Little background.
I have a 5 year old neutered Male cat, we adopted him from an animal shelter. He was taken off the streets as a stray kitten, and was in a shelter alone for at least 4 months after. He was then adopted, but his home we heard had a big male cat that beat up on our cat, so he was returned back to the shelter, where we adopted him.
He likes people alot, but does NOT like being picked up, he will bite you if you pick him up and growl at you. We think he may have been abused or hit in his 1st home.
He is up to date on his shots and otherwise healthy.
I also feed strays so my 2 cats see the cats through our windows/back door.
My Male cat goes crazy when he sees another cat outside.
For the first 2 years we had him seeing a stray outside wasnt a big deal to him, he would sometimes meow softly to a cat, just watching them play/eat outside. It was just another thing to watch basically.
He never ever hissed at all, no matter if we gave him a bath or not, only at the vets did he hiss.
We've got a few more strays now, so a few more come to our back door more often meowing and eating on the back steps, some are really people friendly so if they see me they go meowing like crazy trying to get in, we've got adults and a few under 1 year old.
The recent two years (when he was 3 and older) he has just done a compete 360 when he sees the cats now.
In the Winter we have a glass window pane in so he cant smell the outside but can see the cats and faintly hear them.
If a cat is eating at the back door, even sleeping on our back steps (old or young, male or female) he goes nuts!
He will charge at our back door, smacking his paw on the door aggressivly (but not enough that he hurts himself) It's hard enough it sounds like someone is knocking on our door! He then growls deeply and hisses loudly, sometimes a high pitched growl close to sounding when 2 males fight (but not as high pitched) He will do this for 10 minutes, or as long as the cat is there. If the cat just goes to eat or wakes up from sleeping he will smack the door continuously, and scratch trying to "dig" under the metal door frame, freaking out growling louder and hissing so hard spit comes out. He actually sounds possessed if you didnt know it!
If you go to throw out garbage or move him away while he's doing this, you'll get bit by him on your leg or arm, whatever's closer, and he will draw blood. If our other cat (a female) comes up behind him while he's like this (just to look out the door) he'll turn around and hiss/growl at her and smack her with his paw, she wont go near him after that.
So I try to distract him with his favorite toy away from the door, the feather on a stick. He growls at the toy and literally smacks it so hard it gets knocked out of my hand, he then runs away and usually acts as if nothing happened, usually sleeping after or going to eat.
Sometimes he'll get out in our yard for a minute, and you think he'll attack the cats outside the way he acts towards them inside. Nope, he runs past them hissing and avoids them at all costs, and they ignore him. He is calm after that.
After he decides to stop this odd behavior, he walks away as if nothing happened, he's fairly calm, can be petted with no trouble, and doesnt do anything to our other cat.
As if he is Bipolar and has two personalities!
I dont know if he is jealous of the other cats, or mabye feels threatened by them. He has seen males fight outside, so mabye after being in a shelter and not seeing any of this behavior, over the years he is picking up on some of the stray cats behavior? Like I said when we adopted him he never hissed and at first if he saw a stray at out back door was as calm as ever, no aggression.
What is this behavior?
I have a 5 year old neutered Male cat, we adopted him from an animal shelter. He was taken off the streets as a stray kitten, and was in a shelter alone for at least 4 months after. He was then adopted, but his home we heard had a big male cat that beat up on our cat, so he was returned back to the shelter, where we adopted him.
He likes people alot, but does NOT like being picked up, he will bite you if you pick him up and growl at you. We think he may have been abused or hit in his 1st home.
He is up to date on his shots and otherwise healthy.
I also feed strays so my 2 cats see the cats through our windows/back door.
My Male cat goes crazy when he sees another cat outside.
For the first 2 years we had him seeing a stray outside wasnt a big deal to him, he would sometimes meow softly to a cat, just watching them play/eat outside. It was just another thing to watch basically.
He never ever hissed at all, no matter if we gave him a bath or not, only at the vets did he hiss.
We've got a few more strays now, so a few more come to our back door more often meowing and eating on the back steps, some are really people friendly so if they see me they go meowing like crazy trying to get in, we've got adults and a few under 1 year old.
The recent two years (when he was 3 and older) he has just done a compete 360 when he sees the cats now.
In the Winter we have a glass window pane in so he cant smell the outside but can see the cats and faintly hear them.
If a cat is eating at the back door, even sleeping on our back steps (old or young, male or female) he goes nuts!
He will charge at our back door, smacking his paw on the door aggressivly (but not enough that he hurts himself) It's hard enough it sounds like someone is knocking on our door! He then growls deeply and hisses loudly, sometimes a high pitched growl close to sounding when 2 males fight (but not as high pitched) He will do this for 10 minutes, or as long as the cat is there. If the cat just goes to eat or wakes up from sleeping he will smack the door continuously, and scratch trying to "dig" under the metal door frame, freaking out growling louder and hissing so hard spit comes out. He actually sounds possessed if you didnt know it!
If you go to throw out garbage or move him away while he's doing this, you'll get bit by him on your leg or arm, whatever's closer, and he will draw blood. If our other cat (a female) comes up behind him while he's like this (just to look out the door) he'll turn around and hiss/growl at her and smack her with his paw, she wont go near him after that.
So I try to distract him with his favorite toy away from the door, the feather on a stick. He growls at the toy and literally smacks it so hard it gets knocked out of my hand, he then runs away and usually acts as if nothing happened, usually sleeping after or going to eat.
Sometimes he'll get out in our yard for a minute, and you think he'll attack the cats outside the way he acts towards them inside. Nope, he runs past them hissing and avoids them at all costs, and they ignore him. He is calm after that.
After he decides to stop this odd behavior, he walks away as if nothing happened, he's fairly calm, can be petted with no trouble, and doesnt do anything to our other cat.
As if he is Bipolar and has two personalities!
I dont know if he is jealous of the other cats, or mabye feels threatened by them. He has seen males fight outside, so mabye after being in a shelter and not seeing any of this behavior, over the years he is picking up on some of the stray cats behavior? Like I said when we adopted him he never hissed and at first if he saw a stray at out back door was as calm as ever, no aggression.
What is this behavior?
