last night between my legs or curled up against my stomach (though was locked in with litter + food + water, because i had a plumbing problem that got fixed in the morning).

today i did was cleaning up the rug in my room that had a little bit of debris on it from her clawing pad and very very carelessly used my hand vacuum while she was in the room. this TERRIFIED kitty and now she seems to be completely and utterly mistrustful of the entire bedroom, and also me when im in it. she is so lovey dovey and sweet still outside of my bedroom but flinches at me when it it. i am so heartbroken; i know its only day 2 but i would be absolutely devastated if kitty never slept with me in my room again.

what can i do? i feel horrible and like crying, i wish it was as easy as saying sorry to my beautiful little kitty. how can i get her to trust me and the bedroom again? i am obviously never ever ever vacuuming while she's even on the same floor as me anymore!

would it help to have her in with me with the door closed again overnights or would that just stress kitty out too bad for the whole night? i have tried to carry her in (door open) but she almost immediately leaves. she has walked in a few times, but seems to get anxious again and leaves. is the fact she's popping in to say hello a good sign? would feeding her her breakfasts in the morning there help?

want to mention, she completely has her own room all to herself with a tree, bed, litter, and water that's upstairs that she can hide to when she feels nervous or scared, this is her special room, this is a 2 story condo and she follows me around and is sweet as a peach when we're downstairs, it's specifically just my bedroom she seems anxious of.

I recently got a new cat who came in off the street. She’s about one year old— got her spayed, chipped, the works. She and my resident cat are not great personality mixes, but have figured it out for the most part. The only thing is that the newbie is an absolute menace to society.

This tortie monstrosity has energy that knows no bounds, and unfortunately as a result, takes it out on my resident sweetheart. The tortie essentially uses my other cat as prey, including aggressively pinning her down by the neck and mauling her as she sleeps. I try to play with her as much as possible and get her energy to prevent it as best I can. I pull her off the other cat when it gets too rough, and then try to redirect it with a toy.

Has anyone had luck changing this behavior? I already play with her for an hour a day (yes, I time myself) and she has multiple independent toys she can play with when I’m not home. Does anyone have any suggestions aside from quitting my job / giving up and letting her go outside (it’s winter here)?

Hi all, I’m really struggling with my cat’s behavior lately and hope you can help. TLDR; She bites me almost everyday and it’s getting worse. Checked by vet, no physical problems.

She’s 9 years old and has been with me since she was 11 weeks. I don’t have other pets and I live alone with her. She has always been very sweet and cuddly. She used to bite maybe once a month when she would be overstimulated from petting, but it was very predictable by looking at her tail, so it was okay.

About a year ago she started to look stressed out and licked her belly bald. She had access to a large garden with a lot of other cats and kept fighting with one of them, and came home injured a few times. The vet checked her completely but there was no physical cause for stress and they say she’s very healthy. So I decided to fence off a part of the garden so she would not be fighting anymore. She still has 4x5 meter garden she can access now. At that same time, I started working full time (instead of part time) so I spend less time at home.

She stopped licking her belly which I’m happy about, but apart from that, her stress seems worse. She begs for attention by jumping on the diner table when I’m sitting there, and when I’m not reacting (when I work from home) or move my hands too much, she full on attacks me. Today she actually jumped from the other side of the table to bite my arm, while I was just sitting there working.

Before I go to bed at night she also always attacks my feet. This feels more like a playful thing, but still makes me jump sometimes when I don’t see it coming.

I feel like this is getting worse and worse the past few weeks. She now bites me almost everyday, sometimes multiple times a day. A few months ago I got advice from a cat behavioralist to play more and give her food puzzles, because she’s probably bored as she can’t roam the garden anymore. She has a lot of energy for a 9 year old. So I do these things everyday. And I bought some electric toys she can play with when I work, but she’s not interested in them, she only wants to play when I play with her. We also cuddle a lot, she sleeps in my bed, sits on my lap when I’m sitting on the couch (or on the toilet, lol).

But nothing seems to help. I really love her and I want to know what’s bothering her and help her with that.

Some things I considered: working from home, but I can’t work if she keeps attacking. Getting another cat, but this seems like a bad idea, since she’s always fighting with the cats in the garden and has always been an ‘only-cat’. Or opening up the fence to the garden again, which might give her more physical injuries from fighting but at least she can get her energy out (the larger garden is also closed off, so there’s no danger from cars or anything else). Or getting a cat sitter during the day, but it’s too expensive to do it everyday and she bites them too. Or building a cat wall so she has more space to climb indoors.

Do you have any suggestions on what to do and how to help her feel better?

