r/Catbehavior

I need help Im F 22 and my SO is M24

We have lived together for 3 years, he brought his 2 cats a male and a female and i brought my male. Previously he had a roomate who had a cat who treated everything as a litter box so his female kinda did too? She got out of that habit almost immediately due to that just being unsanitary and thats just not okay(i very much disagree with the way the roommate kept the house, and SO moved out immediately after roommate got this cat and didnt clean up after it appropriately. Very much not okay cant stress that enough) well back to why im here, his female cat HATES me. And i know its not a actual hate relationship but at this point idk what to do. She breaks into cabnets(with secure child locks on them) she will work on them for a week or two at a time until they come loose and she can get inside of the cabnet just to hide. She will pee on the other cats toys if they really like them, making the other cat not want it, but she also doesnt want the toy. She will pee and puke on only my things or the other cats favorite spots. Yes i clean all of this nearly daily after working my fulltime job. And its driving me actually insane and i have been telling him no when he recommends rehoming her but im almost out of will to deal with it? And its sending me into panic attacks due to how consistent and targeted it feels, i love cats and this is making it to were i never want another one again. They are all fixed and the others are all boys and honestly perfect behavior(or just normal cat shenanigans) but she has attacked me on multiple occasions and this behavior is too much and i just need some help. I feel like im literally taking care of a toddler with the amount just she does.. i really dont know if i can do another 5-10 years of this. I feel like ive tried everything from new and more hides around the house to child locks on all my cabnets even with no kids and i hate feeling this dread around it all. She gets along with the other cats, ive tried crating as a timeout along with positive reinforcement but im always back to square -For background ive had cats my entire life and i currently work with snakes, i know it takes consistancy and trust but sometimes i think it can be the animal and after 3 years i think its just how she is? But she is sweet to SO and thats it, there was a very brief period that she liked me(in the slightest) and it was right after SO got her fixed a year ago. Im guessing she was just mad at him for taking her up there?

Anything helps and please try to be understanding im writing this while shaking due to our last interaction so bare with the scattered though process. Id hate to see him loose his cat so im really really trying here

HELP! What the hell ACTUALLY stops cats from peeing outside the litter box?

For context: I have three male cats and I only have this problem with one of them I've had him tested and no UTI's. He has been doing this for almost two years now and I feel like I've tried everything. We moved to a bigger place thinking that maybe space was the issue but it has been almost a year now and he still does it. Specifically beneath our bed. Also it isn't that he has a problem getting in or out of our litter box I've seen him pee there before and often with no issues.

Hello. this might be stupid but this is my first time experiencing this so i am not sure how to proceed. My cat (6y/o) and i just moved about 3 weeks ago and yesterday was the first time i had to change his litter since being in the new place. Beforehand i had kept his old litter from before the move to help with him feeling more secure and such… and he didn’t have any issues using it, but it was getting quite stinky so i had to change it completely this time. This morning my roommate told me that she had noticed he pooped on the floor by his litter box instead of inside of it.

Could this possibly be related to the stress of a new environment paired with the fact that i put new litter in there? or does it seem more likely to be that he is sick? should i take him to the vet immediately or keep an eye on him if that’s the case?

also should i put some of his old litter back in there to possibly make him more comfortable?

Thanks in advance!

My 8 year old Russian blue-ish rescue has picked up a new behavior in the past couple years, and I’ve had him since he was a baby. Particularly on his beds or on my blankets, he grabs the fabric with his teeth and pulls away on the fabric while pushing himself up on the bed with his arms until he rips the fabric with his teeth. He does it during multiple different moods, so not just when he’s hungry, etc. Vets haven’t had any explanations, so wondering if anyone else’s cats have exhibited the same behavior.

I have three cats and I’m struggling with introductions and behavior. I adopted two sister cats (littermates), Minnie and Maple, from the shelter in December 2024. They're 20 months and it was just the two of them for about a year. Then in December 2025, I adopted a third cat, Willow, She is 7 months

When I first brought Willow home, I kept her in my bathroom for about three days so she could decompress. After that, I moved her into my bedroom, where she stayed (along with access to the bathroom) for about two months, completely separated from the other cats. During that time, I did scent swapping, and Minnie would come up to the bathroom door and interact with Willow by playing under the door. Maple, on the other hand, would mostly just watch from a distance and didn’t really engage.

About a month after getting Willow, I tried introducing them. Maple immediately didn’t like her, she was growling and hissing so I went back to keeping Willow separated in my room. Then around February 2026 (about 2 to 2.5 months after bringing Willow home), I let Willow out into the rest of the house. At first, Minnie and Willow seemed to get along fine. They were sniffing each other, playing, and there was no aggression. Maple still didn’t like Willow at all.

