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My burmese cat has howling "issues"....
phoxphyre
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Okay, little bit of back story, prior to the point.
I currently have two burmese cats -- Oscar who's 1.5 yrs old, and Lily who's 6 months. We bought Lily after my other cat Koru died -- mainly because Oscar was inconsolably lonely.
At the time, he was *very* needy, and wandered at night, howling. He learnt that jumping on the top of my 24" LCD quickly got attention -- even though it was negative. When shut out of my room he'd pace howling outside my door, even if other people were about. He's always been my 'special friend', and my partner was away for 3 months, so I did what I could.
After 3 months of this, I was nigh-on insane myself, but by then I could manage the thought of another non-Koru cat.
Enter Lily. 5 months on, they are good friends, and Lily is a fantastic little bed-cat. Oscar is not -- but he used to be... Now he spends the night pacing, climbing onto my monitor, and howling. If we shut him out of the room, he climbs *on top of the curtains* and howls, rips books out of the bookcase, or sits in the most acoustic place he can find and howls at the top of his lungs. (Note to the uninitiated here, Oscar has a 'shouting' voice, think Siamese++ ...) It doesn't matter if I take Oscar to bed by himself, he just prowls...
The weird thing is, if you put them both in a bedroom by themselves (including, food, water, litter box, toys...) we don't hear a peep out of him! And he leaves the curtains alone!
We currently spray the top of the curtains with cat repellent, and ignore him if he's howling. However, he gets into these "howling cycles" where he gets himself more, and more upset. Eventually propelling himself onto curtains, monitors, the tops of doors. Howling all the while... When Koru was around he'd get sick of Oscars howling, and bite him, start chasing him... Generally channel the energy. But there's no Koru any more
When we recognise the signs (O.O) we distract him, but I think this is also teaching him bad habits.
It's not like we don't play with him, and the house is full of cat toys, a tunnel, 1.5m scratching post...
Does anyone have any ideas about breaking Oscar's insanity habits?
I currently have two burmese cats -- Oscar who's 1.5 yrs old, and Lily who's 6 months. We bought Lily after my other cat Koru died -- mainly because Oscar was inconsolably lonely.
At the time, he was *very* needy, and wandered at night, howling. He learnt that jumping on the top of my 24" LCD quickly got attention -- even though it was negative. When shut out of my room he'd pace howling outside my door, even if other people were about. He's always been my 'special friend', and my partner was away for 3 months, so I did what I could.
After 3 months of this, I was nigh-on insane myself, but by then I could manage the thought of another non-Koru cat.
Enter Lily. 5 months on, they are good friends, and Lily is a fantastic little bed-cat. Oscar is not -- but he used to be... Now he spends the night pacing, climbing onto my monitor, and howling. If we shut him out of the room, he climbs *on top of the curtains* and howls, rips books out of the bookcase, or sits in the most acoustic place he can find and howls at the top of his lungs. (Note to the uninitiated here, Oscar has a 'shouting' voice, think Siamese++ ...) It doesn't matter if I take Oscar to bed by himself, he just prowls...
The weird thing is, if you put them both in a bedroom by themselves (including, food, water, litter box, toys...) we don't hear a peep out of him! And he leaves the curtains alone!
We currently spray the top of the curtains with cat repellent, and ignore him if he's howling. However, he gets into these "howling cycles" where he gets himself more, and more upset. Eventually propelling himself onto curtains, monitors, the tops of doors. Howling all the while... When Koru was around he'd get sick of Oscars howling, and bite him, start chasing him... Generally channel the energy. But there's no Koru any more
When we recognise the signs (O.O) we distract him, but I think this is also teaching him bad habits.It's not like we don't play with him, and the house is full of cat toys, a tunnel, 1.5m scratching post...
Does anyone have any ideas about breaking Oscar's insanity habits?
Remember the Slug; They have all the disadvantages of Snails, but without the benefit of home-ownership...
phoxphyre on
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Do you think I should spray the window-sill where he paces, and the top of the scratching post (where he launches onto the curtain rails)...? Where else should I spray?
Edit: using hormones won't harm Lily will it? She's still growing (and so's he, come to think of it!)
As far as I know, there shouldn't be anything wrong with using it on any age of cat, but it would be best to check with your vet.
Solution? I play with her until shes panting and exhausted. I make her run, do massive jumps etc.... Takes about 15 mins before she is stuffed and just wants to cuddle up and purr and sleep.
Edit: She also did the howling thing before she got fixed too.
I've been spraying a couple of places with Feliway, and have noticed that Oscar seems to hang out in those places more now. So this may be a good thing for him.
I do play with both cats quite a bit, but I'm making an effort to do it more. Here's hoping.
Thanks guys.