"What is the cat doing and why is the cat doing it?" The Cat Behavior Thread

[Bright_Star]

Wagging their tales......in a dog, it means they're happy & content. BUT in a cat, when they wag their tales, it means they're annoyed.

[Aragarthiel]

My mom has a cat that would paw open the cabinets then complain when he couldn't get out, despite the fact that he could have just pushed them open. She eventually had to put child locks on the cabinets to keep him out.

I had one cat who loved to hide under my pillow as a kitten and once he got too big, he still loved to be laid on. He'd sleep next to my head at night and would purr when I rolled over onto him. Another cat we had, who we had fostered for a while due to a minor leg injury that made him temporarily unadoptable, loved to hide on the other side of a door frame and pounce on your toes when you walked through. We named him Ambush for that reason.

[Racket_Man]

I've more commonly heard this called the "zoomies". No idea why they do that.

we always used to call that behavior Speed Racer or Choo-Choo Train especially when there were 5 - 10 of them doing it all at once (2 sets of kitten litters involved + the adults). they always did a loop from the living room down the short hallway, knock open our bedroom door, run over the top of the bed and race back out to the living room over and over and over and over again. The downside was was that they like to "perform" this during the night when we were asleep.

We had one cat we named Stinky as a kitten. Why you ask???? not that he was smelly or dirty or loved to get into dirty stuff BUT

He LOVED and I MEAN LOVED to crawl into and sleep in my dirty, smelly, nasty sneakers as a kitten. I had to sometimes fight to get him out when I wanted to wear said shoes. Thank whatever deity he grew up but still liked my smelly sneakers.

The cat DID NOT have a good nose.

[XCashier]

And none of our houseplants are safe . . .

Be really careful with houseplants and cats. Most houseplants are toxic to cats. You might want to get some cat grass for them to nibble on if they're wanting plant material.

[Kittish]

Be really careful with houseplants and cats. Most houseplants are toxic to cats. You might want to get some cat grass for them to nibble on if they're wanting plant material.

Be aware if you do get them some cat grass (usually oat or rye grass) that they'll eat it, then they'll barf. I think it's a hairball thing.

Just about every cat I've ever had had a shoe fetish, and the current ones are no exception. Mister Kitteh will stick his head into shoes, and grab them and roll around and bunny kick them, then lay on them for a while.

One of the things the cats do when they're going zoom is do the running in place thing on our vinyl floor in the kitchen. It's the funniest thing ever to see a cat going full tilt and not actually GOING anywhere til suddenly it goes zoom. Mister Kitteh cracked me up the other day, doing the running in place thing while he spun in a circle, then wound up crouched ready to pounce on the rug. The dog was mightily confused by this behavior.

[EricKei]

Just back and forth, back and forth, always skidding on the linoleum in the kitchen and thudding into the wall there. No reason we could ever figure.

My cats managed to do that on shag carpet. Usually when running out of a room into hallway with no doorway immediately opposite the first. They'd start turning as they got into the hall, but sometimes they'd start just a fraction of a second too late, slam their flank into the wall, and keep on running as if nothing had happened.

She seems to consider using the bathroom a social event if I'm involved

Mine did that too.

Be aware if you do get them some cat grass (usually oat or rye grass) that they'll eat it, then they'll barf. I think it's a hairball thing.

Actually, yes, that's exactly what it is. They swallow the grass -- which they can't actually digest -- more or less as an emetic.

[BookstoreEscapee]

My cats usually get the zoomies around 8 pm. The girl usually starts something, the boy retaliates, the girl hisses at him (she always starts it and always loses), one of them takes off and the other chases, they make a circle through the kitchen/living room (there's a doorway on either end of the kitchen), then they settle back in the living room like nothing happened.

The boy also likes to get up on top of the entertainment center (the girl doesn't seem to like high places; her favorite spots are on or under my dad's bed). At holidays/birthdays my mom will put cards up there, lined up along the front edge. The cat will get up there and knock them off, very deliberately, one by one. If you put them back he will knock them off again.

Maggie gets very interested in weird things for toys. She has a large wadded-up piece of thick plastic wrap that she plays with sometimes.

When my cats were little, we would give them peas at dinner (we'd put one at the edge of the table and they would reach up and knock it off) and they would play with them (eventually the girl would eat it, sometimes) - we called it pea soccer. My parents have a central vacuum system and there is a thing under the pantry cabinet in the kitchen with a kick switch that turns it on and you can just sweep stuff right into it. Well, little girl knocked her pea in there and couldn't reach it. After watching her flop around on the floor for a bit (half hoping she'd manage to flip the switch just to see what she'd do, though it takes some effort so I knew she wouldn't be able to) I took pity on her and went to help. I couldn't reach it with my hand so I got a bendy straw and used that. They lost all interest in the pea and spent the rest of the night playing with the straw. It was their favorite toy for a while (we would give them a new one when it started to get chewed up). We kept finding them in the hall closets because they would lose them under the doors.

She also will sneak into closets and pantries.

