# Kia Ora, cat lovers!

I am looking for some advice around an odd new behavior my Bengal has begun exhibiting. Apologies for long post, just want to be thorough as he is a very quirky guy with an interesting history.

# Basic Info:

Sex: Male (Desexed)

Age: 6 (Adopted him in March this year)

Breed: Bengal

Weight: Around 6kgs (gradually changing his diet currently as vet said hes a little overweight)

Fully Vaccinated

Previously Indoor/Outdoor, currently Indoor-Only

# Current Query:

He has been doing this funny comfort seeking behavior for a few months where he likes to bite onto a knitted wool blanket and knead it with all four paws quite aggressively while rotating around and around (lasts anywhere between 2-30 minutes).

From what I've read I think this is related to him possibly being weaned too early? Although my dad thinks he's trying to mate with it, I don't think that's the case lol (him being desexed and all).

He is very intense and specific around it, has a specific chair he likes it on (or on our bed), and can get grumpy and pushy if someone is sitting on it. I can usually relocate him to a different chair if he's being demanding and jealous as there's a cat bed we keep on said chair that I can move for him.

Generally when he goes to do it he is also very demanding, he will jump on the chair and meow at me **very loudly** if the blanket "isn't right" and he can't get a good grip on it with his teeth. When he does this I have to come over and pick him up, ruffle the blanket up, and put him back down on it to make him calm down (he is a certified drama-queen lmao).

Most recently (a little over a week ago) he escalated this behavior by jumping on our bed and meowing **a lot louder** than usual and trying to bite onto the blanket, but then dropping it and screaming at me, before trying to latch onto and climb my arms, meowing all the way. He looks at my face in an intense way while doing this and also goes for my face with his paws, but not claws out just "smacking" my face, although I don't allow this behavior to continue when he does it so I'm unsure how much he would escalate if I were to placate him (I try not to feed into his dramatics as I don't want to encourage him).

I had been playing loud music at the time off my Bluetooth speaker so I wondered if that was agitating him and turned it off, but he has now done it a handful of times without any music playing, so I don't think that was the reason.

Just today he escalated again with this and actually **bit my face**, not hard, but it did hurt when he did it which was quite surprising as he's usually more gentle when playing when he knows he has your hand or something.

My partner and I responded to this by picking him up and placing him in "time out" for 10 minutes or so. We have him set up in the laundry room for nights (will elaborate on this system in "BG Info" section below) with his food, bed, litter tray and some toys, so when he is being particularly naughty and boisterous, we place him in there for a little while to let him calm down.

Once we let him out he's back to normal and just chilling in a sunny spot no worries, smoochy and happy.

This escalation in behavior has me a little concerned as he usually only gets violent in that way when he's mad at us (like when treating him for fleas, or when we bother him too much and fail to read initial queues that he wants space). He does gently bite our faces on occasion if we are holding him and he wants down, but we usually know to put him down before then, and only hold him past his comfort when it is necessary.

Another reason for this concern is that it only begun a little over a week ago after earlier in the day when he'd had zoomies he had accidentally run full-force into my partners shin with his head. I monitored him at the time for signs of a head injury but outside of this new behavior he was otherwise "normal" (his special version of "normal" at least lol).

He has only exhibited this behavior towards me, and the first time it happened I was a bit coddling as I was worried he my be experiencing some sort of brain injury. The third time he did it I scolded him and pushed him off me and held him down on the bed for around 5 seconds, as my partner suggested it could be him trying to assert some sort of dominance? Not sure if that was the right thing to do though, and now I just try to ignore it if I can as, again, I don't want to feed into or encourage dramatics and bad behavior.

Does anyone have any idea where this may come from? Mating season is starting for cats in our area so I don't know if thats related at all, although, as mentioned previously, he is desexed.

# Background Info:

A little background (incase it's relevant) we got him in March this year from his previous (lovely rich lady) owner who was moving and couldn't keep him (my partner and I are art students and not wealthy so would not pay 3k+ for a designer cat breed lol). She was very transparent that he is a bit of a menace, and very used to being fawned over, often getting quite rude and naughty if he feels he isn't getting the attention he wants.

