Changing Kitty Love Behavior?

My Sammie arrived super-duper affectionate at 3 months. Followed me everywhere. As she approached a year, she became less than interested in me and would ignore me or run away if I tried to pick her up for loving.

At a year, she changed and started following me around again and became very vocal - we had a great relationship. Someone told me that her prior behavior was like a teenager trying to show his/her independence.

Here is the deal: I would love to have her avail herself of my lap, but she has not done that since she was tiny and later recovering from spaying and then a few months afterward.

Has she outgrown the lap loving? Or will it return or can I do anything to promote her being a snuggler on my lap?

She regularly snuggles with me in bed at night, so she does like the contact and the love.

my tabitha is similar to sammie in that she has changed her behaviour over the years. she was a very un-cuddly kitten but as a mature 8 year old, she now loves her snuggles in bed.

i'm not sure that you can change the way your cat is with you, just continue to be tactile with her. i know it is hard because there is not much that can beat a lap full of cat!

I've only had George for about 9 months (he's 5 yr old) but can already tell he goes through "cycles" - sleeping on the bed at night, no sleeping on the bed. Snuggling in the middle of the night/no snuggles. Right now it's a no snuggle, not sleeping on the bed cycle. I miss both!!!!! Hope this phase passes quickly.

Food. Cats a suckers for it. Get some nice healthy cat treats for her and make sure she knows she's going to have to be friendly to get them. Sit on the floor and try making her climb in your lap after them. If you can, do this on a schedule too. After work, certain time in the evening every night, every morning - etc. She'll get the pattern down.

Is she free fed or on meals? Mine are on scheduled meals and always become super friendly/lovey when it's time for wet food. So much so that Tomas (17month old) will sit on me for nearly an hour to get it - though he's still very snuggly so that's not a far stretch for him. What's hilarious is Sho's (big 5 year old) behavior when hungry. He'll paw at DH arms, legs and bite him on the elbows. When that doesn't work he'll plant himself on a leg or lay on DH's keyboard.