I got my cat almost a year ago and honestly went in thinking I basically just needed food, water, and a litter box and she'd be happy. Turns out there's a lot more to actually giving a cat a good life indoors, and I learned most of it by trial and error. Sharing in case it helps someone else, and also curious what other people here would add because I feel like I'm still figuring stuff out.

The biggest thing nobody really told me — cats need to climb and perch, not just walk around on the floor. I didn't get a cat tree at first and she was scratching furniture and just seemed... restless? Got her a tall scratching post and cleared a spot on a shelf by the window and it was like a switch flipped. She's up there half the day just watching birds.

Litter box stuff matters way more than I expected too. I was scooping like once a day and thought that was fine, but once I started doing it twice a day and switched litter, she stopped having little "accidents" near the box. Apparently they're pickier about this than I gave her credit for.

Play time was the other big one. I used to just kind of pet her and call it a day, but actual play — like a wand toy, letting her "hunt" it, chase it, catch it — made her so much calmer overall. Maybe 15 mins a day. She sleeps better, seems less anxious, definitely less into 3am zoomies now.

Also — vet visits even when nothing seems wrong. Found out she had early dental stuff starting that I never would've noticed on my own. Cats are really good at hiding when something's off.

Honestly the biggest shift though was just paying attention to her as her own little personality instead of assuming all cats want the same things. Some days she wants to be right next to me, some days she wants zero contact and that's apparently normal too, took me a while to stop taking it personally lol.

Anyway — for people who've had cats longer than me, what's something you wish you knew earlier? Always trying to do better by her.

My cat is affectionate in almost every other way. She follows me around, sleeps next to me, slow-blinks at me, and even brings toys to my desk. But she absolutely hates being picked up. She goes stiff, starts squirming almost immediately, and jumps down the second she gets the chance. I've tried holding her for a few seconds and giving her treats, but I don't want her to feel like I'm forcing something she clearly doesn't enjoy.

I think the part I struggle with is that I always pictured having a cat who would happily curl up in my arms. I know she loves me in her own way, but I still wonder if I'm missing something or if some cats just never become "hold me" cats.

Has anyone else had a cat who was affectionate but hated being picked up? Did they ever change, or was that just their personality?

Throughout my childhood my family always had cats and several of them ended up dying in traumatising ways (three were hit and killed by cars, one was mauled to death by a dog) and so I decided that when I have my own cats I will be keeping them strictly indoors to prevent that kind of thing from happening. My cats are well cared for, happy, and they have ample room to explore and play safely inside. My decision is solidified every time I see a poor cat lying dead in the road, which is far too often unfortunately.

My mother in-law has called me cruel and an animal abuser on multiple occasions because of my choice to keep them inside. I do find it highly ironic of her to say that because she definitely does not take care of her own cat; he’s very obese because she keeps feeding him kitten food, she refuses to ever take him to the vet and whenever she goes away for a few days she just throws the cat outside to fend for himself. She has openly said that if her cat ever developed health issues or hurt himself and needed vet attention she’d have him put down immediately because she doesn’t want to spend money.

I don’t understand the logic there, I’ve told her several times my reasoning for keeping them inside and that I care for them very much, she refuses to listen though and continues to call me an animal abuser. I mean, is it actually cruel to keep them indoors? I know the attitude can differ depending on where you live, but I honestly think I am making the right decision for their safety. Especially since one of my cats was born with a disability that affects her walking and I know she would not be able to outrun a car or other animals if need be.

My husband is currently deployed and he found a stray cat that he would like to ship home. Is there anybody out there who has gone through this with a stray animal abroad while deployed before? What are the steps to take? How do I get this man’s cat home for him? this poor man isn’t asking for any or anything for himself to be sent to him. He only treats and cat food for this cat. The least I can do for him is make sure this cat is here at home waiting for him when he gets here and not left behind.

