Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Chessie and Casey have been together now for almost three weeks. Things are going pretty good so far. They're sharing their food, water, toys, and litterboxes. Last night, they were even laying together on the couch.

However, issues arise when they get to playing rough. It doesn't seem to matter where they are. When they go to start into it, they'll get into a wrestling match anywhere. While I know I can't stop all of their little scuffles, I would like to curb some of the places where they do it at like on the couch or bed. Also when they get to rough housing, they'll get to a point where Casey often will have clumps of Chessie's hair hanging out of his mouth (granted, Chessie does shed easily). Also, when wrestling, they lose all sense of where they are allowed to go, jumping up onto tables, countertops, etc. They also will run into whatever is in their way (table legs, doors, me). The other morning, they even wrestled through the feeder in the kitchen, scattering food everywhere.

I've tried putting Casey in time out in his kennel. But when that happens, Chessie then waits outside the door of the room the kennel is in and starts crying. I've also tried using the water bottle and a can of air, but that only seems to stop the rough play for a couple minutes. Granted, the wrestling matches have slowed some, but at times, it gets a bit difficult to deal with, especially when they do this at night and decide to chase each other up onto the bed with me. For the past week, I've only been putting Casey in the kennel when I'm not home since I don't trust them yet to be left home alone together.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to calm my two cats down to a more reasonable level? By themselves, they're both calm, and at times, they are calm and get along together. It's when they start rough housing and chasing each other all over that is causing an issue.
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Chessie in his favorite spot while I work in the kitchen.

Hi,

Everything that you have described is normal behavior among kittens and young cats. Wrestling and chasing is just something cats like to do and I personally would not try to change it. I love to watch my cats play even when they get a bit rough. So they run into things at times......it's not a big deal to me.

The only way to prevent this "aggressive" behavior is to keep the boys apart......which would be very difficult in an apartment.

Hopefully someone else will have advice for you.

Regards,
PHKitkat

Well, I understand that it's normal behavior, and I normally just let them go at it. It just becomes a problem when they're rolling around and slamming into things, running around like a herd of elephants at night running after each other (which my neighbors haven't complained about...yet), etc. The funny thing was last night after getting home from work, they were perfect little angels. It's almost like they know when I'm talking about them and stop what they were doing.

And like I said in my previous post, by themselves, they're perfectly calm and don't get into trouble. And, as you can see in my new signature picture, they can get along together. They just get into these outbursts, which I know will subside with time. I do know I'm not putting up a Christmas tree this year. With both of them still having a lot of kitten in them, I can only imagine what would happen.
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Chessie and Casey Jones relaxing together.

What you are describing is simply cats playing. That is what they do, of course they cry when they are apart. They want to play. They are getting along great and have become good friends. They will settle down some as they get older. Let them enjoy each other and don't put them in a time out for playing with each other. They are having a ball. I agree with Kit, I love to watch cats play with each other. They have such fun.
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Tessa Onyx, Foudini, Charlee, Spottie, ShyRaven, Buddy, Tuxie, Widdle Attila Sipowitz, Lizzie, Minnie, ET, Mylo, Penny (We be house cats at last), and Salem, Wicca and Marmalade (We iz also house cats, we guess)and the 5 porch kits also Riley da goggie and Buddha da baby hamster too
Tabitha and Samantha..always in our hearts
A house without cats is like a garden without flowers

So how do I deal with cases like last night when I was getting woken up every half hour by their running around after each other and even running into the bedroom and up onto the bed and onto me? For the past week, I've been letting Casey out of his kennel at night. Granted, there have been nights where things are relatively calm, but last night was a definite exception. I would spray them with a can of air, and they would stop the ruckus. I'd fall back to sleep after about 15 minutes, and then it wouldn't be long before they were back at it. I have enough trouble sleeping at night, having to take meletonin before bed.
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Chessie and Casey Jones relaxing together.

Shutting them out of your room at night is the only way to stop kittens from bothering you.
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Tessa Onyx, Foudini, Charlee, Spottie, ShyRaven, Buddy, Tuxie, Widdle Attila Sipowitz, Lizzie, Minnie, ET, Mylo, Penny (We be house cats at last), and Salem, Wicca and Marmalade (We iz also house cats, we guess)and the 5 porch kits also Riley da goggie and Buddha da baby hamster too
Tabitha and Samantha..always in our hearts
A house without cats is like a garden without flowers

Well, they both were a couple of angels all day yesterday and last night. Last evening, Casey was asleep in the recliner, and Chessie got up on it with him and began licking his face, something that normally would start a wrestling match. Instead, Casey woke up and started purring, obviously enjoying it. Then last night, Casey slept on the bed with me while Chessie slept on the jungle gym in the hallway. There was a little rough housing this morning, but nothing that I had to intervene with.
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Chessie and Casey Jones relaxing together.

Well, last night was not good. They wouldn't quiet down at all after I went to bed, slamming each other into walls and things with loud bangs. I've tried closing the door, but when they aren't wrestling and hitting the door, I have trouble sleeping since I get nervous about not hearing somebody breaking in (which somebody did three years ago). Granted, it's not every night that they make a ruckus. Last night, since they wouldn't quiet down, Casey did end up spending the night in the kennel, which is the first I've had to do that in a while. Granted, they did cry some for the first couple minutes but did settle down and let me sleep.
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Chessie and Casey Jones relaxing together.