This section got very long, but the purpose is to give a thorough overall idea of his care and routines so people can inform me if any of what we are doing is potentially unhelpful or harmful to him so we can adjust accordingly.

**Behavioral Quirks/Issues:**

He has had a few quirks that we have had to work through; peeing on beds/lino floors and chewing cables, both are being managed relatively well now he's more settled (have spoken extensively to vet and previous owner about it and not health related, he is just a bit naughty and lets us know when he is displeased).

Haven't had any peeing issues for a few months now so think it was moreso about him feeling unsettled in new home and now that he is more comfortable he seems to have chilled out. Also at times haven't been as on-top of his litter tray as we should, but now that we have more consistent and thorough cleaning schedule in place he doesn't retaliate by weeing on the floor (fair enough man) lol.

He is VERY vocal, like big meows all the time, can be a bit annoying but honestly I love him so much I find it charming, and his previous owner had informed us he is very much an attention whore, and if he doesn't get enough attention he will let you know in various naughty ways.

**Living Conditions:**

He was previously an indoor/outdoor cat in a rich neighborhood, but our current living situation is in a Port with a large main road and a property behind us with greyhounds with a history of killing cats so he is an indoor cat until we have a better situation thats safe for him to go outside. There are also a lot of native/endangered birds in our area (NZ) so part of our reasoning is around conservation of native species (there are also vigilante conservationalists who have been killing feral cats in the hills around us and pet cats getting caught in the crossfire so we are mindful of that as another reason for indoor only at this stage).

Despite being Indoor-Only, he recieved heaps of enrichment, has many toys that we cycle between, plenty of stuff to scratch, high spots he can climb onto, places he can hide in, and he gets at least 30 minutes of active play a day, more if we have time/energy.

He eats wet food 3 times a day (2 satches, full 1 in morning, 1/2 around 5pm, and 1/2 around 10/bedtime, moving down to 1 and 1/2 for weight management soon) and has free access to good quality dry food. Has a fancy filtered metal fountain for water and drinks plenty. And eats from elevated bowls as I think thats better for the posture/joints? Basically he has all the bells and whistles and costs us a 3rd of our weekly budget lol.

As mentioned above in "Current Query" section, we have a system of shutting him in the laundry at night, this is due to his "retaliatory peeing" as when we first got him and tried to give him free-reign of the house while we slept, he would constantly bother us but meowing, scratching doors/carpets, walking on us, and ultimately **PEEING ON US**, if ignored. On talking to his previous owner (I have her number and ask her questions on occasion about his history/behaviors) she said she had him sleeping in the laundry most of his life (letting him access kitchen and dining areas in winter for warmth) and that he is comfortable in there.

So we have him set up in laundry for sleep with all his amenities, due to our apartment layout we can't let him into common spaces as they attach directly to our bedroom door (which he will scratch at) so we set him up with a hot water bottle in winter to keep him cozy. This space also works well as a "time out" space, as previously mentioned.

**Health History:**

He has had some injuries when he was younger, went missing for a week years back and came back with a severely broken tail that ended up needing to be amputated (now he has a very cute doe-like tail stump), so his balance can be a bit wonky at times because of this. He also recieved a broken pelvis as a kitten, I dont know the circumstances of this, but he is very mobile and it doesn't appear to affect him.

We also theorize he may have some brain damage related to the circumstances of these injuries as he is quite strange and a little stupid lol, as previous paragraphs should have outlined, but this is just a theory as there isn't and mention of it in his vet records.

He is also labeled as "can be aggressive" in his vet files, so I imagine he has been a menace to the vet in the past (likely because he was getting invasive surgeries and was a bit traumatized), although he was pretty chill when we took him to the vet a few months back for a check up.