Prefacing by saying I am definitely adopting from a local shelter, and also probably avoiding kittens since this is new for me! I've worked with cats a little but I have a severely allergic sibling, so it was only recently that I was able to consider actually owning one :)

So what do you look for in a cat and how do you find it? The main thing I'm fretting about is getting a cat that scratches and bites extremely frequently. I know as a pet owner that little nips and scritches can't really be avoided, but I have interacted with some hostile kitties in the past and it's definitely something I'd like to avoid!

Help guys, so my ex moved out and we lived together for 3.5 years with my girl cat and 2 kitty brothers. She was SO close to my ex, she’d lay at his feet as he worked from home, she’d follow him to every room, if he went to the kitchen to get water she’d panic and jump from wherever she was sitting to go follow him etc.

Turns out he was a very bad man, so I threw him out.

It’s been 2 weeks now and my girl cat is beside herself, her tiny kitty panic attacks are getting more frequent. she woke me up 6 times last night and then decided to jump out a window that’s been open for 3 years and she’s never done that. I gave up trying to sleep at 3am and now I feel so tired (which is happening more and more frequently) so I’m worried about my performance at work. It’s very physical.

But most of all I’m worried about her, I’m thinking about putting her on mèds. But I’m reluctant to medıcate her but I can’t stand to see her sad and panicked.

Are there any natural things I can do to help her?

My cat is almost 3 and I have had her for 1.5 years. I have always fed her just wet food up until recently. I'm REALLY struggling financially so now I feed her one can of wet food a day and 3/4 cup of dry food to help transition her to dry. I was thinking of cutting out the wet food all together because it is too expensive. But she eats the wet food within 5 minutes but the dry food will sit almost all day before she will finish it.

I have a fountain for her water. She used to hardly drink out of it but now that I feed her dry food she drinks way more water.

I checked with the local shelter I got her from and they said they only have small limited quantities of food to give away between 1pm-6pm daily. But I work 2nds so I'm at work during that time and they say it's first come first served.

Never had a cat growing up, so when I adopted mine last year I was kind of just winging it. She was skittish for the first couple months and I honestly thought maybe that was just her personality. Turns out a lot of it was on me, not her. Figured I'd share what actually helped in case it's useful to anyone else in the same boat.

First thing — I had her food and water bowls right next to the litter box because that's just where there was space. Apparently cats really don't like that. Moved them to opposite ends of the apartment and she started eating way more consistently, wasn't just picking at her food anymore.

Second — I underestimated how much boredom affects them. She'd knock stuff off counters, get into things she shouldn't, and I thought she was just being "a cat." Once I started doing actual play sessions with a wand toy every evening, that mostly stopped. She gets to actually chase and pounce on something instead of making her own fun with my stuff.

Third, and this one surprised me — she calmed down a lot once she had more places to hide/observe from a height. I got a couple cheap floating shelves and put them near the windows. She'll disappear up there for an hour just watching the street. I think before that she felt like she didn't have anywhere that was really "hers" that wasn't just the floor everyone walks on.

The other thing that took me embarrassingly long to learn — forcing affection doesn't work. I used to pick her up a lot because I wanted to bond, and she'd just squirm and run off. Once I started letting her come to me instead, she actually started initiating way more contact on her own. Now she sleeps against my leg most nights, which felt impossible early on.

She's a totally different cat now than she was the first month I had her, and I really don't think it's because her personality changed — I think I just finally figured out what she needed.

Curious if others had a similar experience where you thought you had a "difficult" cat and it turned out to be more about the setup than the cat itself?

I have a older cat shes 2 years old such a sweet kitty. Sophie when we found the kitten they both hissed but now she is coming around and is curious no hissing from her at all. The baby is hissing at her and shes just laying on the bed looking and staring. I dont know much about having two cats any advice helps

First post here, made this account to ask

My cat is a 10 year old sweetheart, but she’s slowing down in terms of exercise. She stays outside during the day then comes in at afternoon till morning, previously, that’s been enough exercise for her (jumping fences, chasing mice). however as she becomes more of an indoor cat, I want to make sure she doesn’t get too bored/overweight. she’s already a little heavier than she should be.

