TL;DR at the bottom. About a year ago, a cat constantly tried to get into my apartment, and she came asking for food every day. Then she got pregnant, I let her in, and I took care of her and her kittens until they grew up enough to be given away. She liked being inside so I made her my pet, and had her vaccinated and spayed. There was one kitten that nobody wanted, so I made him my pet as well.
Shortly after she stopped her mom role, she became more aggressive (even lashing out and attacking the kitten sometimes), although I think this is just her true personality as a non-mom. She's not feral though; she's absolutely not afraid of human interaction, and sometimes she's very sweet. I also took her to the vet numerous times and she was fine. I let her watch the birds from the balcony and 90% of the time she just stayed there. However, every other week she had some kind of itch to escape, and every time it was a pain in the ass to bring her back. Her escapades got less frequent after a while, so I thought she finally got used to being an indoor cat. Recently, I moved across states and took the cats with me. The first few weeks were a nightmare as she got used to the new apartment, but time, catnip and Feliway helped a bit. She was driving me crazy scratching the windows every single night until about 2 weeks ago. Then she was back to normal.
Today, suddenly, she got the escape itch again. I brought her back and she started scratching all the windows/curtains, and attacking or hissing at anyone who got near her (including the kitten). During the evening the kitten was bored and wanted to go to the balcony. I let him out and the mom took the opportunity to escape yet again. Except this time when I try to pick her up, she growls at me, scratches me and tries to bite me. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't even know where she is and I want to cry. After so much love and sacrifice, it feels like she doesn't want to be my pet. I'd be lying if I said it surprised me to see her treat me like I'm some kind of predator out to get her.
The kitten behaves just like a normal household kitten. Only problem I have with him is that he insists on being nocturnal, and I live in a studio now (it's very spacious, but I hear every noise). I've tried just about everything I can possibly do based on advice from the internet and vets:
- Try to play with him a lot during the day to tire him out (but when he wants to sleep he just ignores me...). I've seriously wasted hours of my day trying this and nothing changes.
- Give him meaty food before sleep time so a good meal makes him sleepy (doesn't work AT ALL).
- Change feeding schedule
- Give him toys, scratching posts and places to hide. My studio looks like a cat daycare and it's still not enough for him.
TL;DR my two cats are affecting my sleep and productivity. Mom cat: aggressively tries to escape, throws a tantrum when I bring her back, now she escaped again and won't even let me pick her up. Kitten: refuses to stop being nocturnal.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/ojxwdn/i_own_two_cats_mom_and_her_kitten_they_but/
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