Like humans, cats will have their personality traits that will be their identity and remain unchanged unless in certain circumstances. But a sudden change in your feline’s personality should not be taken for granted. Persistence change in the behavior should be considered as a red flag because a cat’s character reflects its physical and mental well-being.
Also, cats are very good at appearing well despite their illness, especially if the effects are little. Only after facing too much of discomfort, your cat will expose it by showing specific behavioral changes.
Hence, it is vital to pay keen attention to your cat every time you sense something fishy. Negligence might put you and your beloved pet in serious trouble. There are many reasons for the cat’s change in personality, among which aging and stress are at the top.
Again, there are myriad reasons that would distress a cat. Getting older will also pave the way for many physical and psychological ailments. It is vital to interpret the reason behind your cat’s change in behavior in the first place.
Out of many reasons behind a cat’s stress, a few common and severe reasons could not be ignored at any cost. All of that would require appropriate measures.
Few common reasons behind the stress of a cat:
Factor |
Reasons |
| Lack of attention and affection | If you fail to give your pet the time and love it requires, it will begin to feel lonely day by day, causing your cat to be cranky and promotes stress. |
| Environmental discomfort | Since cats are stunning sleepy heads, they expect their dwelling to be comfortable and constant. They will usually deposit their pheromones and mark their territories by kneading and scratching. So, denying their place or an inconvenience in the inhabitation is more likely to agitate them. |
| Health abnormalities | Even mere changes in a cat’s health condition, like constipation or indigestion, can also reflect as behavioral changes. |
| Being subjected to diseases | Severe diseases like heart diseases, hyperthyroidism, leukemia, and so on will affect your cat’s behavior. |
| An infestation of microbes | Felines are most likely to be affected by fleas and microbes, causing them to stomach upset and other prominent signs, including behavioral changes. |
Now that we are aware of the personality changes, let us develop our conscience regarding the possible personality changes and what they mean.
Few common personality changes in cats and their meaning along with the required measures:
Personality changes |
What do they mean? |
What can be done about it? |
| Abnormal grooming | Cats usually invest a considerable amount of time in grooming and keeping themselves clean and attractive. When you find that your cat is grooming itself excessively than ever, it might be because your kitty is psychically disturbed, and since grooming would release endorphin hormone, your cat feels soothed while doing that. On the contrary, any trouble with the skin coat will inhibit the cat’s grooming and make it untidy. | Get your cat’s skin examined by a veterinarian and provide proper care. |
| Too noisy to handle | The abnormal vocalizations of cats are usually for attention-seeking, a warning sign for foes, or an indication of physical pains and illness. | As the reasons are diverse, it is suggested to pay a veterinarian visit to ascertain the root cause of this change. |
| Improper toileting | When your cat starts to ignore the litter box and urinate and defecate in inappropriate places, then it is a clear sign that it needs your attention. Because this sign indicates many reasons, including your cat’s abdominal troubles, mind upsets like stress, or it might also mean that the litter box requires a proper clean. | It would help if you first ruled out the primary reasons like litter box cleaning and psychological issues. You can also see a Toilet Training Kit from CityKitty, which can help in the training process. As per the reviews, they do well and assists in training the cats without much effort. If you still find your kitten repeating this habit, it might be any abdominal troubles that may or may not be severe but still require a veterinarian opinion. |
| Altered sleep patterns | It is a well-known thing that cats are great dozers. But being a pet parent, you would be familiar with your beloved pets’ sleeping pattern. If you find that your kitty is either sleeping too much or too little, you are supposed to pay proper attention to interpret its sleeping pattern to assume at least. Because altered sleeping patterns can indicate that your pet is feeling lonely and trying to disconnect itself from society, or it is too weak to be active, and so on. | The first step in handling this symptom is spending more time than usual with your pet to find mentally okay. Then you must improvise its diet by adding more nutrition. If the trouble persists, better visit your vet. |
| Food habits | It is a prominent sign of many psychological and physiological illnesses and requires appropriate measures. | It is better to consult a veterinarian to arrive at a proper Conclusion and treatment as it is not a minor sign. |
If you come to know that your cat is having the signs of stress, then remember that your attention, time, and love towards has to be multiplied. By improving your cat’s psychological wellness, you can strengthen your kitty physically as psychological well-being tends to release hormones that would enhance the cellular activity and thus improve the bodily functions. Though it might appear to be a slow progression, overall health is possible when the care is concentrated at the psychological level rather than just with drugs at the physiological level.
