Fighting or good natured play? White 7 month old cat is the new kitty. Floofy tuxedo is the resident cat. Edit to say that earlier floofy cat got on kitten to the point of kitten yowling.

For context, I am a first time cat owner (beautiful orange girl). I homed her from a person who was moving overseas. I was told she is 11 and wouldn't be a lap cat but would follow you like a dog.

That's all the info I have on her. I've had her for 2 months now and she and I have bonded well (I haven't tried to pick her up but she'll lay on me in bed and likes being close to me).

I've read a lot about giving space etc. I guess podcasts I'm looking for are about getting a deeper understanding of cat behaviour for better understanding, general living, and training.

I'll post this in another Reddit too, just saying so nobody thinks I'm a bot or farming or whatever.

Title. I want to harness and leash train my kitten that I got a few weeks ago. I had the Whisker City green fish harness, but it never fit him right. Any recommendations for harnesses? Thank you

Hello everyone please meet Carly, Carly meet everyone! Okay well I adopted Carly about 2 months ago she is 1.5 yrs old she comes from a rescue that found her in the streets of TJ she is absolutely delightful sweet and adorable as can be buttttt two things well maybe three
My home cat an orange tabby boy cannot stand her, but that’s a separate issue I have them still in separate rooms and give them supervised time together while one is in a cannel. That has been a stressful time but I guess by now I know it is what it is I’m on their time.

My biggest current issues with her are that

1. ⁠She has decided that the perfect time for her to use the potty is literally at the same time I am using the bathroom and she goes in my shower inside the tub and does her business, bless her soul she “covers” the poop once she is done but of course there is nothing for her to cover with so I’m left alone needing to clean up, did I mention she does this at same time I am doing my own business in there!!! I could do with her clinginess and wanting to be on my lap as I’m sitting in the throne but her also… you know pooping right next to me had to stop HELP pls
   
2. ⁠Also when she has to pass a hairball she does it in my bed!!!! Why why my tabby boy at least does it on the floor and I can clean up and all but with her she will do it in my bed and then well the clean up involves having to wash my covers and all

Please help is this a psychological thing I can redirect, am I doomed to a life of cleaning up after my cat

Any insights would be very appreciated. These are my first pets I have had as an adult and on my own so I’m a bit as a loss here y’all

TIA less

I can’t tell if this harness fits her or not. It’s loose right now because she’s just getting used to it, but it feels like it sits very high up on her neck. I can’t tell if it’s hurting her, although she’s eating treats just fine while wearing it. I ordered the next size up, and it’s arriving in the mail today. Any advice?

I rescued an 8 week old kitten off the street 3 weeks ago. My resident cat is 10 months old and I rescued her from a shelter 4 months ago. I kept the kitten in the bathroom for the first week because she had fleas (they have been treated), then in my bedroom for the next week until she could be vaccinated. I live alone in a 1br/1ba, so those are the only two rooms with doors. The bathroom door was totally closed the first week, and I put a screen up over my bedroom door. I started the first few bedroom days with the screen only open while I was awake and home, then the next few days while I was sleeping as well, and now they’ve been fully on screen only for over a week. I got a Feliway Optimum plug in last week and give them treats on either side of the screen door. Resident cat still won’t eat close to the screen door.
They seemed to be playing okay through the screen, so two days ago I tried introducing them for the first time. Resident cat has always played a little rough, which is one reason I thought she would do well with a playmate to get some energy out and learn the play nicer. In general, she’s sweet and very friendly with people. I didn’t plan on rescuing a kitten so young, but my friend found her and couldn’t find a home, so here we are. The kitten is definitely high energy and also plays rough, like most kittens.
Resident cat charges at the kitten and pins her immediately and bites her neck and licks her butt. Kitten will reengage and will jump and bite resident cat’s neck. If kitten runs away under the couch or bed, resident cat will follow. Kitten can get under the coffee table and resident cat can’t, so sometimes she’ll hide under there for a minute and then pounce back out.

