Change in cat behaviour

ukoda

I have a 4 year old male cat, he was a neighbourhood stray that we took in about 3 years ago. He’s an indoor / outdoor cat and until recently was very much in a routine and quite affectionate. He’s become very distant now and stays out nearly 90% of the time.

I feel like it could be down to a few factors:
We were away for a week, our neighbour looked after him and would come to feed him / let him out at the usual times we would have done.
On the last few days of us being away he stopped coming back into the house (he has an “in only cat flap” so when we arrived home (in the middle of the night in the middle of a thunder and lightening storm) he was out, he was delighted to see us and came in and was very affectionate.

We started to notice the change tho, he would stay out a lot and was less affectionate, he would sleep in unusual areas so we checked him for fleas and the poor guy was riddled with them (I don’t know how as he was treated a few weeks prior with a spot on)

Anyway, we put his behaviour down to the fleas, but after a few days (all the fleas are gone) he’s still not quite back to himself, he’s a little affectionate at times, still won’t really sleep where he used to and still out of his routine, it has been very warm and he does stay out longer when the weather is good in general.

But I have to say I’m worried he’s just not himself anymore

Graces7

If he is even part-feral he will act differently from house cats. One expert maintains that ferals are a different breed
That after 2 generations the actual genetics change and they are wired to "feed and breed"
The cat I "lost" when I moved was semi -feral. He would sit on my pal, come in for food etc, be petted etc. When he first arrived he was clearly used to being fed.

But at heart still semi feral.

A law unto himself as your visitor is.

Just go along with him?

ukoda wrote: »

I have a 4 year old male cat, he was a neighbourhood stray that we took in about 3 years ago. He’s an indoor / outdoor cat and until recently was very much in a routine and quite affectionate. He’s become very distant now and stays out nearly 90% of the time.

I feel like it could be down to a few factors:
We were away for a week, our neighbour looked after him and would come to feed him / let him out at the usual times we would have done.
On the last few days of us being away he stopped coming back into the house (he has an “in only cat flap” so when we arrived home (in the middle of the night in the middle of a thunder and lightening storm) he was out, he was delighted to see us and came in and was very affectionate.

We started to notice the change tho, he would stay out a lot and was less affectionate, he would sleep in unusual areas so we checked him for fleas and the poor guy was riddled with them (I don’t know how as he was treated a few weeks prior with a spot on)

Anyway, we put his behaviour down to the fleas, but after a few days (all the fleas are gone) he’s still not quite back to himself, he’s a little affectionate at times, still won’t really sleep where he used to and still out of his routine, it has been very warm and he does stay out longer when the weather is good in general.

But I have to say I’m worried he’s just not himself anymore

Graces7

Assuming he IS neutered? If not then that explains everything , including the fleas! Poor lad is worn out

ukoda

He is neutered, we had that done when he first adopted us.

My concern is that his behaviour has been very stable and routine for years and this is the first change in his behaviour. He just doesn’t seem as happy anymore.

He has perked up a bit since the fleas left him, maybe I’m over reacting but he just isn’t himself lately.

ukoda

Graces7 wrote: »

If he is even part-feral he will act differently from house cats. One expert maintains that ferals are a different breed
That after 2 generations the actual genetics change and they are wired to "feed and breed"
The cat I "lost" when I moved was semi -feral. He would sit on my pal, come in for food etc, be petted etc. When he first arrived he was clearly used to being fed.

But at heart still semi feral.

A law unto himself as your visitor is.

Just go along with him?

Thanks, I have just kinda been leaving him too it and not trying to force anything.

I have a similar story to you, cat showed up in our back yard one night, he was extremely friendly and purring and rubbing off us and wanted to come in. We assumed he was a neighbours cat as he was so friendly and seem used to humans. We then found out that he didn’t belong to anyone, some neighbours had been feeding him outside and leaving blankets out on their porch for him to sleep. Because he was so “domesticated” we initially thought he was a pet that maybe got displaced and couldn’t get home, so we did go in search of any potential owners to no avail.

We decided to take him in then and took him to the vet who told us he was about a year old, wasn’t neutered and no chip.
So we got him all sorted (neutered, flea’d wormed, vaccinated, chipped etc) and he moved in with us.

He’s been pretty much an indoor cat since then, he would go out maybe for a few hours and come back, had a routine and seemed very happy.

Now he seems “fine” but distant and less estactic to see us. (He used to purr wildly and knead us) now it’s a little more subdued.

For the moment I’m putting it down to the fleas, which I believe can drive them mad.

But I am concerned he’s unhappy now and might be sick. A trip to the vet is on the cards if he doesn’t improve I think.

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ukoda

....... wrote: »

Our girl used to be an indoor/outdoor cat and occasionally her behaviour would change and she would refuse to come in or be crying to go out at odd times.

We always referred to these times as "Cat Wars". It usually meant there was another cat encroaching on her patch and she had to walk her territories and protect the realm.

It would go on for a couple of weeks until territory wars were settled. Sometimes she came home with a scratched up face or other injury.

If your boy is behaving strangely and has contracted fleas then I would wager he is in a similar territory struggle and perhaps has had a tussle with a flea bitten cat as part of it.

That’s a possibility, I did hear another cat screeching the other night outside, but our fellow didn’t seem bothered about it. (He didn’t wake up) He seems to mostly sleep outside and doesn’t look too bothered about doing anything about defending territory.
We have seen him fight with other cats before defending the yard, but I haven’t seen this lately.