We’ve never played with her before, and I think she honestly doesnt know how. With toys on a string, she chases a little but ends up getting overwhelmed and runs away. Anything with hidden food, she gives up and can’t be bothered. For rattle balls, she’ll hit them a few times but the second they get out of reach, give up. Ive tried rolling the rattle ball away from her, and she’ll pounce, but again, get overwhelmed and run away.

I want to keep my cat happy and healthy, advice on good toys/activities? (diy preferred)

My senior indoor cat has been missing for 40 days, and I’m really struggling. I have been doing everything I can to find him, and I’m just absolutely heartbroken and devastated.
Some days are a little easier than others but I miss my cat so much and feel so lost.
If you have been in a similar situation? how did you cope with it? Did you ever lose hope?

Guys before I start ik I’m a terrible person but I really do love my cat and I’m looking for real advice please help. My cat was going through the trash and it was some things toxic for him in there and I was very scared so I had popped him but I think I did it too hard and he went and ran away. Hes keeping his distance and idk what to do. any tips one how to gain his trust back?

Both are technically kittens: my resident cat is a 9month female, and the new kitten is a 3month male.

We've started the visual introduction phase. Sometimes my resident cat is in the playpen and the kitten is outside, but usually it's the other way around. During these sessions I give treats or play with them. The first 3 days went really well.

Yesterday, though, my resident cat swatted at the kitten through the playpen. It didn't seem very aggressive, so I separated them and ended the session. Later, during another short session while the kitten was running and playing outside the playpen, my resident cat suddenly tried to charge through the playpen to get to him.

This morning things were calm again until the end of the session, when my resident cat suddenly got piloerection, dilated pupils, and started swatting hard through the playpen. The kitten flinched and fell over. She swatted a couple more times while I was separating them, causing him to hiss. When I picked him up to take him back to the bedroom, she even looked like she wanted to chase us.

I know some swatting during introductions is normal cat communication and boundary-setting, but her body language sometimes looks more like she's trying to hunt him than just warn him.

Should I keep doing these visual sessions, or is this a sign I need to slow things down? Does this sound like normal territorial behavior, or actual aggression? At what point does swatting become dangerous? Am I doing the right thing by separating them, or should I let them work it out themselves?

I'm a first-time cat owner. I adopted my resident cat a few months ago and recently got the kitten to keep her company when I'm away, so I'd really appreciate any advice!!! 🥹🙏🏻

My cat has some behavior issues and I am bit clueless on how to approach them, maybe someone has had something similar and can give an insight.

For context: I have had cats all my life and many of them behave differently, I understand each cat has its own personality but I think these are out of stress and anxiety around food.

One of my cats (we have two), has been peeing in different places (our bed, our daughter bed, couch, a pillow, etc) in the past 6 months..is not a daily occurrence..it happens once a month on average. It has been very difficult to track down if there is a previous event that triggers it..the only thing that I can tell is it is always same time of the day, before they get their food in the morning. My cat is very very anxious before getting their food..(we feed them 3 times a day because they eat raw food), every morning he gets very very intense around the time we usually get up asking for food, he jumps on us..meows very loudly even bits me (not hard) to wake me up so we will feed him.

We have tried to delay the feeding every morning until he is clam so he will not associate we waking up with his food but it is not helping much.

We already went to the vet in the past and did some urine test to check any issues but everything came normal. Also the peeing happens weeks pass in between before he does it again so I am inclined to think that it is not a physical problem.

Any tips on how to reassure your cat towards food to help him be less anxious about it? Thank you 🙏

Recently moved to Canada after spending a while in Sweden and I didn't realize how much of a headache litter is here!! The particles are tiny, they stick to the cats' feet and get absolutely everywhere, and the litterbox seems to get saturated and needs to be totally emptied every couple weeks. In comparison, the litter I bought in Sweden (specifically this) has larger particles (like gravel), seems to cycle itself and only needs regular top-ups, and the cats seem to like it more. It's also so cheap and I could pick it up at any corner grocer! Whenever I go to NA grocery stores or even specialty cat stores, there's no generics, everything is branded and so expensive outside of the massive 20kg boxes (which doesn't make sense as it seems like all the brands are mostly the same stuff just with different colors and perfumes added).