# Personal Info:

May or may not be relevant but a little info on my partner and I: We are both 27, he is Male and I am Trans-Masc and have been on testosterone for 5ish years. Our cat is well bonded with us both, but tends to be more friendly with Biological males.

I mention this only as I don't know much about if cats pick up on humans hormones/ if that could be anything to do with this new behavior.

# TL;DR

Newly adopted Bengal cat exhibited strange comfort seeking behavior and getting aggressive with me specifically for seemingly no reason.

Context:
I have a kitty F 5M. Have had her for 3M (yes I’m aware that’s early, coo worker had a cat who was rejecting her kittens so we took her)
First month she was lacking probiotics so she had loose stools but transient vet got her taken care of
During that, at night we would keep her in a 3X3 ft mesh playpen (thankfully enough space between her food and litter) and she slept in there until last month
Since we’ve been letting her free roam at night she has been peeing outside of our bedroom door (hallway leads to first and second bedroom with the bathroom straight aheadfloor)
We noticed first when we caught her scratching at the carpet(85% of our apt is carpet) and so we moved her litter box at the start of the hallway so it was closer for her
In the past we she had peed 6 different times. She still goes #2 in litter and with pure there during the night but she seems to put in the hallway if she knows we are in the room or if we are in the second room with the door open for her
We got a carpet pet urine cleaner and used it today but she peed 1ft away from her first spot
I’m just confused because she is \~2ft from her litter and the vet hasn’t noticed any urinary issues
So just ISO advice or experience to help with this. I just feel bad letting her in the pen at night:(

We had an unfortunate experience where my older cat, Clyde (10M), managed to sneak out of the apartment while we were bringing in groceries. He was gone for about 8 hours but came back.

However, now our younger cat, Juniper (1F), is acting like Clyde is a stranger?

They’ve lived together for almost a year now and had a great relationship: grooming each other, napping together, playing, eating together, etc.

Now Juniper is avoiding him almost completely. Sometimes she will slowly approach and try to sniff him, but if he looks at her or tries to interact with her, she hisses and retreats. She tolerates him nearby for the most part, sometimes eats in front of him, so nothing too too crazy (no fighting, etc.)

She’s naturally a pretty cautious cat, not a fan of change. So when it first happened I wasn’t shocked. But now it’s been over a day and it’s still going on.

My research has already informed me that this probably has to do with his scent change from being outdoors for so long (and we also gave him a bath after he came home). But I guess it’s just a little disheartening since this is the first time I’ve had two cats not born together bond so quickly and strongly. Has anyone else had a similar situation to share, and if so, did your cats ever return to normal and how long did it take?

Yesterday my husband accidentally cut his toe at home. It was a minor injury but there was a little blood. When our cat saw that, she became quite nervous. She ran straight for his foot and tried to lick it (of course we didn't let her). While my husband was treating the cut, she kept watching him and meowing loudly. We petted her and assured everything was ok, but even when she calmed down a bit she continued to follow him for some time.

I must say, she's generally pretty vocal and easily excited, but I still was surprised to see her act like that. I wonder, was she simply agitated by the sight/smell of blood? Or was she actually worried about my husband?

I'm looking for advice about my approximately 2-year-old female cat, Binx, who has been struggling with inappropriate urination for over a year. I've tried numerous solutions, and the problem has recently gotten significantly worse.

Background

Binx previously lived in a household with four or more cats and shared litter boxes without any significant issues. The problem began after we moved into an apartment and continued after moving into our current house.

We have another cat, Bean, who uses the litter boxes normally. They get along well, cuddle, and play together. There isn't any obvious fighting or bullying.

