# Three Cats, Three Questions



## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

I'm posting this on cat forums, too, but I get good advice on here so I thought I'd post here as well.

We have three cats and no major issues, but I do have a question about each one that I can't seem to find a good answer on in any of my books. 

1) Sonic (8 month old male, neutered). Sonic is pretty bad about going after our small animal cages. He's not allowed to interact with them when they're out, but he has a tendency to climb the cages and fixate on the animals. So far (in the past four months) he hasn't swiped at anyone or shown any real aggression, but I know it stresses them out to have him fixated on them the way he is and I don't want to take any chances. We've tried training him out of it with a spray bottle, clapping, saying his name in a warning tone, putting him away in the bathroom every time he goes near, etc, and nothing, no matter how consistent, seems to get through to him. Any good training advice for a kitty with a thick skull?

2) Tucker (1.5 years, neutered) was a feral/stray cat just before he was adopted by my roommates at about 4 months of age. As a result he's always been less affectionate than most cats, though he does interact with us a lot and doesn't have any problem behaviors. However, his pupils are almost always dilated, even when he's laying down doing the slow blink. Might this be a vision issue, or is he really overstimulated 24/7? If he is, what sorts of things can we try to calm him down?

3) Sake (7ish years, spayed) does not get on well with the boys. They don't have any real fights but there's a lot of hissing and growling any time she's forced to be around them, or if they hop up on the couch she's sleeping on, etc. For the most part they don't need to interact because our place is pretty big and she sleeps in my room at night with the door closed to the boys, but she's been doing a lot of overgrooming on her belly and I'm worried she's stressed just knowing they're around. I think a big part of the problem is that we totally botched the initial introduction, so we're going to try doing a re-introduction. Does anyone have good advice for making sure intro #2 goes well?

Thanks!


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## ratsaremylife (Nov 5, 2013)

1) My spayed female does this to my bird cage and actually has gotten to him before. I started covering his cage more earlier and she mostly stopped b/c she doesn't to it as much with us around. Our feral kitten likes to scale rat cages and play with them and they get kinda scared but not to bad. I honestly say maybe cover cages at night?

2) No help... Sorry.

3) All our cats are female and almost all related. The ones that are related chase eachother and growel at each a LOT. I think it's normal dominance type behavior. Not sure with the girls vs boys.


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## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

1. Try getting an automatic motion-activated air blower (can't remember what it's called but if you search for behavior modification devices on amazon I'm sure you'll find it). Sit is so that if they cat gets close to the cage it'll "see" him and blow air at him. This scares most cats so they will stay away... and the best part is it works when you're not there.

2. Sounds medical, unless your home is really dark... Might want to try shining a bright light (flashlight) on his face to see if his pupils react...If they don't, he prob. needs to see a vet. 

3. Umm... can't really say, other than go slowly. Try watching some episodes of "my cat from ****" on animal planet.. Dude really knows his stuff. Also, watch for sores on her stomach. When our boy does this he'll get sores and we'll hve to treat him with antibiotic ointment on them so they heal.


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