My Cat Is Acting Weird Lately

[UnderGroundK]

Hello there! Lately I noticed some really confusing changes in my cat's behavior. She usually is really sweet and loves being petted and played with but a few weeks ago she started acting really weird. Especially when it comes to food, she had a problem with food in the past (she's only 8 months old) when she stopped eating all of a sudden, she had intestinal worms, but I took her to the vet and everything was ok after. Now she has a problem with eating again, but this time it's not intestinal worms, it seems to be something psychologically from what I can tell. Whenever I give her food she starts looking all over her surroundings and acts like she is in distress for some reason, she looks really on edge and won't touch her food, she smells it for a bit, take a few bites and then leave the bowl. I thought that maybe she got sick of her usual food so I changed it, but the results were the same. Besides this, she has other moments when, again, she looks really stressed out or scared, and every little noise would make her jump and run to hide. I really don't know what to do anymore, I always try to comfort her, let her know that I am there to protect her and that everything is going to be ok and by that I mean that I take her in my arms like a baby and pet her for a while. While I do this she acts like her usual self, but after I let her go she goes back to being on edge.. Another reason that makes me believe it's something psychological is that her mother, a few months after giving birth kind of "lost it". She has the same symptoms, only they are 10 times worse. She is on edge 24/7 and won't let anything near her (cats or people), when other animals are approaching her she would fight them and when people come near her she starts hissing and spitting everywhere and sometimes she has the instinct to bite. Like my little one, before the pregnancy she was really sweet and loving. Does anybody have any idea what this could be? I'm really confused and I really want to help my kitty.

 

[di and bob]

It sounds to me like something has really scared her or stressed her out while she was eating. It usually takes several repeats to make them this scared, anything different while she was eating, any other cats around, strange noises like doorbell going off or a phone ringing right when she was eating? I would definitely feed her by herself, in a different room with you there until she eats normally again. I know how quick another cat can sneak over and jump on their housemates and scare them half to death, I have one that enjoys doing this and he is always getting into trouble. The way she looks around sounds like she is expecting something to come while she is eating. If there are no other cats in the house it could be an outside cat or dog that she smells or sees through the window and it is putting her on guard.It could be even a smell you are bringing in from the outside. Handling any strange dogs or cats lately? There is SOMETHING scaring her and you have to find out what it is. Your other mama cat could be stressed out because of the kittens, she could have been super protective. Do you have any one else in the house that could possibly be scaring them?Cats usually don't get so defensive unless something has happened in their lives. Be watchful.

 

[krisrath11]

The mom cat was probably protective as moo tried to kill a friend of mine once when I brought them in to see the babies (it was just once but that was plenty) and she had her babies in my lap so she was ad is now ppl friendly. As suggested above I would suspect something happened especially if there are other animals. I have a foster that rarely comes out bcz she is scared but it is all the time and of the animals so she now has the foster room to herself until the new guy gets here. Sounds she is guarding it to me and scared so I would look at noises and or other pets first.

 

[UnderGroundK]

It sounds to me like something has really scared her or stressed her out while she was eating. It usually takes several repeats to make them this scared, anything different while she was eating, any other cats around, strange noises like doorbell going off or a phone ringing right when she was eating? I would definitely feed her by herself, in a different room with you there until she eats normally again. I know how quick another cat can sneak over and jump on their housemates and scare them half to death, I have one that enjoys doing this and he is always getting into trouble. The way she looks around sounds like she is expecting something to come while she is eating. If there are no other cats in the house it could be an outside cat or dog that she smells or sees through the window and it is putting her on guard.It could be even a smell you are bringing in from the outside. Handling any strange dogs or cats lately? There is SOMETHING scaring her and you have to find out what it is. Your other mama cat could be stressed out because of the kittens, she could have been super protective. Do you have any one else in the house that could possibly be scaring them?Cats usually don't get so defensive unless something has happened in their lives. Be watchful.

Hey! I have 5 cats in total and their mother, but she is almost never home. As I mentioned, they are all around 8 months old and until now they got along pretty well. They would eat, sleep and play together all the time with no issue. I've never seen them fight each other not even over food. Of course I can't keep them all inside, but I have an adjacent room to the house that is used mostly for depositing things and now that is my cats home. The room has a radiator too, to keep them warm. There are 2 things that changed in my poor little ones life recently. First of all I bought them a pet door, because winter is almost here and we can't keep the door open anymore and I'm heaving a really hard time teaching them how to use it. Only one of them has learned after a week, the others are still having a difficult time with it. And second, a few weeks ago, I brought home the 5th little cat. I found him outside my gate crying in the rain. He is only a month old I think. He was starving and my heart melted when I saw him. At first, when I introduced them, only 2 of my cats accepted him, the others hissed at him and would not stand being near him. One of them being my sweet now scared kitten. But as time went by, they finally accepted him and now everything seems fine, except my poor little girl.

I am trying to stay with her while she eats and also I give her food separately. I noted this too, that she eats while I am next to her, not always, but at least she is eating. And sometimes I would even feed her from my hand if necessary. I'm still hoping she will get better soon. She doesn't seem to have a problem with the little one anymore but she seems to be avoiding that room since the he arrived.

 

[krisrath11]

Seems like the problem is the little one. Probably the baby is food aggressive if starved, and went after her or pounced as kittens do whole she was eating. I would just watch her while she eats if u can, or feed her separate.