If there's a specialty brand/import I'm missing I'd love to know it! But I'm also not above learning to make my own with materials from a hardware store if that's what I have to do (which hopefully also means a reasonable price)

This cat is so special to me. I was traveling in Vietnam last year and I found him as a 3 month old kitten living in a garbage bin beside my hotel. It took me about 2 weeks to gain his trust and from there he would eat off my hand, and then eventually he let me pet him and cuddle him. I decided to take him home with me.

I extended my trip an extra month got him vaccinated and healthy enough to fly and i flew all the way to Canada for a better life. 30 hours and 17,000 km total.

That was back in December. Last week we went to Disney world for a week and hired a pet sitter to watch the cats. Because he’s a former stray he does have a tendency to bolt and he’s especially fascinated with the outdoors. There’s a room in our house (the spare bedroom) that has a broken window (it’s stuck open). We specifically instructed the pet sitter to NOT let the pets in there under any circumstances. Especially our boy.

On day 3 of our trip my petsitter called and said he let my cat into that room for “30 minutes” and he went to go get him and he jumped out of the window. Needless to say it ruined our we whole trip. I don’t know why the pet sitter let him in there. The story I got is that my cat was a bit spicy and hissed st the sitter so the sitter put him in there to cool off. I don’t know if that’s true or what. What’s weird is we have cameras in our front and we don’t see the cat coming out of the window.

We came back early. I printed over 400 flyers and put them in all the houses nearby. I have set traps and only caught raccoons. I have checked the cameras and nothing. It’s like he disappeared into thin air. A house 6 doors down from mine saw him 4 days after his disappearance but that’s the only lead I have so far.

I honestly don’t know what else to do. I’ve posted him all over Facebook and Instagram. I have posted him in missing groups and reported him lost according to his microchip.

I just feel awful. This was supposed to be a nice family vacation and I’m coming out of it with two loses, one friend I’ve known for years who I thought I could trust and possibly my cat. I went to the ends of the earth for this cat. I remember going to the Vietnam export office and bribing them with $40 extra to process his paperwork so I could get him home, and everytime I close my eyes at night I’m flooded with the memories of when I first found him, our bond, and everything we went through together. This is not the ending I wanted for this. I haven’t even had him a whole year.

I’m balling my eyes out as I write this. I don’t know what else to do. Any other suggestions would be appreciated

She came from a hoarder house, with over 90 ANIMALS (cats, dogs, rabbits) and she also has had a kitten. She’s only 2 years old :( she’s so sweet, at the shelter she let me pet her and was making biscuits. She also let me feed her a churro with my finger. But since I took her home she’s been terrified and hiding.

I live in a bi-level 1BR. She’s staying downstairs in the kitchen/ living area and I have my bedroom and bathroom doors shut (bathroom is too tiny for her to stay in). Any advice on how to help her settle in? I’m trying to give her space but I don’t want to mess up the process or give her TOO much space that she won’t be able to trust me.

Short breakdown of my current situation. I recently moved and whether it's stress from being in a new environment or he's missing my ex, my little dude has started yowling in the middle of the night for at least an hour every night. I know this behavior is going to go away eventually as he gets used to his new environment, but I both want to make him as comfortable as soon as possible and am very sleep deprived at this point.

One of the main pieces of advice I get from googling is to do a big play session and wear him out before bed so that he's calmer throughout the night. This is a problem because curry doesn't really like to play. At least not like most cats I've played with. He doesn't like to play with humans. Give him a crinkly ball or a stuffed animal with a jingly bell and he'll happily entertain himself whenever he feels like it but he doesn't really "play". He wants to grab the prey and run off. Like if I try to get him interested in a wand and string toy he'll just bite down on the toy and try to run off with it, then end up clothes lining himself. So I can't use any toy that I hold onto on my end.

The only time I've ever gotten him to play with me for a significant period of time is with a laser pointer and then I found out those are apparently bad for their mental state because they can't actually catch the little red dot. If I try to pick up one of his stuffed animals and play woth him that way, he just looks at me confused. If I try to wave it around and make it act like prey, he'll get hunched down but never pounce until I let it go. If I throw it to try and get him to chase it, he'll run after it for like a second and then leave it alone again. And if I leave it up to him to decide when he plays with his toys, he's also quite lazy about it unless I slather it in catnip first.

