Help! My cat is aggressive but not playful.

Hello!

I had made a post about my cat Oscar's eating habits in this thread.

Since he hasn't been neutered yet, he has a habit of spraying everywhere. That will get more and more rare after the surgery. He does get very aggressive when hungry, though. He will claw and bite at my fingers, even when i reach down to get his bowl to refill it.

One second he'll be meowing at me and I'll be petting him, the next my hand just became dinner.

Another issue is that he's not at all active. He'll lay around and sleep. Even when I spray his scratching board with catnip, he pays it no mind. I sprinkle some catnip on top of his head, and he just shakes it off and does nothing. I wiggle a cat teaser with feathers in front of his face and he just brushes past it. I worry about his health since he isn't using a lot of his muscles.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

His aggression and spraying behavior will diminish and likely even disappear once he is neutered. Please do that as soon as possible! 

He might not be responding to the catnip because he might be one of the cats that aren't sensitive to it. Neither of my current cats care about catnip, that's just how it is with some cats. 

As far as his activity goes, it's normal for cats to sleep a lot. He may not show interest in that particular toy because he may just not be into it. It may take a period of trial and error with several different types of toys before you find one he likes. For example, my female cat LOVES to play with the ball-type cat toys, but my male cat could care less. His favourite toy is one that came off a scratching post. It's kind of hard to describe, but it has ribbons and straw-like materials, like a tassle. My female cat has zero interest in this toy. They BOTH love a cat toy called "da bird." They sell it in pet stores, but the best price I've found for it is on Drs. Foster and Smith website. The key is to make it fly through the air, like a bird, rather than just bounce it in front of their face. 

Hope this helps! 

I do hope the spraying stops once he's neutered. Some cats get into the habit of spraying and won't stop, which is why it's best to neuter male cats before they reach sexual maturity. After the surgery, give it some time for the hormone levels to go down. Also try to clean the places where he's been spraying. More about that here - 

 [article="29684"]Spraying When Your Cat Uses Urine To Mark Territory​[/article]  

Aggression levels definitely should go down with neutering. That said, not all tom cats are aggressive. Most are not. Does he have a feral background? When has the aggression started?

He had been with my former neighbors up till 6 months ago when he was abandoned. He's about 10 years old. I don't know much about his background other than that. We're taking him for a more thorough check up on Tuesday, but won't be able to schedule a neutering till January at the earliest.

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you guys. It's been crazy busy lately.

The vet says that he's likely to be around 13 years old, but with his teeth all broken, it's hard to tell.

We did a blood lab on him with our last vet visit (got another one today) and it turns out his glucose levels are 500/120. Our vet is gonna teach me how to give him insulin shots.

Behavior-wise, he's mellowed some on his aggressiveness when hungry. He's learned that biting and clawing the hand that feeds only delays food delivery. He's still spraying everywhere, so that's annoying. But I can't do much about that till he gets neutered. I'm looking into those anti-spray things, though. I do not appreciate being marked while I sleep.

I think he also has separation anxiety. He's always close to me, usually around my feet or under my chair. Whenever I leave the room he follows me either to where I'm going or sits at my room's doorway, awaiting my return.

Please give my newest thread a read.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/312609/oscar-is-really-really-sick