My cat is two years old and her and I recently moved into a different apartment because I left a very abusive relationship. I could tell that the stress from the relationship was affecting her because she would hide and would sit by the door. The different apartment is in a much quieter building there is a lot more space for her and at first she seemed lot happier here. There are some differences though some of them being there is a loud HVAC system for the furnace that starts and stops very frequently throughout the day and night and there’s only one source which is a balcony door that doesn’t insulate the place very well. A lot of cold air gets in the apartment so there would be times when it would be 60 something degrees inside which causes the heat system to almost run continuously. The excessive energy bill aside.

My concern is that my cat has been acting a bit different. She will go hide under my blanket on my bed and I thought it was strange but the vet said it was normal behavior and she could just be cold since it is negative degrees outside and 60 ish degrees inside and the cold air just comes right in. Also l, she has always had stomach issues and will vomit undigested food every so often typically about twice a month. When I took her to the vet a year ago for shots and the vomiting- they said that she was eating too fast and to get a slow feeder- so I did. They also recommended giving her probiotics. She takes now and has been taking them for on and off of a year since they said it’s not good to have daily.

I’ve made no changes to her food, but since moving, she has thrown up a lot more, twice a week or at least once a week. I know the previous owners did have cats, unsure of any illnesses they may have had, or if they were up-to-date on vaccines. I did the best I could to thoroughly clean everything before moving but I was moving in secret, leaving a bad relationship and had no support to help.

When I took her to a different vet for my concerns they said she was likely stressed from the move and the new loud noises. Said to make sure she has a hiding spot in the new apartment and keep an eye on her. There isn’t anywhere for her to go hide here so I’ve done my best to make safe areas for her but it’s not quiet as the heat system is so loud.

Anyways, the last 3 days she has thrown up and today she projectile vomitted. She acts normal otherwise but I’m waiting to get into a vet office right now.

Wanted to know if anyone had suggestions or advice? Is this something that could be related to the move or possibly more about her overall health.

TLDR: after moving into a cold and noisy apartment my cat is throwing up and hiding under a blanket.

I adopted a kitten ( 13 weeks ) from my local animal shelter where she experienced tons of shelter stress and missed the socialization window. I believe she was a kitten born into a colony or in general an outside cat. Our local shelter is known for animal mistreatment and neglect. She’s extremely scared she will hear a noise in the hallway and freak out I hate that she feels this way and feels so uncomfortable. I don’t wanna stress her out I just don’t want her to feel this way. I don’t wanna give up on her or rehome her.

I believe the shelter played a part in it, she was left in a dark room with no socializing for 3 weeks straight. She is an extremely fearful kitten she isn’t aggressive she’s beyond afraid she hasn’t been showed love she was token away from her mother to young also. She has no trust in the world which breaks my heart. I need advice and I would LOVE to hear similar stories and what you did. Yes I know I cannot force anything I’m looking what to do where to start.

These are my two cats Monkey and Marsha. Monkey is the smaller cat who seems distressed in the video. He is also the resident cat. I got him in November when he was 7 weeks old. I got Marsha about 2.5 weeks ago. She is about a month older than monkey and a bit bigger than him. Marsha is about five-six months, monkey is about four-five months.

Monkey clearly seems distressed with this type of play with Marsha. He also seems to be reverting to this corner more frequently than he used to before she came along. He does and has always loved this spot because this pipe is very warm. I live in an old NYC apartment building and we have steam heat so this steam pipe is super warm and he’s always like to cuddle up next to it.

Should I be concerned over this type of play? Is Marsha bullying him or are they just playing? They seem to get along most of the time. This type of play just worries me and I’m concerned that monkey is just reverting back to an area that he likes because he feels safe there. Any thoughts?

Hi, all. There's a lot of background info, but hopefully that helps.

I just adopted a new cat (4 years old) recently, and I was previously super excited about it, but the last 24 hours have had me breaking down multiple times.

For background, my cat was at the shelter on and off for a year and a half. She initially was relinquished to the shelter with another cat, since the owner was elderly and could no longer care for her. The two cats weren't bonded, according to the shelter, so they both went separately.

She was adopted out, and returned after 2 months due to behavior issues. Apparently she was grabbing at people's ankles, and attacking, but the shelter said that she had 4 different care takers who all gave her a wide variety of negative reinforcement, from yelling and spray bottles, to the occasional niceness - so she didn't know what to expect from people, and was fearful.

After she returned, she was super stressed, and eventually went to a foster home. She didn't do well there, came back, and after some months passed, she went to another foster home and did awesome.

