My Weird Cat. Continued.

[PavlovtheForgetfulCat]

I have posted before about this. She is an odd cat that has some kind of emotional problem. She is a tortie which apparantly indicates an inclination to be 'fussy' with affection, but she is driving me to distraction and i really need some help and guidance before i throttle her go mad.

She normally does this obsessive gentle nuzzling...she creeps over to you, slinking along like she knows it is unwanted, then gently but annoying starts to lick and nuzzle, if i leave her she will get more and more manic like she has a drug habit or something that needs fulfilling.

She slinks up and puts her paw out gradually, further and further towards my face, and if i do not stop her she will rest her paw on my lips.

She slinks up to me and sniffs my breath. She does this especially at 5am in the morning when I am asleep and it freaks the hell out of me. She does it so quietly and gently is is sooooo eerie.

If I push her away, she comes back again instantly before I have even moved my hand back, if I throw her off the bed she returns, I remove her she returns. If I move her paw, she puts it back, remove it, buts it back.

But, the most recent thing she has started doing is licking things. she was sat today at the kitchen table on a chair, and started licking the edge of the table which is wood. It was not a 'mmm this tastes nice, bit of leftover toddler food' (it was clean), it was an 'urge' and she was blissed out doing it. I mean WTF

The breath thing though is the worst. She really bothers me to the point I now shut both the cats out of the bedroom at night. They are shut in the kitchen with food water and access to their catflap and she meows ALL night.

If I give her a fuss, she takes this as a sign to nuzzle and lick.

Please advise on how to manage this.

weird.

one of ours does this at night. likes to lie on my face, dribbling.

Has she been at the cat nip?

Eeeeeew! Thats gross!

cornsilk - its not quite as obsessive as in constantly manic, its more like a creepy obsessive if that makes sense, its so hard to describe. She is really clingy.

Catnip does not actually do much for her, it sends her brother absolutely bonkers and is hilarious, but she is not funny with this creepiness about her, it really is like she is not interested in a fuss, but fulfilling some inner need.

She seems to sniff everything really gently like she is afraid of it.

And she runs into DDs bedroom at night when I put DD to bed and runs under her bed, then meows, and will not come out. We have to physically drag her out! And if we do shut the door immediately she is in their before we even turn back around. And she waits by DDs bedroom if she wakes up at all for anything and as soon as the door opens to go in there she is under the bed meowing. Its not that she wants to be in there, as the door is open all day and she is not interested, only when DD goes to bed.

It is weird. It also sounds like you maybe need to be tougher than you are. She's doing something you don't like and you are the boss - shut her out of the room, shout "NO!" at her, put her down on the floor firmly, whatever it takes. And just keep doing it - she WILL eventually get the message. If there's ever a time she's just sitting quietly on your lap without the weird stuff, give her lots of attention then.

Re the licking - some sort of vitamin deficiency? Although quite what she's getting out of some wood is beyond me.

mine are exactly the same pavlov- I now have to treat them like they aren't there half the time.

We are really really firm, we say No firmly, we push her off, we do not let her do it as it is highly irritating. We have to be so strict with her even DD says 'NO MEGGIE' at her . We push her off, she creeps back, we push her off, she creeps back, we push her off she creeps back then I get frustrated and sometimes I just shoo her out the house and slam the door in frustration .

At 5am the other morning she sneaked onto my back, sniffed my breath, I pushed her off sooooooo many times saying 'No Meggie, go away' before finally locking her out (well kitchen with food and cat flap). She is 4 and has not got the message so far, in fact it is getting worse.

Someone said it might be as I am pregnant, she might be able to smell it? But I just do not know what to do about it. The other cat is not like it one little bit.

She is rarely sitting quietly on our laps not doing it these days. The other day she sat on DHs lap, head held in that beautiful regal pose she does, paws stretched and crossed and she was gorgeous, DH fussed her loads told her thats how we love her. But its rare that elegent cat we used to have. Now she is just an odd ball!

DID - I feel bad though, the other cat comes up for lovely fusses. he does face rubs, but they are proper all loved up face rubs with purrs and tail swishing. Meg just creeps up to do it, like she is hoping we don't see her. And then I worry that I am fussing him and not her.

Oh blimey, I dunno then. It could well be the pregnancy thing - my old cat stuck to me like glue for the duration of my last pregnancy. I was the cat equivalent of crack cocaine for a while.

it could be that she's really sensitive to your body changes at the moment.

I'm not preg, but my girl cat is much more sensitive to hormonal changes than my boy.

She is 4/5, can;t remember its gone so fast. She has always been kneady and nuzzly, but not this bad and she used to be cuter with it, a good fuss followed by an armpit nuzzle with some loud purring then settling down for a snooze. Now she does not bother with the snooze. I don;t remember her being like this when I was pg with DD, but it has certainly got worse since I was pg, although it might have started getting worse before that, possibly so it might just be more noticeable as I am getting more pg?

She is like it with DH too, but i go to bed earlier than he does and I am spending a lot of time in bed as I have been rather poorly so she is there on the bed pawing me constantly, so it could be that she is like it more with me, or just that I am more easily available, as if it is DH in bed, she will be like it with him too. Mornings when we are both in bed, definitely me.

It could well be a change of behaviour due to pregnancy - cats react in a variety of different ways - my two start getting on (!) and become much more loving. A friend of mine had to rehome her cats because they became insanely jealous and started spraying everywhere when she got into the third trimester.

There is one thing you could try - a capsule called Zylkene that you open up and sprinkle on her food every day. It is formulated to mimic mothers milk and reawaken those feelings of contentments and security that a cat would have had as a kitten. I've seen some dramatic results with my two, and with lots of friends with Siamese cats.

It is well worth a try I think

Article on it here and it is usually best value from here

Cats (especially females) are definitely tuned in to hormone changes and some go utterly nuts when owners are pregnant so could well be that.
She may be a bit of an oddball, but her oddities are V exaggerated by your pregnancy?

Jools - I am going to try that, thank you! The thing is, I know she was prone to a little of this anyway as she was removed from her mother too soon and I know the nuzzling is a part of that early separation (living in bad conditions, so we had to rescue her and her brother) so maybe me being pregnant is making that worse? That seeking of milk perhaps? I am going to buy some and see how it works! Poor thing if she is craving milk!

I wonder if my vets can prescribe it?