As similar to the effects of stress and the process of aging, it will impact the personality of your feline. Because once the cat begins to get older, indeed, around the age of 9, their stamina level will tend to fall lower than usual, and this is quite normal. But in some instances, you either tend to note noticeable behavioral changes, indicating abnormalities or the expected behavioral changes itself might be irritable. Providing proper care and concern to your cat can pull you out of these situations.
The possible personality changes in older cats:
Personality changes are associated with aging. |
What are the possible reasons behind them? |
Required steps to handle these changes |
| Memory problems | Just like elder humans, the aging process will affect the memory of the cats too. It will result in forgetting usual routines like a food bowl, litter, or even its sleeping place to some extent. You may notice that your kitty forgets a few of its exclusive habits too. | Try reeducating the habits and help your cat throughout the process. You can also check with your vet if your cat is undergoing any other illness reflected as psychological abnormalities. |
| Aggressions | Specific pains and inabilities will usually agitate the cats. Any lack of ability will affect the cats, reflecting as behavioral changes like louder noises, agitated activities, and so on. | Teaching your cat to be quiet and calm by rewarding it with anything it likes for every time he obeys your command and stays quite will be helpful. You can also provide your kitty with puzzle toys to divert and calm its mind. |
| Constantly tired | It is primarily due to a lack of strength due to aging. Secondarily, aging will cause bodily ailments like or brightest hypertension, diabetes, and many more, which will make your cat lazier. As the cat gets old, its bones will become brittle, and the functions of its organ will become reduced, making it more susceptible to diseases, as mentioned above. | Laziness in elderly cats is not always associated with aging alone. Sometimes it might be due to severe physical illness that requires proper medical advice and treatments, so it is suggested that abnormal laziness in your cat has to be taken to the knowledge of the veterinarian to provide appropriate treatment. |
| Appetite changes | Both physical and psychological abnormalities can affect your cat’s appetite as the digestion ability will be influenced in both cases. It is often tough to differentiate between these two, but in most cases, this might result in medical emergencies. | Suppose you feel that your cat has an increased appetite or a loss of appetite, and none of your conservative remedies are useful. In that case, it is essential to visit your veterinarian. |
| Physiological challenges | The cat gets aged; it is more likely to be subjected to diabetes, hyperthyroidism, etc. It might either result because of the general low health profile or genetic reasons or without any evident reasons. | Most of the physiological changes are life-threatening, and any delay in treatment will refract in the lifespan of your cat. So, it is essential to provide your pet with the proper medical treatment when it shows signs and symptoms that are abnormal respective of age. |
Apart from the signs mentioned above, there are still many personality changes associated with a cat. Knowing if it is harmless or not requires distilled wisdom about cats’ health, which can only be gained after long years of cat parenting or an in-depth study about the same, and it is quite impractical for many. Instead of hovering around assumptions, whenever there is any change in your cat’s personality, better try to inspect between two primary choices that are the stress and aging, and rule out negligible causes in the first place. Minor changes in your cat and your lifestyle, like spending more time with your pet and concentrating on your pet’s diet, can help a great deal.
Few other conditions will cause personality changes in cats. It includes pregnancy and adolescent age. In both these cases, it is the hormones’ work, so we don’t have much control over it, but you can still make your pet listen to your words by following the “do it and get the reward” method. Providing special and gentle care itself will be enough in these scenarios. You can also provide your “mom to be” cat with nutritious food and prescribed supplements by your vet.
Behavior change is often taken for granted by a few pet parents, which is a wrong decision. Even minor changes might have its root in a severe and lethal illness, so having a keen observation of your pet all the time will help you differentiate the normal and abnormal behavior of it, and you can take necessary measures in the latter case.
In order to take appropriate measures, you must have a rough idea about what your cat is going through, or at least you should be able to describe in brief about the changes in your cat’s personality to the vet so that he can interpret it better. This way, you can handle the character changes better and prevent the loss of your cat.
