My Wierd cat

Question
Hi there!

I have a 1year old male bengal main coon mix cat. He has not been desexed, he has not been de clawed and nothing areound our house has changed, although he is presenting us with abnormal behaviour on some occasions.
he loves water and anything that has to do with  water, in the bath tub with no water in it he constantly scratches with his paws up and down on the bathtub. What does this mean?
He also walks around meowing all day long!He also hates my boyfriend. is it because he too is a boy? Thankyou for taking the time to read and answer my questions.

Helen

Answer
Hello Helen, and Mr. Hormones (your kitty)!

I would say that first-and-foremost, most of the behaviour you're describing is hormone-driven.  If you got him desexed, that would solve a lot of things, including him meowing a lot and him not liking your boyfriend.  (You're right about it being a hormone thing...to him your boyfriend could very well be viewed as competition.)

You'd really be happy with him being neutered...it's a very simple, quite painless procedure, and most males become SO lovey-dovey afterward!  :o)  It only takes about two weeks for their hormones to leave their system, too!

As far as the digging in the bathtub, it might be hormonal, but I've also had plenty of desexed cats that enjoyed that particular activity, and haven't quite been able to tell why, but it is actually more common than you think.  What I've been able to deduce is that kitties like the feel of the porcelin (sp?) on their paws, and for some reason feel the compulsion to then "dig" in it.  Hehe...

Now, if he starts to use your tub as a litterbox, I would take him in because it could be a sign of a health problem.  But as long as he's just digging away, there's absolutely no problem.  It might be something that changes with him being neutered, but it depends on the kitty, really.  That could go either way.

So, there ya go!  Your boy is acting mostly out of hormones, which is quite simple (and can be quite inexpensive if you call around to various shelters and Animal Control for more inexpensive places) to handle.

Let me know how things turn out, okay?

Hugs to you both (and your boyfriend, poor guy probably didn't realize he was competition to the cat...hehe)!!

Rosie*