Kitten Problems

by Rhian
(uk)

We have a 4 Month old kitten Barnaby, he has a strange habit of imitating burying his food if he doesn't like what we give him and he also does it when he has had enough, why does he do this and is it normal? I have had cats for the last 18 years and have never seen anything like this before. Also we have two other cats Galaxy who is nearly 19 and Suzy who is 12, most of the time Barnaby will curl up to Galaxy and seems to look upon her as a mother figure and Galaxy seems to have adopted him as her own, and with Susie he sees her as a someone to play with and most of the time everything is great, the problem we are having is Barnaby is attacking Galaxy everytime she wants to use the litter and Galaxy has peed on our bed a couple of times because of it wheras she is normally a very clean cat. I know that she is nearly 19 and older cats do sometimes have toilet problems but Galaxy is very alert and aware for her age. How can I stop Barnaby attacking her when she needs the litter? Also when we put food down for all the cats Barnaby will imitate burying his and go and eat Galaxy's I have now started to feed them at the same time in the same place but in separate bowls and this seems to work, my question here is Why does Barnaby do this?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks


Answer by Kate
Um well i must admit i have not seen this before either. All i can think of is that the kitten is feeling a little anxious over the presence of the other cats and is trying to hide his food from the others. His attacking behavior may be related to this or he may simply be playing.

At 4 months he is moving into adulthood and so will need neutering withing the next month or so. This may help him to calm down an not be so aggressive in his behavior.

My advice would be to give your attacked cat a few days or time out from him to allow her to relax also. Try the litter training confinement method described here for her.

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-litter-box.html

best wishes kate

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