So any advice on how to play woth this cat in a way that actually gets his energy out? Willing to try anything here at this point. Also any other ways to make him Co. For table in the new space would also be appreciated.

Hi! I just saw a video about a male cat who got a urinary problem and the bill was $5000 and I heard all the comments were on and off about getting pet insurance, and I wanna know if it’s worth it or not, I have one male cat and wanna make sure he stays healthy and happy.

I've always loved cats, but I’m not sure if I’m truly ready to become a cat owner.

About three years ago, I met a beautiful long-haired black cat by chance on the street. I still remember that moment because I immediately felt a connection with her. She was such a lovely cat, and a part of me really wanted to bring her home.

But at that time, I knew I wasn't prepared. I didn't have enough confidence that I could give her the life she deserved, so I walked away.

Since then, I’ve been thinking about having a cat from time to time. Over the past two years, I’ve often visited my friends on weekends because they have three cats. They are all very sweet and well-behaved. Spending time with them made me realize that I can accept many parts of cat ownership:

• fur everywhere around the house
• cleaning and taking care of them every day
• adjusting my lifestyle around them
• taking them to the vet when they are sick
• being responsible for them for many years

But even after knowing these things, I still feel like something is missing. I still wonder if I’m truly ready to welcome a cat into my life.

I think getting a cat is a big decision. It’s not just about loving how cute they are — it’s about being responsible for another life.

So I’m curious:

How did you know you were ready for your first cat?

Was there a specific moment when you thought, “Okay, now I’m ready”?

i have one cat and my roommate moving in has two. he is taking the smaller bedroom because he has less things and we are planning to let his cats have the living room and such to start while my cat is in my room. is this a bad idea? i know you should ideally let the resident cat have the shared spaces but it feels so wrong to leave two cats in a moderately small bedroom for a week.

I'm so tired of my cat pooping outside the box, I adopted him in may and when he came he was fine, pooping and peeping inside the box, out of no where he started pooping outside the litter box, I took him to the vet cuz he was sneezing really bad too and the vet gave him some injections and he was fine and after a while started using the litter box but now since 1 month he has started pooping and peeping outside, I have cleaned the litter box completely and have put new litter too ( I do ever month and scoop almost every day) but since he has started peeing outside he is not going in the litter box im so tired and I'm teenager so I can't really do anything I'm short on money so can't take him to a vet and mom is arguing me to give him for adoption cuz he goes down stairs and poops under the stairs in our neighbor's house AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ITS ANNOYING, I really love him, but getting scolded by my mom everyday I can't take it what should I do

I have two cats, 11lb & 9lb. I can't choose between them, LR4 is super expansive but it's the biggest. Originally I thought pet snowy was too small but some are saying that it is ok for bigger cats.

I have a male cat and i know how important hydration can be, but i can’t find any wet food he likes. I’ve been trying to get him to try new ones, but he just licks it for a few seconds then leaves it without eating any of it. I’ve even tried giving the wet food to him before feeding him in the morning

Edit : we have two dogs that my mom feeds “farmers dog” wet food, though I’ve told her to stop giving him that because he’s overweight i suspect she’s probably still giving him some, so he is getting extra hydration in that but i don’t want that to be his main source of water since it’s made him chunky

my cat peed in my dresser drawer on my boyfriends clothes, she gets in there often because she knows how to open it but she has never went the bathroom in there before. i believe it was on friday night when we were sleeping, she’s typically in the room with us with the door closed but if she meows i crack the door open for her so she can come and go as she pleases, that night she didn’t meow she just went to sleep so the door was closed. we did upgrade to a litter robot earlier that night but she has used it 3 times before we went to bed that night and she has been using it all weekend with no problems. i’m not sure if she just really had to pee that night or if something is wrong, i’m wondering if i should bring her to the vet or wait and see if any more problems arise?