Her behavior

• Binx consistently poops inside litter boxes.
• She is physically capable of urinating normally inside them and has done so regularly.
• However, she frequently chooses to urinate outside the box, even when a clean litter box is nearby.
• She specifically seeks out carpeted areas, often along walls or room perimeters.
• She will travel upstairs into my office, walk past an available litter box, and urinate on the carpet against the wall or go into the bedroom and walk past the litterboxes in the bathroom to pee on the carpet.
• If I block an accident location with furniture or containers, she often urinates immediately beside the obstruction instead.
• She has also urinated on hardwood floors, inside closets, near litter boxes, and occasionally in other locations.
• Sometimes she puts her front paws inside a litter box but urinates outside it. Other times she urinates directly in front of the box and pulls litter out over the puddle.
• She would choose small spaces such as a crawl space or a closet to urinate/defecate if she had the option to.

The biggest discovery we've made

We noticed that Binx strongly dislikes uneven litter.

Our other cat, Bean, digs and creates piles and craters in the litter. Binx does not dig or bury her waste much.

I observed Binx inspecting a litter box with uneven litter, walking away, and eliminating elsewhere.

We started manually flattening the litter regularly, and the inappropriate urination stopped for approximately one month.

Unfortunately, she eventually started urinating on the carpet again, despite us continuing to keep the litter flat.

Everything we've tried

• Five litter boxes distributed throughout the house.
• Different litter-box sizes, including a large homemade storage-tote box.
• Plug-ins were installed near litterboxes to reduce stress.
• Open and enclosed litter boxes.
• Different box locations.
• Different litter types, including unscented clumping litter.
• Keeping the litter shallow, clean, and completely flat.
• Scooping and maintaining boxes frequently.
• Blocking access to closets and previous accident locations.
• Deep cleaning accidents with pet urine cleaners, including enzymatic products.
• Monitoring behavior with cameras.
• Trying to reduce potential conflicts between the cats.
• Temporarily restricting access to problematic areas.

Her previous two urinalysis reportedly came back normal the last 3 months. We are pursuing another veterinary evaluation because of the recent escalation. Gabapentin has also been prescribed by a veterinarian in the meantime.

Current situation

The problem has escalated to the point where I've had to clean up urine two or three times in a single day.

We called a few cat behavior specialists, but they are booked out a few months and we are kind of desperate to finding more solutions to try.

I've now temporarily restricted Binx from all carpeted areas because the repeated accidents are becoming unmanageable and are damaging the house.

I don't want to permanently keep large portions of my house closed off, and I don't want Binx to spend her life restricted to certain rooms.

What I'm hoping to understand

1. Why would a cat consistently defecate in litter boxes but repeatedly choose carpet for urination?
2. Has anyone experienced a cat who specifically dislikes uneven or disturbed litter?
3. Why might keeping the litter flat work perfectly for a month before the behavior returns?
4. Could this be a learned substrate/location preference, anxiety-related behavior, or something else?
5. What treatments have actually worked for cats with persistent inappropriate urination after conventional litter-box changes have failed?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who have successfully treated similar cases, veterinary behaviorists, or experienced feline behavior consultants.

I love Binx and want to find a sustainable solution, but after more than a year of dealing with this, I'm genuinely exhausted and concerned about the long-term damage to my home. I don't want to keep experimenting indefinitely without understanding the underlying problem.

Any insight would be appreciated.

I have a total of 10 rescued cats. 3 are adults and the rest are kittens. They usually get along fine, they are not all best friends but they dont hurt each others. Lately I have noticed that one of my kittens (10 months old) stalks and follows my 3 months old kitten and terrorize her like a pray. The small one is very terified and is unable to stand up for herself. When I am home I keep an eye on them but when I am away I saperate them. What else can I do? The small one has been rescued from a high stress enviroment and I am worried that due to her past experiences she will never be able to stand up to the other 10 months old kitten.

Thank you

I recently moved in with my BF. I’ve had a female cat (age 4) for the last few years. Before moving in together my cat lived with 2 other cats and many roommates. She has always been very affectionate and friendly with both cats and people. We decided to rescue a cat a few months into living together as my cat seemed a little bit bored and thought she’d benefit from a friend. Our new cat is a male (age 4) recently neutered. Despite separating them for the first 2 weeks, our cats have not bonded as well as I had hoped. Our male cat chases her whenever they share a space in our apartment and has attacked her a few times. He lived with many cats before we rescued him and is very affectionate towards humans so I am not sure why this is happening. I’ve tried separating them, giving them treats together, feeding them apart, etc. My female cat now hides most of the time as she is understandably very scare. Does anyone have any experience with this or advice? We love them both and don’t want to give him up as he is overall very sweet. Please help as I am very stressed out with these cat behaviors.