Over the past month, things have gotten worse. Maple started attacking Willow whenever she sees her, and now Minnie has also started joining in and attacking her too. I’ve tried separating them and rotating spaces, keeping Willow in a bedroom while Minnie and Maple are in the cat room, and switching them out. I also tried keeping Minnie and Willow together, but after a few nights I noticed Minnie was also being aggressive toward Willow. Now I mostly keep Willow separated because she seems scared.

At this point, Willow is getting attacked by both cats, and I don’t want her to live like that. I adopted her from a shelter that said I could return her at any time, but I really don’t want to. I want to make this work. I just don’t know what else to try, so I’m looking for any advice, suggestions, or similar experiences.

My cat has recently started randomly biting my ankles when I least expect it, she’ll bite and then run off, and it happens multiple times a day. What could be causing this, and how can I stop it?

So I’ve had my kitten for like a month now and he’s turning three months this May. The problem is, he keeps biting me whenever I walk by or when I sit down on the floor. Just last night, I was sitting on the floor watching tv when he bit my feet. I told him no so he kindly walked up to me and bit my arm. He also dislikes it when I go to pick him up and acts threatened when I do so. I also play with him when I get home and use his toys to distract him when he bites. Pls help what do I do?

I have a lovely six year old grey domestic shorthair that I adopted three years ago. He’s usually a cuddly, loveable guy. At night, he’ll sleep curled up next to me and purring.

Some time ago, he started randomly attacking me on some nights. I don’t even know when it started because it’s so infrequent. It’s appears random to me, but I would guess it’s on busy days where I didn’t have time to play with him enough to tire him out, or I didn’t give him enough attention overall. Either way, I’ll usually be getting ready for bed or in bed, and he’ll suddenly grab onto my arm and bite down and bunny kick. His bites rarely draw blood, but his scratches do - I’ve had a running theory for a while that he doesn’t really understand how sharp his nails can be, even after being trimmed. He’ll be in attack/zoomies mode for a while before finally calming down.

Recently, I’ve started kicking him out of my room, hoping that he’ll associate an attack on my arm with being kicked out for the night. But it’s more like I’ll throw a toy out into the hallway for him to chase and then shut the bedroom door before he can come back in, and less of an explicit toss-out. I don’t know if those events happen frequently enough for him to make the correlation, or if it’s even a concrete enough concept. He does meow and complain for a while at my door to be let in before he gives up and sleeps on the couch. My bedroom is on a floor separate from the couch and cat tree, so once he’s out he’s pretty good about being quiet until the morning.

My question is in two parts.

1. Is the attacking behaviour concerning? His bites are gentle enough that I know he doesn’t mean to harm me. The scratches do bleed, but it’ll hurt even when he taps my leg for attention (maybe he accidentally unsheathes them here, or they just poke out a bit) or suddenly jumps off my stomach sometimes. He just has pointy nails and strong paws. He was the vet in October for routine bloodwork and some tooth extraction, and they didn’t mention anything else. My theory is that I just need to play with him a bit more before bed.

2. Will he ever learn to associate attacking me with being banned from my bedroom to the night?

I have 4 cats. Miso a bengal (3yo) male he is like 80% blind he isn’t your typical bengal at all. Buster who is an orange (8yo) male. I have 2 females Sochi(4yo) and Suki (1yo). All cats are fixed and everything. Ok so, originally we only had three cats, Buster came to us about 8-9 months ago as he was my daughters cat but he got a urinary blockage and just wasn’t being taken care of all AT ALL so we had two options, either rehome him or take him in. We decided to take him in as he had been adopted by my husband and my step daughter when he was only 5 months old. Anyways, we did the slow intro, I mean everything u can think of we have done. But, Buster and Miso HATE each other Buster will guard doors, hallways, anything and we’ll Miso will hiss and growl he is in a current state of anxiety and stress. Lately, Miso has been pooping in the kitchen sink and Buster decides to pee on the stove top. We have 5 litter boxes all over the house, they are cleaned daily. We have no idea what to do anymore it’s getting to the point where we are thinking about rehoming Buster, I do not want to do this at all as he has honestly grown on me. Please please if anyone can help me !!!

So, I have this Female Tabby cat that I've had for YEARS. A few months ago, my partner (M) moved in with me. Before this, she would be afraid of him anytime that he came over, which isn't usually behaviour for her. Usually she is a very loving cat who enjoys meeting new people. At first I thought it was just a comfortability issue, and that she'd warm up to him. Months have gone by now and she still isn't comfortable with him. She hides whenever he'd around, and rarely even comes into my room. Her poops have also gotten more foul smelling, and she's started eating so fast that she throws up.

