Hello everyone! I want to start by saying I LOVE my cat! She is strange but she's still awesome! A little back story might help illustrate what's going on:
I got her from my niece's cat who had kittens, my niece's cat was basically feral, she lived outside. I had been wanting a pet for awhile and jumped at the chance. She's always been a handful and I think this is in part due to her mom being feral. Anyway everything was going fine, I think she adapted fairly well, other then scratching everything (ongoing problem) and then we moved. She was still fine, but then we had to take in my sisters cat to help her out. I kept them in different rooms but I know they knew there was another cat in the apartment. When I would go to feed my sisters cat my cat would start hissing at me, something she's never done before. Then 2 months later she came and got her cat and then it got crazy. Within a day my cat started going crazy, hissing at me all the time and attacking me and drawing blood most of the time. She never had that problem before. It was almost like she was rabid all of the sudden. I would feed her then she would hiss and arch her back like I was going to steal her food. I called my vet and she recommended a Feliway diffuser. So I bought one and it seemed to help a bit. What really helped was when she would show aggressive behavior I would just sit down and pet her and calm her down. Luckily, this majorly aggressive behavior has basically gone away now but still comes up every once in awhile. She gets what I call "territorial", when someone will for instance go out the back door and stay out there for awhile or move stuff in and out for a long time. She also will jump up on the screen door because I know she wants to go outside. So she is still occasionally "scary mean", I haven't gotten a refill of the feliway yet because she has made so much progress.
I think the worst part is that she has been really jumpy and just acting scared now. I don't know if this is something I caused or what, she was fine her first year with me at my old place. (it started after my sisters cat left like the aggressiveness)
Her scratching habit is probably the worst behavioral thing right now. I have 4 scatchers for her and she does use them a lot, but not always. She's tearing up my furniture and I can't trim her nails always because she will freak on me.
I think now she scratches at stuff to get my attention, like to wake me up for her morning wet food. She knows it gets my attention, even though it's negative(i give in and give her her wet food even though I'm sending her mixed signals, I know). I try to catch her in the act of scratching and spray her with a bottle of water but that is difficult. Spraying her with water is the only way I can change her behavior, it has worked before.
She has a lot of toys and scratchers, the scratchers help but she still claws furniture and is smart enough to go around double sided tape.
This isn't entirely her fault, I can't stay with her all day and she has SO much energy. She'll run after me and attack me in a playful manner but then when I start to play with her she gets uninterested. I would love to let her outside but that's an impossibility.
I have spent so much money on toys, but her favorite thing is playing fetch with crumbled up pieces of paper and in plastic bags. I'm not really sure how I can get her to play with me more.
Typing this all out I feel bad because I do give in and give her mixed messages and I think under the circumstances (probably meant to be feral) she's a really good cat. This is my first indoor cat and I know I've made some mistakes with her, hopefully I can change some of these last behavioral things and get her to calm down.
So any advice especially about her being scared and scratching would be great. I don't like seeing her all jumpy. Also, what can I do different or should have done different? She's 2 now and I think I can still change her behavior.
Thanks!
~Adam
I got her from my niece's cat who had kittens, my niece's cat was basically feral, she lived outside. I had been wanting a pet for awhile and jumped at the chance. She's always been a handful and I think this is in part due to her mom being feral. Anyway everything was going fine, I think she adapted fairly well, other then scratching everything (ongoing problem) and then we moved. She was still fine, but then we had to take in my sisters cat to help her out. I kept them in different rooms but I know they knew there was another cat in the apartment. When I would go to feed my sisters cat my cat would start hissing at me, something she's never done before. Then 2 months later she came and got her cat and then it got crazy. Within a day my cat started going crazy, hissing at me all the time and attacking me and drawing blood most of the time. She never had that problem before. It was almost like she was rabid all of the sudden. I would feed her then she would hiss and arch her back like I was going to steal her food. I called my vet and she recommended a Feliway diffuser. So I bought one and it seemed to help a bit. What really helped was when she would show aggressive behavior I would just sit down and pet her and calm her down. Luckily, this majorly aggressive behavior has basically gone away now but still comes up every once in awhile. She gets what I call "territorial", when someone will for instance go out the back door and stay out there for awhile or move stuff in and out for a long time. She also will jump up on the screen door because I know she wants to go outside. So she is still occasionally "scary mean", I haven't gotten a refill of the feliway yet because she has made so much progress.
I think the worst part is that she has been really jumpy and just acting scared now. I don't know if this is something I caused or what, she was fine her first year with me at my old place. (it started after my sisters cat left like the aggressiveness)
Her scratching habit is probably the worst behavioral thing right now. I have 4 scatchers for her and she does use them a lot, but not always. She's tearing up my furniture and I can't trim her nails always because she will freak on me.
I think now she scratches at stuff to get my attention, like to wake me up for her morning wet food. She knows it gets my attention, even though it's negative(i give in and give her her wet food even though I'm sending her mixed signals, I know). I try to catch her in the act of scratching and spray her with a bottle of water but that is difficult. Spraying her with water is the only way I can change her behavior, it has worked before.
She has a lot of toys and scratchers, the scratchers help but she still claws furniture and is smart enough to go around double sided tape.
This isn't entirely her fault, I can't stay with her all day and she has SO much energy. She'll run after me and attack me in a playful manner but then when I start to play with her she gets uninterested. I would love to let her outside but that's an impossibility.
I have spent so much money on toys, but her favorite thing is playing fetch with crumbled up pieces of paper and in plastic bags. I'm not really sure how I can get her to play with me more.
Typing this all out I feel bad because I do give in and give her mixed messages and I think under the circumstances (probably meant to be feral) she's a really good cat. This is my first indoor cat and I know I've made some mistakes with her, hopefully I can change some of these last behavioral things and get her to calm down.
So any advice especially about her being scared and scratching would be great. I don't like seeing her all jumpy. Also, what can I do different or should have done different? She's 2 now and I think I can still change her behavior.
Thanks!
~Adam