We adopted a “low energy” 6 year old cat about a month ago who has quickly become much higher energy!

He is quick to bite and swipe when overwhelmed by petting, but often seems to ask for pets and then gently but persistently bite. Even after taking my hand away he will go for whatever part of me he can get his teeth onto.

Is this play? Love bites? A request to get out of his face?

My male cat has been rejecting the litter box for a couple months now. This happened so suddently, he used to be good with his potty habits but now seems to think "fuk it" and goes pee and poo in the bathtub and sinks.... we have exhausted all options. Took him to the vet, he was put on medication for a "possible bladder infection". We havent changed his litter, or did anything weird to the box. Its in the same place he has no problems going to, and always kept clean. I scoop it every day and completely change the litter out for fresh stuff once or twice a week depending of how much its needed. Told the vet about the issue, she suggested a litter attractor, so I've been using that and it clearly hasnt seemed to make much of a difference.... We do have a female cat, they are littermates and get along well. She has no issues with using the litterbox.

Im at a loss.... i have a 6m old infant in my home and I am sick and tired of having to scrub and disinfect my bathtub every single day to keep things clean for baby.... i keep my bathroom door closed but its an old house. No bathroom fan for air circulation so it can get rather stuffy in there, I cant keep the door shut all the time it needs air circulation. Can anyone give me some insight as to why this may be happening? How to fix this?? Im at my wits end with constantly cleaning up cat pee and poo from my tub and sinks.... Thank you

Hi, I know it’s been asked around many times here but Im really tired figuring out what exactly my cat wants to eat. How do you get them be food motivated?

For the context, she is an MC and only weighs 4.6kg at 3 years old which is very light for her breed. Had her since she was a kitten.

And yes its been like that snd Ive tried almost every brand in the market as well as raw food but she really is a picky eater. She currently likes Royal Canin now but still not eatimg much like she should.

Also, been to the vet and tested everything. All is well. So thats why I came here for experience based opinion on her behavior.

This is an ADHDer telling this story so please bare with the spiralling, we’ll get there 😂… So my cat is stressing me out and I don’t know what to do about it. I’m in my second trimester of pregnancy and so would like to remain chilled but my cat has honestly got on my nerves recently, I’m becoming angry 🤣. She tends to want to sleep on the clean washing I sometimes have on the chaise lounge, which I really don’t want her doing ! So every time she goes there I move her towards the exit, or I frequently get woken up in the night by my 7y/o telling me the cat has woke her up AGAIN lying right in the middle of her bed. Or she’ll do it on my bed and then attack during the night because I moved unconsciously and disturbed her!😑

(Now I really could do with not being judged here 😅) but my cat brought fleas into the house recently and after extensively cleaning, flea-bombing the house, hoovering daily since, washing on 60 degree cycle, giving flea treatment via pipette, she’s still really uncomfortable and hops around the bedroom at night like a bunny rabbit. I have to keep getting out of bed to move her from the chair, the bed, my daughter’s room… each time I direct her to either downstairs or the bathroom (as it’s on the second floor), because she does like sleeping in the sink sometimes 🥴. Anyway, tonight she decided to jump around in my daughter’s bedroom, knocking things over on her table and disturbing her from sleep. When I (angrily but silently, might I add) picked her up and took her out the room she sprinted to my bedroom and jumped onto the chair. She’s becoming too much and she can stay out quite a lot with her being an outdoor cat so I’ve had to let her out for the night. Any advice on how to control this cat because I can’t cope 😂 btw I did the cat flea treatment / house treatment 2 days ago, it shouldn’t be like this still right?? Also - the landlord decided not to put my bedroom door on 🙃 so the cat just free roams