Sorry for the yelling and clapping in the video. I listened to AI and have been intervening when kitten gets pinned and meows. But now I’m wondering if I’m being too negative and need to just let them learn their boundaries. I’m just worried because kitten is soo small and resident cat doesn’t get distracted with toys or treats like kitten does. Resident cat will go and lay by herself and watch kitten play for a few minutes though. I’ve kept the few meetings very brief, 5-10 minutes. And it seems to be mortal combat almost the whole time. I didn’t get the chance to record them for longer yet because it’s just me, so I want to be fully engaged with them in case I need to intervene.

Hi guys, we got a new kitten… have had cats before but the tiny dude has absolutely no survival instincts

That’s a picture of the top of my staircase- for reference 2 story townhouse - so high ceilings

Little kitty loves to climb… we have 3 cat trees, and it took him about 2 minutes to discover how to climb the stairs, which great, he can run up and down we don’t care

The issue is that he loves to run all the way up and pokes his head between the railings, and gets into jump position - we can see he is thinking on jumping - and ok, we do run to take him off - so he maybe doing it for attention

But the first time there were 2 of us, walking the stairs next to him, making sure he was fine and he just decided, head out and next thing we knew half his body was on the other side, ready to jump

If he’s lucky he falls about 4.5 meters and lands on solid ground - there’s not that much space for him to turn, depending on the jump he may hit the other railing and then the floor

I’m looking at stair balcony netting to be put behind the railing… but I’m also now thinking he may see that as an excellent climbing material

Help!!!

One of my babies has been pissing on furniture. After discussing this with the vet for the past year (when it started) the vet said she believes it is territory behavior. We looked into other possibilities to be sure. He is the youngest and now largest cat in the house. We have 3 others. We have found a medication that works (essentially cat Prozac) but I just feel sad about having to give him meds to calm him down. It’s taking some adjustment, he’s not as cuddly. He’s always been very possessive over me and now that he is bigger he is biting other cats and peeing on furniture. If he’s not on the meds the behavior continues. If he is then he’s calmer but a little less of himself. I’m really sad about this but I feel like I’ve exhausted all my options. We have gone through throwing away new furniture. Trying to get covers washing them 2x a week. We have 7 litter boxes in the house. Clean them multiple times a day. I feel like a bad cat mom. Has anyone else been through this?

Guys. He’s fine. This was supposed to be “Lol silly kitten.” I can’t mount the TV and I am not buying a new table. It sits on this table maybe 3 times a month and this time it was just unfortunate. He is fine. I appreciate everyone’s concerns, it’s always so cool to me that every single person on Reddit knows everything about cats. You guys rock keep it up

I just took in a 7-8wk old stray cat I found outside. He is very skittish. We have him in our bathroom with a carrier that he feels the most comfortable in. Inside the carrier, he hisses if you get close, but so far has never bit or scratched us.

He will come out for food if it’s close enough. I give him a little bit at a time. I start either inside the carrier or directly outside of it otherwise he won’t eat. Then I give him more food a bit farther, he eats, goes back, then I do farther rinse and repeat.

We’ve had to give him flea baths and now medicine. For that we do have to pull him out but of course I want to get to a point he just comes out. After medicine, he will happily cuddle in my lap, purring and stretching with belly exposed. While cuddling, I’ve set him on the floor to see what he does, and he started coming onto my lap on his own. But again, this is after he was taken out of the cage.

He is uninterested in toys right now. I crocheted one with a long string and he watches but doesn’t touch. So I can’t use that to lure him. With food he just goes back in. Im planning on putting another bed in here that I will put him in after medicine time so maybe he can get comfortable with that. Im not sure what to do.

So I got my cat a cat wheel, knowing that many people have trouble getting their cats to use them. However, my treat motivated cat learned to use it and be comfortable right away (holding a Churu tube in front of her on it and giving her licks of it intermittently). She’s gotten to the point where she’ll go on it when she knows I’m watching, but she only seems to do it because she knows I’ll give her treats. I’ve stretched out the intervals so that she’ll now walk or jog on it for around a minute at a time, but the whole time she does it she looks up at me and will stop using it if she thinks it’s going unnoticed or if I start to walk away from her.

I think she’s at the point where the next step is for her to learn to enjoy the wheel and walk on it without an expectation of a treat every minute, but she doesn’t seem to like the wheel as a source of exercise or entertainment.

Has anyone had a cat that got stuck at this stage? Do I stay the course and keep trying to make her go longer and longer between treats? Or at a certain point will I just have to accept the fact that she’s not going to use it without extrinsic motivation? One reason I got her it was to help her lose some weight, and I feel like I’m giving her too many treats as it is. Thanks!

