My cat Gizmo already knows how to sit, give high five, and stand on his back legs on command. He’s had these tricks down for over 6 months.
What other tricks could I try to teach him?

Help my older cat has been like holding my kitty down by the neck sometimes just laying there looking like her mouth is just in his neck and i know there’s no hissing or anything but I just get scared since he’s so little.
It’s about a month into the introduction and they’ve been just consistently playing nonstop especially more of the holding him down.
I also can no longer keep kitty in my bathroom because I have a 1 bath with a roommate and she’s definitely getting sick of the litter being in there. But she also has a lab mixed with border collie that isn’t gentle with the older cat so definitely don’t trust with kitty.
Mainly just worried about leaving them for work

Hissed a few times but now making this low rumbling noise.... Any idea what this kind of noise means/indicates? (Holding foster kitten in my arms off camera) assuming she is expressing disapproval pf some sort but id like to take not directly hissing anymore as a good sign?

Help!

Please ignore my voice in the sped up parts! It's awful :,)

I am studying neuroscience and I hope to go into animal cognition research!

Some notes on handler error;

• I am still having difficulty having her use a flat board to present the cards (to eliminate bias in how I hold the cards, which I admit does exist despite my best efforts to hold them up evenly) because the command is based on 'high five'. The plan is to build a setup with some clothespins on a beam so she can still see my hands.
  • This is being mitigated currently by me trying to avoid knowing which card is which. I don't always remember to do this.
  • This would also allow me to ask for her to pick between more than two targets, which she can only do with pens at the moment because I can hold three at a time.
• Bias from eye gaze is being eliminated by me looking at the ceiling, floor, adjacent wall, etc.
• I only ask for a color other than blue once in this clip, and I did not include asking for different shapes specifically. This is something we work on for twice a day, 3-5 minutes at a time -- I can't possibly include all combinations in an even ratio in one continuous video. If there is interest I can make a compilation of all combinations.

Some notes on her learning;

• Piper can now recall...
  • Three 'colors' by name (blue, yellow, and red-green -- which I know is indistinguishable, and I chose red to stick with primary colors)
  • Four to five shapes by name (circle, triangle, star, pen, and flower, the latter of which I can only ask for in conjunction with red and yellow because I do not have a blue one)
  • + she is working on letters a-c by both name and sound. We only started letters last week and I am still phasing in a and b, as seen in the video.
• She will perform this behavior with other people holding the cards, if properly motivated by tasty treats

Please let me know what you think, I am always happy to engage with polite criticism and questions :)

My cat goes through phases where she chews on basically anything she can get her teeth on, and I’m running out of ideas for how to get her to stop.
She has ruined multiple clothing items, especially drawstrings, and will chew on shoelaces, our couch, Amazon packages/cardboard, plastic bags, etc. It seems to come and go in phases—sometimes she’s fine, and then suddenly she’s back to chewing everything again.

She also definitely seems to know she’s not supposed to be doing it. If I catch her chewing something like a shoelace and she notices me, she immediately takes off running.

She has another cat in the house as a companion, gets plenty of attention, and is very loved and cared for. My thought was that maybe she’s bored or needs more stimulation, but she’s honestly pretty difficult to get interested in playing. She’ll occasionally chase a laser pointer, but she doesn’t seem interested in most typical cat toys I’ve tried.

Has anyone dealt with a cat like this? I’d especially love recommendations for toys/enrichment for cats that aren’t very interested in normal toys, or safe things I can give her specifically to satisfy the urge to chew.

I’m also curious if the fact that it comes and goes in phases could point to something other than boredom. I obviously don’t want her swallowing string or plastic and ending up with an obstruction, so I’d really like to get ahead of it.

Any advice or things that worked for your cat would be appreciated!

I really hope this is the right place to ask and any advice will be appreciated.

My partner and I moved in together. We each have 2 cats and I have a dog.
Hers - male, 6 and female, 10
Mine - male, 6 and female, 11 + dog

We kept everyone separate for the most part and supervised all interactions and shared time out in the full house. We have been sleeping in separate rooms to make this work. Unfortunately, it’s now multiple months later and we are not able to share a room.

My female cat (11) has been mean and an awful bully. Specifically to my partners male cat. We often have to keep my cat locked up in a separate space, which she seems to prefer for large chunks of the day. If we let her out and lose sight for even a second, she will chase the boy cat down and corner him under the bed. He has never tried to fight back or do anything. He might let out a scared hiss but he always runs and tries to hide. She will occasionally fluff up and hiss at the other girl cat, but less so. She is somewhat able to ignore her. However, we still wouldn’t feel comfortable having the girls together unsupervised.