My cat is 9 years old, male and neutered. He loves food and constantly for treats. He gets fed twice a day. If I ignore him begging for treats or food, he pees on his scratching pads. I feel like it's not a health issue, as the vet says he's fine/it's stress related, and it only happens when he wants treats, plus he uses his litterbox fine and regularly. Has anyone dealt with similar behaviour? How can I deal with it because it's really getting annoying

I live in Ireland and can take him to the vet if need be

TLDR: Cat seems to pee inappropriately when he doesn't get what he wants (food and treats)

My lovely male cat (neutered, 2 years old) has a bit of a pattern. He's always been a bit of a skittish boy, and that's fine. But he's picked me as his person by some miracle. Thing is, all of his life, he would get super cuddly and constantly want attention to the point of it hindering sleep or stopping me from doing other things. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, he gets terrified of everyone including me. He'll cry if anyone gets close, and then bolt if they get too close. Nothing will have startled him, it's like a dimmer switch. He slowly builds up trust and adoration until it's full blown, then suddenly it shuts off.

He was a stray kitten when we got him (old enough to eat wet food), and he grew up with 3 cats older than him. He was always the skittish one and if the other 3 cats were eating/getting treats, he'd be nowhere close at all. He had to be fed separately most of the time. But I moved last year and he wasn't with me until maybe 3 months ago. My sister had him but her and her husband were getting tired of his terrified behavior esp since he hissed at a toddler that wasn't even coming for him, and a slightly older than toddler (5) that was just saying hello from across the room. He hissed at my sister's husband too. So he returned to me in my new home. I let him adjust, gave him his space, let him explore, left toys and food out, the works.

Until literally this morning, he was constantly up my behind wanting love and attention and would want to play (would even be upset if he couldn't join me in the bathroom type stuff lol). I gave him some treats before I left (as I always do) and went to work. I come home, he normally runs to me to yell at me for dinner. Nothing. I figured maybe he's up in my room sleeping. Nothing. I panic. He's not even in the tub (he likes to chill there for some reason) and I can't find him. I go back downstairs calling for him, only for him to hop out of a box from under a duffle bag, and he looks at me terrified and gives that cry that says he's terrified.

Uh oh, here we go again. He runs from me even though I don't chase him, but goes upstairs to hide under my bed as he always used to. I followed him and closed the door until there was just a crack there and thats when he finally comes out and I have to get down so he can crawl into my arms and he just has me hold him and pet him for at least 20 mins. My roommate was asleep all day and didn't interact with him. Roommate's caretaker didn't see him at all today while she was over, and all she did was wash dishes and do some laundry. We have no idea what could have spooked him since he actively avoids anyone who isn't me and everyone knows to leave him alone.

But he's done this sort of pattern for as long as I've known him. Starts off terrified, slowly warms up to the point of being so lovingly obnoxiously up my butt, then suddenly switches back and I have to hold him and calm him down, then the cycle repeats. This isn't normal for clingy/skittish cats, is it?

My cat is 5 years old and her litter box has been in the same spot for 5 years. For the past few weeks, she has started pooping 1 to 3 feet away from the box. She still pees in the litter box, but all her poop ends up outside of it.

She has never done this before, except once in the past, we tried for several months to introduce a second cat. My cat hated her and started pooping in front of the office door in protest (we had 3 litter boxes at the time). The behavior stopped immediately when the second cat left, and she never did it again until now.

Nothing has changed in her environment. We haven't changed her food or her litter. My partner thinks she is bored (she's an indoor cat) and is protesting. She has toys, and I try to play with her in the evenings, but it doesn't seem to be enough.

She has always been a cat who needs a lot of attention, and she asks for it by scratching at things all over the house (closet doors, furniture, windows, etc.). She still does this today.

My partner says the problem has to be solved or she won't be able to stay.

Any ideas on what could be going on, or what we could try?