Keep in mind, my partner has never abused this cat, hes only ever home when I'm home, and he's tried positive reinforcement with things like treats, but she just wont take them.

Can anyone help??

(( Not asking for medical advice, just want behaviour advice that might help her warm up to him!! ))

As the title states, my cat got out last night and I didn't find out until a couple hours later. I found her stuck behind a fence outside. She was growling and hissing at me, I have never seen her act like this before. Eventually I caught her and took her back inside, but now she keeps growling/hissing at me. She did come up to me for pets once but immediately started growling again. Any advice? I gave her some wet food and am giving her space right now.

If I'm sitting, minding my own business or even sleeping, my cat (male, neutered 5 years) will come up and bite me out of nowhere. Somebody said I should gently but firmly press the body part he's biting farther into his mouth so it's unpleasant. When I do this, he just leaves.

I don't mind giving him attention or cuddling, I just don't want to reward the biting! What should I do when he bites?

Sort of a longish story, so I apologize in advance. My cat is 10 years old but I’ve only had her in my house for 4 months and the last few night have been a tough.

Basically my husband brought a cat home when he was in high school and it has been living with his parents for the last 10 years. As of January, his parents are retired and have decided to winter in Florida. During this time, we took the cat to our house since they were going to be gone for 3 months. My husband and I got really attached to having her, and since she was *technically* my husband’s, his parents were more than happy to allow us to keep her full time. Especially since they intend on traveling a lot more in the future and it’s easier if she is not being carted back and forth. She has been an angel this entire time. No issues whatsoever until this week.

Now for the recent problem. Fast forward to last week, my mom went on vacation for a week, and we were dog sitting for her. My husband and I have 2 dogs with whom the cat gets along great with. shes always been around dogs and never had a problem. My mom’s dog… not so much. He had never been around a cat and wasn’t very fond of her. We were only watching him for 4 days, and during this time the cat spent most of the time hiding upstairs in our room since my mom’s dog didn’t go upstairs. Previous to this, she never cared to be in our room and always slept downstairs on the couch. We allowed her to stay in our room for those 4 nights because she was more comfortable and we figured it would be temporary until my mom’s dog went back home.

Now, my mom’s dog is back home and everything is back to normal except for the cat’s sleeping habits. She only wants to sleep in our room now, but the problem is she is extremely disruptive because she wants to sleep on top of me. We decided for my own sanity and restful sleep, she needs to go back to sleeping in the living room where she had been for the last 4 months without issue. Except she doesn’t want to sleep there anymore, she wants to be in the bedroom, on top of me. For the last 4 nights, she spends her time outside of the bedroom door scratching and meowing. It’s driving me absolutely crazy. This will go on until all hours of the night when I finally have had enough. Then I’ll go out, pick her up, and bring her down to my basement where she will be locked for the remainder of the night. The basement is where her food, water, and litter box are. How long will this go on until she finally learns that she isn’t going to be allowed back in the room? And are there any suggestions on faster/more effective ways of teaching her that she isn’t going to be allowed in by scratching and meowing? We aren’t giving in to letting her in the room, but she’s ruining the door frame from scratching, and I haven’t had a restful night of sleep in days. Really could use help on curbing this behavior

So, since about a month or two before Christmas solidly and sporadically a little bit before that my 10 year old half Maine coon half domestic long hair female cat has insisted on only drinking from the bathroom sink.

I even bought a fountain with a spout that curved over and had a single stream coming out like the faucet and she looked at me like I had suggested she might as well go drink out of a pig’s trough on a barn the way she turned her nose up at it.

Tried different locations, no dice.

I still leave out a bowl of fresh water for her everyday in case she gets thirsty while I’m not home or asleep—or busy. However her solution to me not being in said bathroom when she’s thirsty is to meow in the bathroom until I finally come turn the sink on. I normally would not be this much of my cat’s bitch, however she’s going to be 11 in August and I really don’t want her to have kidney issues so, sink bitch I shall be.

What I DO resent is she became turnt on cold fresh flowing sink water by coming to have a drink when I was going pee, and now sometimes she is enough of a furry little (maybe not little, she’s 18 pounds of not a fat cat just fur) anyways she’s WEIRD enough that she’ll sit there and stare at me and wait until I pull my pants down and sit like I’m peeing, even if I don’t have to, and then she will jump up to drink. Her highness has been pleased thoroughly enough to drink. Apparently she likes a side of voyeurism with her bedtime beverage.

There has never been a dull moment with her and I love her to pieces but.. I have stories.

Onto my issue.

