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- May 6, 2021
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Hi everyone, We have a 3 year old orange boy who is having some behavioral issues and it's causing the other cats in the household to not want to interact with him.
Panko is a good boy overall. Not food aggressive, very sweet on people, and just a generally laid back guy. He is front declawed (previous owner's doing) but doesn't seem to have much discomfort in the way of that.
Over the past month or so he's been exhibiting what we call "middle child syndrome" behaviors. He will go to where another kitty is sitting and chomp on them to get them to move. Additionally, when one kitty wants to initiate play he immediately crawls on top of them and starts biting on their shoulder and neck. Upon observation the other cats will frantically kick and punch him to get away, and that usually gets him to back off, but sometimes I will be in the other room and hear a desperate scream and a loud scurry, then come to see Panko has a sizeable tuft of hair stuck to his mouth. Even just a few minutes ago I was sitting across from him and our littlest cat walks up and grooms his head. He enjoys it for a solid 2 minutes then when she gets tired and stops he goes for her legs to bite her.
The other cats are noticeably avoiding being close to him in fear of him lashing out or playing too aggressively. Is anyone familiar with teaching older cats about gentle play?
I should add we do play with all of our cats every night to try to dump some pent up energy. It doesn't seem to affect his behavior though.
Any advice appreciated!
Panko is a good boy overall. Not food aggressive, very sweet on people, and just a generally laid back guy. He is front declawed (previous owner's doing) but doesn't seem to have much discomfort in the way of that.
Over the past month or so he's been exhibiting what we call "middle child syndrome" behaviors. He will go to where another kitty is sitting and chomp on them to get them to move. Additionally, when one kitty wants to initiate play he immediately crawls on top of them and starts biting on their shoulder and neck. Upon observation the other cats will frantically kick and punch him to get away, and that usually gets him to back off, but sometimes I will be in the other room and hear a desperate scream and a loud scurry, then come to see Panko has a sizeable tuft of hair stuck to his mouth. Even just a few minutes ago I was sitting across from him and our littlest cat walks up and grooms his head. He enjoys it for a solid 2 minutes then when she gets tired and stops he goes for her legs to bite her.
The other cats are noticeably avoiding being close to him in fear of him lashing out or playing too aggressively. Is anyone familiar with teaching older cats about gentle play?
I should add we do play with all of our cats every night to try to dump some pent up energy. It doesn't seem to affect his behavior though.
Any advice appreciated!