Can I teach my grumpy cat to be less grumpy?

You’re trying to change an 11 year old cat? You must love a tough (if not impossible) challenge. You could try something really unpleasant but it might make things worse. Your cat could decide the other cat is causing the unpleasant thing and get even meaner.

@Adirondackwannabe I know, it’s tough, but in the past he has learned so quickly from being sprayed lightly with water that I thought maybe it could work for this too. They don’t fight really, but every time she gets too close to him it’s hissing and hissing and hissing. It wakes me up at night and is in general unpleasant and annoying. So i thought….maybe…..but probably not.

@deni Then it might work. Just be careful.

I honestly don’t think so. He’s either totally wired that way or far too entrenched in his habits to change. Maybe in time Barnabus will get used to the other cats smells and sounds, but I wouldn’t count on it.

I’d love to have a second cat but mine, who is also 11, sweet and tame as he is when alone, turns into Godzilla in a bad mood when he sees or sniffs another animal.

I don’t think you can train him to change his disposition. My 8 year old grumpy cat used to try to kill the now 2-year-old kitten, now she just hisses. We close the door to the bedroom at night so they don’t drive us bonkers and we can sleep.

I doubt it. The one time I challenged Milo physically (briefly), I had to run for cover as he turned really ferocious and began behaving like Lethal Weapon II…red in tooth and claw. I provided the “red.”

My daughter is fostering a cat with the goal of socializing him enough to have him adopted by a family. Her own sweet cat, Betty. has the run of the apartment; this guy lives in the spare bathroom and never ventures out. Several times a day my daughter brings her laptop into the bathroom in order to provide the cat with some company. He hides behind the toilet.

I think perhaps she can leave the bathroom door open a crack now, but it is heavy going and she seems to be the one being trained.

I think you are on a hiding to nothing. How long have they been forced to share the same environment?

Can’t you get plug in things that release ‘pussy cat feel good pheromones?’ Here is a link to product recommended by a vet/animal behaviourist here Cam Day. He’s very well respected in Australia. Might be worth checking if there’s something similar you can get where you are.

Spraying him or any other type of negative conditioning will only serve to have him hating the other cat even more since he will associate the negative actions with her presence.

The calming pheromones have helped some cats b6t aren’t guaranteed.

One thing that my be worth a try is to feed them at the same time but at a significant distance from each other. VERY GRADUALLY shorten the distance between them.

This way he associates good things with her presence. Have you ever seen a program on Animal Planet called “My Cat From Hell” ? This is the method he uses and it usually works.

However, those are cats trying to kill each other (literally) so consider yourself fortunate that it’s just hissing and posturing. He is just asserting his place as the dominant cat (and she appears fine to honor that for the most part)

This is VERY normal cat behavior and humans trying to interfere with cat hierarchy issues are not successful.

I had one cat who never tolerated each of the other two cats who were in the household. But it was limited to hissing and refusal to make friends with them so I considered myself lucky that it never came to physical fights leading to actual injury needing vet care.

Check out the AP website. They may have some clips or the whole programs showing Jackson Galaxy’s technique for dealing with this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FLCHN7jivA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Here’s a short video where he explains the basic idea but there were several of the programs where he dealt with feuding cats which were far worse than yours. I’ll see if I can find them.

http://m.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/my-cat-from-hell/videos/feral-scottish-fold?page=0

Each full episode contains two separate cases. The second half of the Scottish fold vid should be the story of Angela and Gloria with seriously feuding cats. Hope you find it helpful.

No. He is a cat.

Save yourself time, aggravation and disappointment. Don’t even try to change your cat’s personality. Just go with it. You might try a little catnip to lesson the tensions when things heart up. But you are stuck with a grumpy cat no matter what you do.

Punishment for negative behavior will only create more stress during those encounters, making everything worse.

There are some good hints available fro improving relations, but it’s also possible that they’ll never be besties.

Grumpy or just territorial.
Also check there diet requirements as they age.
Cats are territorial, your cat had ownership of this territory BEFORE the other cat and is displaying those behaviours.
Also two female cats will not get along well.
A male and female might as long as the males is open to accepting and the female takes the
suborinate role.
( in that she will not feed until he does and signals that it is Ok for her to eat).

I once took care of my neighbors adult cats one female and the other male.
The female was not allowed to eat UNTIL the male eats first !
Whatever is left over the female got.
Apparently that is the natual behavior of the Lions/Tigers/cats kingdom from the beginning.

( in this case I kept the male cat separated in another room while I fed the female all that she wanted to eat, since her owners were willing to let that poor starving female cat live out her life like that).