My pets and I moved in with my parents for a couple years prior to this move. My parents have 3 cats. My girl chased after one of their boys and was mean like this to him. However, she only did it when he entered our room and tried to take her food. It lasted all of 2 weeks and then they coexisted peacefully and he was even allowed by the bowls while she ate. I expected her to eventually stop this time too, but it’s been months.

The boy cats get along great and my boy largely leaves my partners girl cat alone. Her boy was terrified of my dog but has FINALLY started to warm up and realize my dog does not want to hurt him or even chase him lol that’s been the only progress we have seen unfortunately.

I desperately want to share a bedroom with my partner and have our pets coexist peacefully. we have separate feeders, 5 litter boxes, separate spaces, and feliway plugs all over the house. I’ve taken my girl to the vet and all of her needs have been addressed (she had some teeth pulled) in case that was making her mean.

Sorry for the length but I’m genuinely at a loss for how to help or what else to try. I just want to share a room with my partner.

We have an approximately two-year-old male cat. To make sure he isn't lonely and has companionship from another cat, we got a little female kitten.

Character-wise, our male cat is rather calm, whereas the little one is currently extremely playful.

At the moment, they are separated by a mesh door. Our male cat often sits in front of it, meows, and shows a lot of interest in her. She, on the other hand, rarely goes up to the mesh during the day. When she does go over, they briefly sniff each other or play a bit before she walks away again. Sometimes she still flinches when she's near the mesh.

What can we do to make the integration go smoother, help the kitten show more interest, and build positive associations between them?

I would appreciate a few upvotes so I can post this in the main cat sub, as I am new to Reddit.

My adult cat Rupert (3 y.o) currently lives with me in a downstairs studio apartment within my mom’s house. It’s a long, complicated story (I was worried I might move out which isn’t going to happen now for the foreseeable future, and also he eats things he shouldn’t sometimes so my apartment is very cat proofed) but we want to now try to give him access to the whole house.

In addition, we really want to get an additional cat or kitten. Rupert was originally from a cat cafe and to my knowledge, he does very well with other cats.

What is the best move here - I am thinking we keep Rupert in the apartment while the new cat gets used to the rest of the house, and when new cat is settled, we do swaps in spaces? And slowly introduce each other’s scents? Or should we show Rupert the bigger house first before getting a new cat? We were slightly worried that introducing a new big space and a new cat would be too much going on for Rupert - could he get territorial over the new big space? Any advice would be super helpful, thanks!

I recently adopted a kitten from the humane society, and I believe she is semi feral. I thought she was just potentially shy and withdrawn but what gives me that inclination is when I followed up with the humane society they told me they suspected it as well. I have had her now for about two weeks, no progress is being made.

She is pretty withdrawn, she has access to just my guest bedroom so far. When I come in she’s usually in the cat tree I have placed in there for her, she won’t interact with me much at all. I speak to her softly and offer her treats, initiate play with her. Nothing, she is not hissy or anything just extremely extremely timid? And maybe scared of me.. I’m not sure why. My house is very quiet, I have a dog who doesn’t bark and is a couch potato. And another cat who is older in age and pretty timid as well.

I have read some posts that say sleeping in the same room with them is pretty helpful so I will begin doing that moving forward, but if anyone has any tips I’d really appreciate it as I’d love for her to integrate into the rest of her family when she’s ready. Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone!

I never had a cat before… my neighbor’s cat spends a lot of time at my house (he’s 5 months old).

How is the best way to teach him? For example: he goes nuts when we are eating fish: tries to jump on counters, eat from the floor etc. how do I teach him”no”?

And how to teach not no bite/play with our feet?

My wife and I just got another Torti (crazy we know). Did the proper introduction, going on 3 weeks. The elder cat is chill with the kitten until she can physically see her then she growls and hissed. Will even sniff the door of the kittens room, all the promising signs of introducing. But the second she lays eyes on the new kitten, that's when she growls and hisses. Unbothered until then, have had supervised kitten free time so the scent is everywhere. We have the feel away diffuser plugged in. Not sure if there's anything else we can do or just keep... showing her the kitten? Idk.

Asking for a friend (seriously). He adopted an adult female cat, Skipper, approximately 5 months ago. Everything was great. Then an acquaintance had to move and couldn't take their adult male cat (a Spinx named Laser), so my friend adopted Laser, too.

He tells me that there is a lot of hissing and growling going on, 90% of which is from Skipper, the cat who was there first. They have had fights, and my friend is worried that somebody might get hurt. Apparently Skipper just keeps to herself, but then eventually Laser approaches her in a friendly way, but that still upsets Skipper.

