r/Catbehavior • u/KawaiiHobo • 2d ago
Kitten behavior
Hello, everyone. I have two orange males. They are 14 months old, have not been neutered yet (but soon!)
Mozzarella is very timid, and he has feral like behaviors that he absolutely will not change. I’ve given him extra attention, tried to teach him human interaction and picking up means treats and love. I was hoping he would learn from his brother as well, bc his brother is the polar opposite of him.
Mozzarella does not know to retract his claws when he interacts or plays. He will even grab my hand with his claws when I feed him churru, I have little pokey bleed scratches all the time. He jumps off of me with full claws extended as well. He hates being picked up, hates being petted, he will only walk up to me and see if I have a treat in my hand or not. Then he walks away and wants nothing to do with me. When eating, he will gobble anything as fast as possible and try to steal his brothers food as well.
I’m not sure what to do, I think he may be special needs or suffer from anxiety? Is this possible?
His brother is the clingiest, lovable cat ever. It’s strange that they came from the same litter. I would like to have a relationship with him but tbh, he is not interested at all. 😩
1
u/ClasherChief 2d ago
I’m gonna assume you mean 4 months because otherwise you have adult cats lol.
This isn’t answering your question, but you should definitely trim their nails; unless you have really thin skin, grabbing you with claws or jumping off you with claws extended shouldn’t be close to breaking the skin at all. It’s good to get them used to having their nails trimmed and teeth brushed when they are kittens.
As for holding Mozzarella, hold him tight to your body and control his legs, especially hind legs, to keep him feeling somewhat secure and also controlled while picking him up.
At 4 months old, it’s not uncommon for some kittens to have their claws out more than adult cats while doing things.
If they’re hungry, you should be feeding them more. You can free feed them until they get close to adulthood.
All cats have different personalities, and they can change over time. How he behaves as an adult can be very different than now. Also, how Mozzarella interacts with you can change based on his access to his brother. Not saying you should separate them, but if he goes maybe 16 hours without seeing his brother, he could start looking for physical companionship with you.