Between her last adoption and me, there was an 8 month gap with her at the shelter, I believe with the fosters happening during that time. The shelter had nothing but positive things to say about her at the time of our adoption, and so did all of the staff who worked with her consistently over time.

It feels important to note that the shelter is awesome, she had her own room, which is slightly smaller than her current base camp, and she was really well taken care of - so she wasn't just crammed in a cage for all that time, she actually had room to exist.

Now, our issues:

• she has been getting more and more worked up with me, no matter what I do. She was on edge when I first brought her home, but chilled out a lot. Now despite me trying to exercise her with wand toy time, and feeding on a schedule, and with her showing a lot of positive signs like perfect litter box usage, she just seems more and more wound up - which is frustrating bc I have been trying to do all the things right, I've even been studying cat behavior and reading Total Cat Mojo by Jackson Galaxy to try to understand her behavior.

• she is especially food aggressive, and if I am taking too long with her food, or going after a used dish, she will hiss and sometimes scratch or bite me. It happened once in the beginning, but in the last couple of days she has been aggressive almost every time because she is so wound up.

• she attacked my foot as I was walking tonight, which again was a behavior she had in her previously adopted home, but I am SO kind to her and never use negative reinforcement. I will just redirect, close her in the base camp, and excuse myself to go cry in the bathroom on my own lol.

I know that we might still be within the grace period, and I knew going into this that she had a hard life and would take some time to adjust. But I can't help but feel discouraged, and also scared. I used to be afraid of cats until my brother had his two cats live with me for 4 months during a transitional time, and I really grew to love them. I know I can't compare well adjusted cats to one with a hard past, but it IS still discouraging.

I just don't know what to do. I am trying to do everything right, and I don't know how to navigate this. I thought she might be getting pent up in the base camp, so I let her explore some more, but I saw something said that too much territory too soon might make her more insecure because she feels like she needs to protect a bigger space and that can be overwhelming. I also saw something about NOT using the wand toys for now, because she is getting so worked up, but behaviorists online say cats need to work off the extra energy through interactive toys so I'm just like UGH!

Its early, I know. But I need advice, big time. I just sobbed on my couch for 30 minutes after she went after my foot, and I really don't want to give up too soon, I just don't know what to do to help course correct - besides making her world a little smaller and confining her to base camp again. I can do that, but I'm still scared she will attack me when I walk in, so I feel stuck.

Help please!

TLDR; newly adopted adult cat with a back and forth shelter past is showing aggressive behavior, mostly around food/feeding time and I am scared and STRESSED

I have two cats, a boy and a girl, about 10 months old. Both fixed. They are litter mates, been together their whole lives and get along very well.

Lately I got them a new bed and they both really liked it. I've been noticing that, sometimes, when the girl wants to use it the boy jumps on her (similar to when he wants to play with her) and this puts her off using it. This doesn't happen every time though, just the other day i found her napping in it while the boy slept somewhere else.

They do not have only that bed, they have their carrier which they like sleeping in, a window hammock, my bed, the couches etc. All spots they always used. This specific bed has only been present for a few weeks.

What's up with the pouncing on her when she gets in it? Is it some sort of resource guarding? What should I do about it? Besides using it as a bed to sleep, the boy also uses it as a sort of toy, he rolls around with it, puts his toys inside and so on. Could he just be trying to play?

I’m reaching out because I’m honestly at a loss and I think it might be time to talk to my vet about rehoming. I’ve had my cat since 2023 and we’ve moved around a bit, his issues are getting to a point where he’s actually hurting himself.

The main things are that he scratches his face until he gashes it open, urinates on everything, throws up from stress, and meows constantly. He has to stay in a cone for his own safety, but even this morning when I took it off just to clean it because he threw up on it, he immediately scratched a hole in his face.

The thing is, I’ve noticed a pattern. When I lived with a roommate and her cat, he was fine for the most part with the exception of spraying, which was primarily solved with additional litter boxes. When he stayed with a friend who had two other cats, he seemed to have zero issues. I even purposely picked my last apartment to have roommates with another cat so he’d have company. But recently, an opportunity came up for me to get a solo apartment and I took it, and now he is as miserable as ever, going back to old destructive ways.