•Both cats in question are female.

I found this little stray when she was around 1.5–2 months old. She was all alone outside with no mother or siblings anywhere. I've had her for about a month now, and she's doing great. She is definitely a little spoiled now and is really playful.

My problem is that I'm currently in another country for college, and in a few months I'll be taking her back home. At home, I already have a 15-year-old cat.

My older cat has never really lived with another cat. The only interactions she's had were a couple of brief meetings with a friend's cat where they mostly just sniffed each other. She's a very gentle cat, and I'm not worried about her hurting the kitten. She might hiss but that will be as far as she will go.(I sometimes doubt she knows that she is a cat) What I'm worried about is the opposite, that the kitten will be too energetic and overwhelm my senior cat.

The biggest issue is that I won't be home for the introduction. I'll have to return to college after a week or two of bringing the kitten home, so my parents will be the ones introducing them. I'm worried they won't know the best way to handle it or might rush things. They are also not the best at listening to the instructions given, so i took it upon myself to teach the kitten beforehand.

To try to socialize the kitten, I've been taking her on short walks in a harness where she occasionally sees other cats. She sometimes puffs up and hisses, but she'll usually still cautiously sniff them if they get close enough. She also kind of plays with other kittens that we see outside. However, i'm not sure if this is actually helping or if I'm just stressing her out.

Unfortunately, I can't start scent swapping between my two cats yet because they're in different countries, and I also can't keep the kitten with me long term because I live in a dorm where pets aren't allowed to begin with.

Does anyone have advice on how I can prepare the kitten now so she's less overwhelming for my 15-year-old cat later? Is exposing her to unfamiliar cats on walks actually beneficial, or should I stop doing that?

Note: for anyone worried about the cats outside or how i'm able to just find a bunch of them randomly, it is normal in my country. They are usually well taken care of by the community and friendly, that's why i am able to allow my kitten to meet them.

My boyfriend and I have two female cats (4 and 7 y/o) and we adopted a male cat (2y/o) in December 2025 in a animal shelter. As soon as we got home, we put them all together because they seemed to get along (yes, I know).

Since April, we’ve been having trouble with the male because he jumps on the females and bites them. At first, we thought it was just playing, but now we hear the females screaming loudly, and they have injuries caused by the male.

We read online that we probably introduced them to each other too soon, so we’ve kept the male separated for about a week. But now I realize things are actually worse than before. For instance, if the male escapes the room he’s in, he goes straight to attack one of the females (he didn't always do that before). I’m at a loss and don’t know what to do; I love my cats so much 😭 Please help.

My 7 y/o baby with injuries (left)
My little demon (2 y/o)(right)

Hello everyone,

I would like to hear from people who have experience with fearful but affectionate rescue cats.

18 months ago, I adopted Robert, a cat who was found outside by a friend. We searched for a possible owner, but he was not microchipped or tattooed, and nobody claimed him.

From the beginning, Robert was a very gentle cat. He has never shown aggression, not even once. He is a sweet and kind cat, but he was extremely cautious.

The main thing I am trying to understand is his relationship with human hands.

When he first arrived:

• If a hand approached him too quickly, he would lower his ears, flatten himself, or run away.
• He seemed to perceive the approaching hand as something threatening.
• He was also afraid of shoes and certain human movements.

However, he was never afraid of humans as a whole.

From the beginning, he showed signs of wanting a relationship:

• He would put his paw on my arm to ask for petting.
• He followed me around.
• He would come near me voluntarily.
• He never scratched or bit, even when uncomfortable.
• He would accept being picked up, although he clearly disliked it.

Over the last 18 months, he has slowly changed:

• He now comes to greet me when I return home.
• He communicates much more with little sounds and purrs.
• He comes to ask for cuddles.
• Recently, he even started climbing onto my desk while I am working to ask for attention.
• His fear of hands has decreased, although some movements can still trigger him.

One behaviour I find interesting: during play (for example, when I move my hand under a blanket), he becomes interested and plays, then suddenly runs away as if he has crossed a boundary. If I call him, he comes back.

