Tag Archives: Upbringing

How to explain a sexual behavior in a spayed cat

However strange it can appear, a spayed cat like me can have behavior of tomcat for months, even years later again.

It is a little bit awkward to say, but I often try to masturbate on my humans ; since Momo’s come-back, I also try to bite Claire’s clothes as if it was the neck of a ladycat.

How can this happen ? And what does it mean ?

When a male cat is castrated, his rate of testosterone decreases strongly. However, his male side is determined in utero by the foetal testosterone which bathes his brain and makes it more or less masculine. This male side is activated from the adolescence by the production of testosterone. The higher is the rate of foetal testosterone, the more the male character of the cat will be pronounced. After castration, in the lack of testosterone, the male behavior is not deactivated, it’s just less active. Attacks against another cat, dominant behavior (often confused with sexual behavior) or attacks with sexual character can persist.

In my case, I try to show that I’m the boss. My behavior is a dominant behavior. And I insist. Obviously, Claire tells me that it’s not acceptable, and that she’s going to learn me not to do it anymore by fixing me the following rules :

I can make biscuits, it’s normal that I do it when I’m happy
if I make biscuits and she sees my pupils dilating, that means that I am going to do something else : if I knead more and more, purr more and more hardly, get excited, she will stop petting me, will put me on the ground, and will ignore me for a while
and if I hump all the same, she will do the same thing, and will quit the room and leave me alone

Thus, if I play the bad boy, I lose her attention ; I have to understand that I’m not the boss in the house : but then, who is the boss if it’s not me ?

Claire on the keyboard : evaporations of pheromones can help in this situation ; in certain extremes cases, the cat can even receive injections of hormones to limit this behavior. Zorro did not need it and fast understood what I expected from him.

Why does your cat mew ?

PIXIE : I am a chatterbox, Claire, Momo, and Zorro all agree on this point. I often express myself by mewing, in particular if I want to play.

Grown-up cats rarely communicate among themselves by mewing ; kittens, them, use much more the mewing to indicate to their momcat that they have a problem or that they need something.
The verbal communication among grown-up cats occurs most of the time in situation of conflict, but we cannot really speak about worldly conversation : they are rather growls and hostile hisses !

However, Zorro explained me that the humans were not generally very talented for nonverbal communication : they know how to interpret the movements of tail or the position of ears, but decipher with more difficulty subtle expressions, visual marking, or olfactive signal. On the other hand, humans are particularly susceptible in the mewings and learn quickly, because to make noise is the main way of communication of their species.

The mewing of the grown-up cat is thus favored to address a human. And as I said it, it works very well ! A well-trained human can recognize about ten different mewings : hello, play with me, give me food, cuddle me, leave me alone, I am bored, I want to go out, I am going to vomit, I bring you an alive present, I bring you a dead present, I am afraid of the vacuum cleaner…
The more the human quickly reacts, the better he’s trained, and the more a cat as me is encouraged in the fact to mew to express her needs.

An excessive mewing can however indicate a medical problem, or a beginning of senility by an old cat. It’s the moment to go for a checking at the vet !

A cat can also mew because he’s bored, in particular during the night. A good play session followed by a meal (for the cat!) just before the extinction of the lights should be enough to insure a quiet and restful night to your human.

Finally, certain breeds like Siameses for example are more talkative than others : it’s necessary to expect that these cats share in detail all that they do during the day !

And you, how do you communicate with your human ?

Zorro’s second Gotcha Day

We counted 52 comments, which means that we’ll give 52 CHF to the Haut-Léman shelter, and we’re delighted too to announce that Connie from Tails From The Foster Kittens is the lucky winner of our giveaway ! Thanks for celebrating with us !

How to save your furniture from the claws of your cat

Easy : give him something else to scratch !

All right, we are going to explain to you : we, cats, naturally need to scratch our claws. This activity allows us to sharpen them, to deposit our smell on objects, to mark our territory, and to stretch. We thus need several places in various rooms to be able to make him if you like your furniture.

The surface to be scratched can be vertical or horizontal ; the ideal would be to have both at arrangement.
The surface or the scratching post must be stable.
The vertical scratching post has to be minimum 70 cms high so that we can stretch completely.
Scratching posts can be made by diverse materials : carpet, sisal, cardboard, soft wood, …
A scratching post can be a simple log, a piece of carpet (on the wall or on the ground), an immense cat tree, …
You can ask your veterinarian to show you how to make us regularly a pawticure: we’ll less need to scratch if our claws are not too long.

The more we use our scratching post, the more we love it. Don’t change it when it becomes used (and ugly), this is the way we prefer it !

We don’t like be scolded, but we adore treats : it may happen to us to confuse the new leather sofa with the scratching post. Instead of yelling, say firmly “NO”, and manage us towards the deliberate place ; show us that it’s there that we can scratch, and encourage us in giving us a treat. We’re more a quick learner with a small reward !

We’re not straight off going to understand ; so, during our learning, why not to protect temporarily the new sofa with an old blanket ?