Ours used to explore the pantry cabinet in the kitchen when we opened it, so one night my brother let the boy crawl in and the closed the door. It doesn't have a latch; there are shelves on the doors that make them heavy enough to stay closed on their own, so the cat could push it open from the inside and it didn't take him long to figure that out. (Took the girl a little longer; not sure if it's because she's smaller or because sometimes she's, well, kinda stupid.) They don't fit in there anymore, though.

I suspect they all have clocks built in . . .

They definitely do. My girl goes to bed with my dad, and my mom started giving them treats (usually just a different kind of dry food than what they usually eat) to lure her out and distract them when she went to bed, so she could shut them out (the boy likes to explore and sometimes try to get in the window right above the headboard, and if the girl was allowed to stay he'd make a racket trying to get in, so she had to kick them both out). Now they know when it's treat time, even when I'm the only one there. They start hovering just before 11 pm.

Funny thing is, when I housesit, I sleep in my parents' room and leave the door open, and most of the time they don't come in at all.

[protege]

My cats usually get the zoomies around 8 pm. The girl usually starts something, the boy retaliates, the girl hisses at him (she always starts it and always loses), one of them takes off and the other chases, they make a circle through the kitchen/living room (there's a doorway on either end of the kitchen), then they settle back in the living room like nothing happened.

What is it about female kittehs? Most of the time, it's the girl who starts the hissing and fighting. Why she decides to pick a fight with a Maine Coon--who is roughly twice her size--I'm not sure. He'll come near her, and she flips. She'll take off, hiss some more, and the chase is on. 20 minutes later, they'll be curled up on the couch

Some of the problem, is that the girl kitteh has some growths on her ears. Boy kitteh will start grooming her head. He thinks those growths are bugs, and will bite into them That's one reason she'll flip out. The other...is that he always wants to play and she doesn't.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

What is it about female kittehs? Most of the time, it's the girl who starts the hissing and fighting. Why she decides to pick a fight with a Maine Coon--who is roughly twice her size--I'm not sure. He'll come near her, and she flips. She'll take off, hiss some more, and the chase is on. 20 minutes later, they'll be curled up on the couch

Some of the problem, is that the girl kitteh has some growths on her ears. Boy kitteh will start grooming her head. He thinks those growths are bugs, and will bite into them That's one reason she'll flip out. The other...is that he always wants to play and she doesn't.

It might be in the females' DNA . . . Gidget and/or Pasquinel will do the same on occasion.

Wake up a little bit before the alarm goes off and they're both on the bed either on top of me or snuggled beside me.

[BookstoreEscapee]

What is it about female kittehs? Most of the time, it's the girl who starts the hissing and fighting. Why she decides to pick a fight with a Maine Coon--who is roughly twice her size--I'm not sure. He'll come near her, and she flips. She'll take off, hiss some more, and the chase is on. 20 minutes later, they'll be curled up on the couch

She's the one who starts stuff and hisses, but they don't snuggle together when they're done. He's usually on the floor in the front part of the living room or in the chair with my mom; she likes the couch or my dad's bed.

[XCashier]

One of the things the cats do when they're going zoom is do the running in place thing on our vinyl floor in the kitchen. It's the funniest thing ever to see a cat going full tilt and not actually GOING anywhere til suddenly it goes zoom.

We had a wood laminate floor in our old house, and the cats did the same thing on that. Sylvester especially was comical; he'd not only do what you described, but he'd try to turn a corner, scrabble to get a foothold and often do a 180 turn (there's a reason we named him after a cartoon character!).

[EricKei]

At last, some insight on these matters from the perspective of the felines whom we so mercilessly persecute...

[Racket_Man]

As a pizza delivery driver I find that peoples cats are just a little strange.

I come to the door, knock or ring the bell, the customer opens the door and a transaction ensues.

Now to the cat part ---- SOME cats make a mad dash for the open door. OK I get this---- I WANT TO GO OUTSIDE NOW (maybe but I am going to REALLY REALLY try anyway).

Most cats will walk up to about say 4 or 5 feet from the door, sit down and proceed to just stare at me, giving a little ear turn or a cock of the head and just stare at me like some they are observing an interesting lab specimen.

[Valentinian]

We had one cat we named Stinky as a kitten. Why you ask???? not that he was smelly or dirty or loved to get into dirty stuff BUT

He LOVED and I MEAN LOVED to crawl into and sleep in my dirty, smelly, nasty sneakers as a kitten. I had to sometimes fight to get him out when I wanted to wear said shoes. Thank whatever deity he grew up but still liked my smelly sneakers.

The cat DID NOT have a good nose.

A friend of mine had a cat named Armpit as a child... because it loved to snuggle up with her father when he had just come home from work, stuff its head in his (sweaty, stinky) armpit, and purr.

[Aria]

I have a cubby built into my condo, with stacking washer/dryer inside. My cat is a wee l'il girl so there's enough room on either side for her to sneak in with the washer/dryer. The first few weeks she loved to do that.

I cured her of it, though. I didn't KNOW she'd done that when I turned the washer on. The howl and dash out was impressive!