Maresche pointed me here for help ^_^
A little background. I have two cats. The older, Eva, is a female of 5 years and Zel, the younger male is 3. My husband and I got Eva soon after we moved in together. Eva was never the most social or loveable cat which suited us fine because we both work and she spent a lot of time home alone. We ended up getting another cat to keep Eva Company because she seemed lonely and was getting more temperamental as she turned 2. We introduced a male kitten and the two got along famously. In May of ’05 we bought our first house and the cats seemed to adjust well. Eva has an interest in spending time outside where Zel seems terrified of it, but they both love the windows and get to watch more nature than what was offered in an upper level apartment.
Last fall Zel’s behavior changed enough to become a problem. As a kitten he was overly affectionate but as he grew he became more and more just my cat. Looking at the timing, Eva also got an attitude around 2 so I was thinking it’s a form of cat teenage angst. The issue is that instead of getting better it’s getting worse.
He’s never liked his litter changed. He has always loved to play in it and throw it around and has always thrown a hissing fit when we change it. That is something I’ve never run across in a cat before as any cat I’ve had loves it when they get fresh litter. About 6 months ago he started peeing in any baskets of clean laundry that were left unattended for any length of time. One morning my husband had opened the dryer and grabbed a towel for the morning shower, but didn’t close the dryer tight. By the time he was out of the shower Zel had crawled in and peed on the clothes we were intending on wearing to work. The only thing we could come up with was that he was only peeing in baskets of laundry in the back room, which is right by the back door. We have neighborhood cats that prowl and the winter weather was breaking. I thought maybe he could smell them so he was marking the inside of the house as his. I don’t know if we’ve broken this habit or not. We don’t leave close unattended in the washroom any more and we’ve put a feilaway plug-in in that same room. As of now, he hasn’t gone anywhere but his litter box for almost two months.
Recently he has been more aggressive about his litter, and had more pissy streaks in general. If my husband changes the box Zel will hiss and growl every time he sees him for days. If he’s approached he howels and screams as if we were beating him, yet we don’t even get close enough to touch him. Again this happens most with my husband. I rarely get this treatment and Zel will usually just hide from strangers completely or hiss at them when he walks by. Our other cat, Eva, is more my husband’s cat than mine but she doesn’t attack me either.
It’s important to say he isn’t always like this, or even most of the time. Sometimes (even if I’m not home) he’ll cuddle on hubby’s lap. Sometimes he’ll throw a fit and it has nothing to do with changing his litter. The issue is his outbursts are getting worse/more violent and I can't figure out his triggers.
Zel has checked out fine with the vet (other than being a little too well fed) and anything I’ve read points to behavioral issues, most likely anxiety. He is a bit skittish and a fraidy-cat in general. Like, he’ll have to stalk something on the floor and tap it to make sure it won’t move, or if you touch him and he’s not expecting it he’ll jump 3 feet up and run to the other side of the room before realizing you were just trying to pet him. I can’t figure out what triggers his behavior other than giving him fresh litter. I’d say it was the move to the house, but he was fine for a good 8 months before he started acting up. Because it’s a fairly recent thing I'd like to correct the behavior without medicating him if I can help it. I also don't want to get rid of him obviously. He's still a cute little snugglebunny 99% of the time with me after all.
Anyone have experience with behavior like this? Are there any buzz words or terminology I should use when talking with a vet to get more answers? A recommendation of a great cat vet that deals with behavioral problems in the NW Metro Detroit area would be good too, as my current vet is stumped.
Oh, as for diet, he has been on a form of Science Diet dry food since we got him at 6 weeks, just like Eva. Both are also spayed/neutered, frontal de-calwed and indoor-only house cats.
EDIT: The poor spelling, it burns!
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