My cats tail is always wagging

[sailorcat]

Hello,

I have a one year old black tabby female. Ever since we adopted her at 12 weeks she has always wagged her tail (as what you would imagine when irritated)
She also does this really fast so it looks quite bizarre!

The only time her tail is not moving is when she's sleeping or eating, as soon as she see's us or walks into a room her tail starts.
Even when grooming her or petting her she really bangs her tail hard, she even sits on the sofa/shelves/window banging her tail so loudly and forcefully I wonder if it hurts?
At her last check up the vet said she just has a waggy tail.
I've had many cats over the years but never a cat that wags it's tail constantly.

Has anyone else come across this behaviour?

 

[hbunny]

My two year old (recently moved indoors) does this all the time.  I think he is just excited.  I was worried and did a search for tail swishing and found a thread where others said it mainly just means excitement--I was afraid he was about to pounce on me and attack my feet or something.  Mine does it when I am opening his food cans, when I get up in the morning, if he thinks I'm going to pet him, just constantly!  We have told him we think he is a dog--a Labrador retriever!--because he has even knocked drinks off of our tables next to our loveseat in the den.  He gets so vigorous I am surprised he doesn't have bruises on his tail.  And he is an 18 pounder, he has a big, thick tail!

You are not alone!  See if you can search and find the threads.  I found several, and decided he is just excitable!

 

[mani]

My girl, Nilah, is an absolutely chronic tail-wagger.  I'm sure it's what keeps her weight down..

 

 

[sailorcat]

Thanks!
I did a search and I can't believe there are other cats that bang their tails for no reason.
We thought she was just a grump as I speak she is sat wagging her tail as she grooms herself.

I added some new shelves for her to climb on as she's an indoor cat these ones I brought from ikea the others my aunt gave to me and when she's wagging her tail on the ikea shelves they make such a loud noise!
When we are watching TV it drives us mad, I tried putting blankets up there but she pushes then down!
She also likes to relax on top of the radiator banging her tail against it until it echoes, sometimes I wonder if she likes the sound because surely that would hurt?!

 

[hbunny]

Thanks!
I did a search and I can't believe there are other cats that bang their tails for no reason.
We thought she was just a grump as I speak she is sat wagging her tail as she grooms herself.

I added some new shelves for her to climb on as she's an indoor cat these ones I brought from ikea the others my aunt gave to me and when she's wagging her tail on the ikea shelves they make such a loud noise!
When we are watching TV it drives us mad, I tried putting blankets up there but she pushes then down!
She also likes to relax on top of the radiator banging her tail against it until it echoes, sometimes I wonder if she likes the sound because surely that would hurt?!

HAHA  I thought Shortstack was about to have one of his "attack mode" episodes.  But he just does it all the time.  Thank goodness he doesn't whap-whap-whap against something all the time, I bet that does nearly drive you mad.

I need to buy some shelving for mine.  It's just so expensive, and I don't want to put up plain shelves, it needs some kind of carpeting on it since Shortstack is really very clumsy.  My fat boys won't fit on most of the shelving I've looked at in the local Lowe's and Home Depot, and my hubby isn't handy enough to do something that looks nice.  I need to check out Ikea.

 

[sailorcat]

HAHA  I thought Shortstack was about to have one of his "attack mode" episodes.  But he just does it all the time.  Thank goodness he doesn't whap-whap-whap against something all the time, I bet that does nearly drive you mad.

I need to buy some shelving for mine.  It's just so expensive, and I don't want to put up plain shelves, it needs some kind of carpeting on it since Shortstack is really very clumsy.  My fat boys won't fit on most of the shelving I've looked at in the local Lowe's and Home Depot, and my hubby isn't handy enough to do something that looks nice.  I need to check out Ikea.

It took a long time to get my husband to put the shelves up, infact he only put them up when socks knocked down his prized Michael Schumacher display hanging that he agreed!

Although they are great especially when she's having a crazy moment we found we had to buy reinforced bolt type screws to hold the shelves up as she would be jumping from them from a dresser and onto the other shelves.
We also have plaster walls so the ikea shelves had to be reinforced again with ugly brackets.

Later I will try and upload a photo, I'm sure they could look nicer but my hubby is also not very handy with DIY

 

[hbunny]

We have sheetrock/plaster (guess they are the same?) too.  I figured we would have to bolt them into a stud in the wall, which might make for some odd placement.  But my boys definitely both like it up high.  If you can upload a photo I'd appreciate it!!  I'm not a designer or decorating kind of person, so I steal from seeing how others have done things!

 

[webmiss]

my kitty is a tail wagger too. Ive learned to tell the happy wag, excited wag, and pissed off wag apart. He seems to do it most though when hes happy.

 

[margd]

My old cat Sears was a tail wagger.  When he came out of his carrier and I saw him the first time, he came waddling out (he was a bit fat) wagging his tail like a puppy and I fell completely in love with him.  I didn't know cats wagged their tails either.  

 

[sailorcat]

image.jpeg

• sailorcat
• Sep 8, 2016

This is the best image I could get (it's evening here and lighting is bad)

You can see we had to add those ugly white brackets below just to reinforce it, she loves being up high but only when we are in the room with her!

 

[hbunny]

Heck, I think the ugly white brackets you pointed out look pretty good!  Are they slick-surfaced?  My fatty-foo-foo tries to jump on the back of the couch and just slides off, with a horrified look on his face, so he isn't named Grace--for a reason!  I need to browse over on Ikea and check some out.  The "catification" shelves on Amazon are just absolutely outrageously expensive, and most have dimensions that seem too small for my husky boy.

 

[sailorcat]

Heck, I think the ugly white brackets you pointed out look pretty good!  Are they slick-surfaced?  My fatty-foo-foo tries to jump on the back of the couch and just slides off, with a horrified look on his face, so he isn't named Grace--for a reason!  I need to browse over on Ikea and check some out.  The "catification" shelves on Amazon are just absolutely outrageously expensive, and most have dimensions that seem too small for my husky boy.

I just envy all the pictures I see online with lovely set up shelves and cats lying gracefully!

I'm not keen on the brackets as the shelves are meant to appear 'floating' there was a website I went on called ikea pets (I think) with lots of ideas.

The other shelves we have are solid wood with matching brackets which were given to us as buying solid wood anything these days is expensive. She has nibbled at these shelves leaving bite marks all over one side lol

 

[sailorcat]

Oops forgot to mention the brackets are metal gloss so a bit mismatched with the wooden shelves!

 

[hbunny]

I still think you did a great job. I've had really bad luck trying to hang shelves!

 

[Jimmyrich78]

My lovely girl Lopez wacks her tail constantly and I've noticed when I stroke her she stops or slows tail down but if I stop she starts waking it harder and harder untill I stroke her more From this I can tell which parts she likes stroked and in which way the more she's enjoying it the tail stops.. So she's kinda bit demanding lol. Right now I've stopped petting her and she's moved with her back to me banging her tail like she's sulking She also seems to get jealous of my phone if I'm using it and ignoring her she gets a strop on .. She's a funny lil puss

 

[mani]

Hi J Jimmyrich78 and welcome to the site!
If you would like to, you could introduce yourself and the waggy Lopez in our New Cats on the Block forum.