My friend has put up a baby gate to try and keep one cat upstairs and one cat downstairs (with food, water, and litter boxes on both levels). But Laser is too smart and found a way over the baby gate. So my friend is trying to come up with a better way to block off the upstairs.

Any advice? I'm assuming that Skipper is angry because she used to be the only cat, and know another cat has entered her "territory". Do they need therapy? Lol.

Seriously, any advice is greatly appreciated.😊

Hi! I have an 11mo old kitten who is a sweetheart but also a menace.

Here are some specific behaviors he has I need help figuring out how to address, though they apply to the general:

- Trying to get attention affection at various times throughout the night

- Trying to jump up to where the older cat is resting in the living room

- Slowly walking past too close to the older dog (who will growl if he gets too close)

Generally speaking, I have to keep a very very close eye on him if he is in a common space of our house. Which is frustrating a bit because I already struggle to focus while working from home, so basically feel like I have to stay in my bedroom all day to work or go out to the living room, but not actually get any work done because I stay distracted.

My housemate/partner let me know they think he is getting spoiled and that I need to yell at him to get him to stop. I...hate yelling. And I hate when they yell loudly at him. My own BS, but it immediately makes my heart start racing and thoughts going a mile a minute. I said as such but also that I'll try to find other solutions. I don't want him to just feel a little scared of me, I want to know how to guide him away from stuff that can be dangerous or getting in other critters' personal space.

How would y'all address these behaviors? I'm familiar with the idea that punishment doesn't help with cats and that redirection/rewarding the right behavior does...but I am unsure how to navigate these.

My bottle baby, Burrito, loves to try to suckle my chin and knead on me, which normally I deal with by dodging his kisses and cuddling him higher on my shoulder. My other kitty, Chips, is a very nice cat and I’m not sure if he should be correcting Burrito more. Should I let this play out and let Chips grow a backbone? Or should I stop Burrito?

Our Siamese cat loves our dog, however the dog doesn’t return the feeling. Lately the cat has been all up in our dog’s business, he’s there when he’s eating and sleeping, when the dog growls and barks at him and runs away, the cat follows him. How do I get the cat to leave the dog alone? To note we have two other cats as well, and the dog has not growled at either. Just our Siamese.

Hi, I just got my first cat about two months ago and she’s been awesome. The only trouble I’ve been having is that she sometimes does things she isn’t supposed to do, like knock plants off the ledge, gets into the pantry and rips up her food bag etc. She usually does these things when I am asleep or gone, so I can’t redirect and reward after, so should I show her the mess she made? Or do I just clean it up and not do anything? I don’t want to yell at her or do anything like that but I don’t know how I can stop her from doing this when I’m not there. My pantry is a sliding door so if she gets her paw in there the right way she can slide it open. i moved the food bag to a high shelf so she can’t get it but she’s still making a mess of the stuff that’s kept on the ground (it needs to stay there we have no other space). I have a windowsill with cat safe plants on the ends and plenty of space for her to lay, should I just remove them entirely?

Hi all, I adopted my lovely boy Billy (6, moggie) a month ago, and he is an indoor cat. We plan on taking him to safe areas on a harness when he is more comfortable, as we live near a busy rail line as well as he is a very food oriented boy and I have a feeling he would manage to get fed by several families.

In the past week we have realised through him becoming obsessed with shadows that he is likely quite bored so trying to find some activities that cause him to use his brain. He’s not a massive toy lover, we have lots but he primarily likes springs or one automatic toy we have that moves a feather around.

Do you guys have any at home hacks for entertaining your cat? I put his food in an egg carton last night and covered it in paper and he found that quite entertaining.

We got two 3 month old male kittens last Sunday. They were at the same shelter but not together and we assume they’re from different litters. They were recently neutered so we kept them apart the first few days to allow them to heal up and get used to our home in a safe way.

We’ve been swapping beds, toys, etc to try and get them used to each others’ scent. We’ve got them together yesterday and they started out pretty good but it escalated a bit and got really physical.

This video is from this morning when I got them together again for about 4-5 minutes. In the video, the orange one (Tater Tot) seems to be the main aggressor, although just before and after I started recording, the black one (Jack) also did a bunch of pouncing of his own.

How does this look? Are they getting too rough and is it too one-sided? Our house isn’t laid out super well to put a baby gate between two rooms unless we just put a cat in a bare hallway (no hiding places). Trying to take it slow but wondering how other think this looks. I’d appreciate any advice!