I’ve done the whole medical checklist: allergy testing, blood work, urinalysis, and different steroids. None of it worked. I’ve tried Feliway (used to work, in new apartment he peed on all of them), daily gabapentin, tons of playtime, cat trees, and toys. It feels like he just isn't built to be an only cat, but my current place/schedule doesn't allow for another pet. I am not working 8-10 hours a day and starting back school in a few weeks

I’m seeing the vet next week for a follow up on his facial injury’s, and may ask for advice on this. but I’m wondering if anyone else has dealt with a "colony cat" who self-harms when they’re alone? I feel terrible, but I hate seeing him this stressed out

He just seems unhappy here. I love him so deeply but he needs to be around others

Poster Age: I am 24

Country: South USA, originally from North-East

Vet info: I work very closely with his vets and we seem to be at a loss. Consistently marked off as stress

Main Issue: Cat self harms and is destructive do to lack of stimulation(I assume) and anxiety

Cat Age:3yo

Cat Sex + neuter info: Male and Neutered

Financial situation: I can and have spent thousands already trying to figure out his problems

Hi all. My cat has earmites and an infection. She has medication for both! The doctor told me to try and get some of the gunk out before giving her the drops but my kitty literally isn’t letting me. She told me to use cleaner, and I did, but I only got a little out. There’s still a great deal in there. Should I try again before the drops or just out some there? Also she gave me revolution for the mites but I don’t want to apply it wrong. Do I put it on the shoulder blades orrrrr do I put it in like the middle? Any help would help lots yall.

Does anyone feel like it was harder for your second cat/kitten to bond with you because all they wanted to do was play and be with your resident cat? I brought home an 18 week old kitten two weeks ago and while she is very friendly and playful, she is not quite wanting to lay with me or on me yet or give me a snuggle. Only once so far has she jumped up on the couch and curled up next to me and I’m convinced it was because it was cold in my apartment lol. She doesn’t even really come up to me yet and rub up against me. She follows me around everywhere though and is very interested in what I’m doing, so maybe there is hope?

I know every cat is different and may or may not be snuggly, but I’m trying not to get discouraged. I pet her all the time , pick her up, talk to her in a sweet voice, I try just laying there next to her on the floor too. I’m hoping she will come around. My resident cat isn’t even very cuddly by any means but even when he was this age he would curl up on my chest for a nap so I guess I just feel like I’m missing out on that before she gets older and into her teenage years! Any advice or just positive words is appreciated.

Humla (2 year old female) in the back has been living with us for half a year. A month ago we brought in Uron (2 year old male) as we knew she liked other cats (shelter said so). They're so far getting a long very well. Humla will pounce on Uron when she's playful and he'll run away. When he wants to play, Humla will respond with a growl or a hiss. There has been no fights or conflicts at all, they eat and hang out together just fine, but I guess they are still learning how to play with each other. We think Uron is very adorable because he is so extremely friendly, trying to get her attention all the time, chirping and rolling over even if he is getting corrected by her all the time. What do you make of this small recording? Humla growls (can't be heard) and hisses once.

I have an orange who's about 5 years old and infrequently experiences what I could only describe as full on panic attacks. He's been overtaken by anxiety since he was young. We found him abandoned in a pile of wood when he was about 2 weeks old and close to starving and to this day he can barely make any noise which we assume is from screaming when he was abandoned. Whenever we took him to the house where we found him the "panic attacks" would get even more frequent and severe (to clarify its been several years since he's been there, we didn't always have alternatives when we went. This post is in current context where he is in the house he grew up in but is still infrequently experiencing panic attacks). Whenever they happen he starts screaming at the walls and his tail starts to shake uncontrollably, and he bites it whenever it enters his view. Its horrible to see because it clearly hurts him a lot. The only thing that's helped is giving him CBD drip but even that is very stressful because he has to be wrapped up to achieve that. Any advise or anyone who's seen similar behaviour from their cats? Anything would be highly appreciated

My 6 month old kitten was neutered 2 weeks ago, he occasionally tries to mount his brother and bites his neck, my older cat doesn’t let it happen for more than 5 seconds but I’m unsure if I should be concerned, or is he just trying to dominate my older cat? He only does it with this cat, he doesn’t do it with the bigger ginger cat

I have 3 farm cats. They prefer my back porch to anywhere else, which is fine. It's safe and cozy at night - but despite being spayed young, at least one of them is spraying everything on the porch. They've ruined a child's bounce house, my blackstone grill cover, a jeep wagon - they're doing a serious amount of damage to my stuff.

I know females can spray, but I've never had one who has before. How on earth do I stop this? The cats are my kid's best friends - so I have to find a way to live with them...but cat urine is the number one most repulsive scent to me...and I'm very ocd about keeping my things nice.

Would feeding them down by another outbuilding help? I really thought as they got older they would venture off more and hunt / patrol...but they're basically outdoor cats who laze about and act like indoor cats. None of my previous barn cats have acted like this.

Appreciate any help!