Hello Dr. Jean,
I have two cats - Stoli (2 yrs) and Luxor (almost 2 yrs).
My question(s) for you have to do with two behaviors, one for each of my cats.
Background: Stoli is from a cattery in Kansas and I live in Maine - He's a Russian Blue.
Luxor is from a cattery in Maine and he's an Egyptian Mau.
1) Stoli has always been edgy around 'other' people but loves me and my husband. Is there anything I can do to help him be more relaxed around people? He gets really jumpy and 'hides' (not really just runs upstairs) and sometimes it upsets his bowels for days.
2) Luxor has a chewing fetish that started with Stoli's ear. Then it migrated to chewing his own tail. We took him to the vet and everything looks fine and he's not doing damage to his tail currently. His teeth are ok - but his tiny teeth in the front are missing a couple (not new I knew about it) one is crooked. The vet thought he might be chewing because of his teeth. Could this be true or is there some other behavioral reason for this? We try to consistently put bitter apple on his tail and that seems to help, but once the taste wears off he's at it again. He also likes to chew on other things that are inappropriate - such as ribbon, clothes, etc.
Thanks for your advice - I'm sure that these are really common things that could be helped by a number of different things. I'm just looking for any other possible reasons for these behaviors that I may not have thought of and some other ways of dealing with them.
I have two cats - Stoli (2 yrs) and Luxor (almost 2 yrs).
My question(s) for you have to do with two behaviors, one for each of my cats.
Background: Stoli is from a cattery in Kansas and I live in Maine - He's a Russian Blue.
Luxor is from a cattery in Maine and he's an Egyptian Mau.
1) Stoli has always been edgy around 'other' people but loves me and my husband. Is there anything I can do to help him be more relaxed around people? He gets really jumpy and 'hides' (not really just runs upstairs) and sometimes it upsets his bowels for days.
2) Luxor has a chewing fetish that started with Stoli's ear. Then it migrated to chewing his own tail. We took him to the vet and everything looks fine and he's not doing damage to his tail currently. His teeth are ok - but his tiny teeth in the front are missing a couple (not new I knew about it) one is crooked. The vet thought he might be chewing because of his teeth. Could this be true or is there some other behavioral reason for this? We try to consistently put bitter apple on his tail and that seems to help, but once the taste wears off he's at it again. He also likes to chew on other things that are inappropriate - such as ribbon, clothes, etc.
Thanks for your advice - I'm sure that these are really common things that could be helped by a number of different things. I'm just looking for any other possible reasons for these behaviors that I may not have thought of and some other ways of dealing with them.