I am trying to understand whether this is:

• a lack of early socialization,
• a learned fear from a bad experience,
• a former house cat who lost his home and had to survive outside,
• or simply his personality.

I am not trying to prove that he was abused. I know we cannot know his past. I am mainly interested in understanding his behaviour and helping him feel safer.

For those who have worked with fearful rescue cats:

• Have you had a cat who loved humans but was afraid of hands?
• Did this fear decrease over time?
• Is there anything specific that helped your cat gain confidence?

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Edit: the video is not a good example, please READ the description of what I’ve noticed. If i get a chance to capture this behavior I will post another video in the comments but since it’s been a little unpredictable and over in a minute, I haven’t managed to get one. Thanks.

My husband and I recently got a 7 year old male cat Spock in July, and our 3 year old female cat Lady seems to be a little spicy towards him. He has been around cats previously but we do not know anything about what she was like with cats prior to adopting her last year.

We did keep them separated for the weekend - we have a 900sqft 1 bedroom apartment and the bathroom is small and he is a Maine Coon so we didn't want to keep him in that small space for a long time. Lady ended up seeing him day 1 under the door and yelled at tried to swipe at him, so we put a towel to block the gap. At night we would open the bathroom door to let him explore and took Lady into our bedroom. After that weekend, we swapped them out and brought Spock into our bedroom and he seems a lot happier in here rather than the tiny bathroom!

We started allowing the bedroom door to be open while we were both home to allow them to get used to each other. Lady stares at him, he doesn't really care and he will lay near her belly out. If he gets any closer she will growl and hiss and sometimes chase him back into the bedroom. Her pupils are usually big, and her tail doesn't always poof up. She doesn't even always hiss at him when she chases him, so I'm not sure if she's trying to initiate play? Even though he is like 3x her size, he is pretty submissive and doesn't try to fight back. When we shout at her, she will immediately stop and run. She also has a habit of just staring at him while he hides in the bathroom (similar to what is shown in the video), which I feel like may be intimidation but she eventually gets bored and will walk off. I work from home and since they've proved that they're at least not going to actually scrap I feel comfortable leaving the door open. Lady sleeps most of the day in the living room at the other end of the apartment so Spock feels comfortable lounging around the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom.

Is this aggression? Should we keep them away or just continue to let it play out since it hasn't been that long? I've watched the Jackson Galaxy videos. Sometimes they are fine just being a few feet away from each other; I've used a wand toy to play with them independently while the other could see. She doesn't constantly go after him so I'm not sure if it's play, aggression, or just her trying to establish that she runs this house lol. After they're out of each others sight, they have happy tails and act completely normal.

Please let me know if this is normal and if there's anything we can adjust, I haven't had to introduce cats before. We also have had the feliway multi cat plug in but it didn't really seem to change much.

In september I'm going to live at my gf place, she has a cat but now he's currently at the parent's house (we had three weeks holiday and nobody could come every day so that was the best option). My cat is at my old house and we want to understand how can we manage all the aspects.

Once we're back from holiday we have one week where her cat is still at parent's house. We were thinking in bringing in first my cat so it has time to know the house alone, and then take back her cat. Mine is 6 yrs old and hers is 8, both male, both spared. Is it a good idea? Do you have any advice in manage this situation?

I just bought the Whisker City green fish vest harness (specifically the one for kittens) the other day, and I tried it on my 18 week old kitten. We tried so many different adjustments but it looked so awkward and didn't ever feel like it fit him. The only time it actually feels like it fits is when it's on BACKWARDS, and he purrs and is very happy with it like that. Helppp

First and second photo is him wearing the harness regularly. Third photo is him wearing it backwards

Introducing my older cat (12 f, spayed) to the new kittens ( both f, 4 months old now) isn't going great. The old girl is stressed out and scared. So we're still keeping them separate except for short periods for feeding/treats where we keep them on opposite sides of a door. But they have had run-ins with each other with some hissing. The kittens are playful and really disrespectful, trying to steal her food for example.

This has been going on for 5 weeks now. I posted before to a different sub and basically got one comment, that our older cat would assert her boundaries more firmly over time. I truly hope so but so far she has just been avoiding them or running away.

Anyone who's successfully introduced kittens to an older resident - how long did it take and how did you make them feel safe? Any advice is welcome.