Throughout the day when she is thirsty she either joins me when she hears me go to the bathroom, or if I just get home, or just wake up she runs into the bathroom if I go near it lol

They are shutting the water off in my building tomorrow. I will thoroughly explain this to her, but when the madam gets displeased she gets bite-y lol not seriously but I think it’s okay aggression? I’ve asked two different vets about it and they say it’s fine, and I keep trying to play with her more but she’s high anxiety and she’ll play by herself for a short while but playing with me, even gentle and calm playing stuff she either gets freaked out or bored. She’s more of a cuddle with mom girl. I’m her only safe person that she’ll trust so she’ll curl up in my lap or she’ll be my little spoon but she won’t let anyone else touch her.

I plan to try not to let her in the bathroom with me when I go as much as possible because if you open your tap you get fined.

How though do I deal if she makes it in with me and is standing in the sink staring at me, and how do I get her to drink from anywhere else? 😅 the last time they did this I left water out and had to be away from my place for a lot of the day so it wasn’t an issue.

The best I can think of is putting a dish full of fresh water in the sink so there’s at least still fresh water offered in the usual location.

I adopted a 1.5 year old male a little over a month ago and he has bitten me and my partner pretty hard on the legs and arms. The first week he didn’t hide from us for long and was very cuddly, I assumed he was very tired from the stress of coming to a new home. The shelter told us he was returned by his previous owners due to unknown allergies, and he was originally adopted as a kitten. I am not sure if the previous owners had other cats or animals. The shelter did tell us that he love bites, and for the first week or so he didn’t bite either of us.

There’s been several instances where he has pounced on our legs and bit in a playful manner, and he’ll nip at our ankles sometimes looking to play. We have tried to tell him no and ignore the behavior for a little, and then play with him so he doesn’t think biting/pouncing will lead to play time. More recently, when we try to play with him he will either stop and stare at our legs before biting. We try to distract the behavior but we’re not always successful. He has also tried to go for our hands when using a wand toy with him.

Last night I was preparing his dinner and he got his killer eyes staring at my legs and went to bite my ankle. I told him no, he backed up and then lunged at my leg and bit me very hard right near my knee. I yelped “ow” and he walked away, but I did not feed him right away because I don’t want him to think doing so will get him fed quicker. The bite is painful to the touch and drew some blood, I washed it immediately and have been keeping an eye on it. He has also lunged at my partner’s legs pretty aggressively and that took place in the kitchen as well.

I am not sure if this is food aggression, or if because I was about 5-10 minutes late to getting his dinner for him, but he’s never acted like that before when we go to feed him. I could use some advice or reassurance, if anyone has gone through something similar with their young cat.

He is neutered and most of the time a very cuddly cat that doesn’t mind being picked up, he has nipped if you pet him in one spot for too long but rarely. I’m not sure how to curb this behavior in a healthy manner and without damaging our growing bond. He did sleep with us last night and cuddled with me, so that helps my fear that he may not like me…. Any advice would be appreciated!

Very random, but we have a family cat and she is generally affectionate, but won’t come and sleep on your lap but come sleep beside you instead. She also isn’t very clingy and will just go off and do her own thing. She likes to hang around the family etc but whenever it’s just me in the house she is extremely clingy, I put a blanket over my legs and she loves to come and lay on them and kneed on my legs and then sleep in my lap for hours.

It makes me wonder if she is doing this because she is nervous without the whole family here, or because she feels happy and safe when it is just me? I’d hate to think she is nervous

Me and my boyfriend have been together for about a year and a half now. He has a 2 year old Sphynx and I have a 6 year old beagle mix.

When we first decided to introduce the two of them, I got the help of a trusted dog trainer who helped me train my dog out of some pretty serious reactivity in the past.

I fully believed that my dog would be the problem because of his past and his breed mixture which includes a lot of high prey drive.

I was completely wrong.

My dog wanted absolutely nothing to do with the cat. He didn't bark, growl, nothing. He completely ignores him.

But the cat? He regularly stalks and attacks my dog for no reason. My dog will try to walk away and the cat will not stop. He hisses and slaps my dog causing my dog to snap and show teeth in defense.

Me and my boyfriend are confused and don't know what to do. My dog trainer also doesn't know what to do because the issue here is the cat. Not the dog.

Why is his cat attacking my dog? How do I stop it?

Also, it may be important to note that we have tried introducing them at both my boyfriend's apartment and my house. Same results.

hi everyone,

Not sure what’s going on with my kitty… she’s under 1 years old - she was so clingy… would take every opportunity to come up my lap, snuggle in tight in every morning

She comes up my lap way less now ( on and off all the time, distracted quick)

and even completely stopped snuggling in in the morning.

There are no changes in her environment and she’s perfectly healthy other than a little bit overweight lol

What is it about these behavioral changes in cats? Is it just a phase? I want my cuddle bug back.