Free quiz
Why is my cat doing this?
Hiding, yowling, spraying, overgrooming — the same behaviours come from very different causes, and the fix for one makes another worse. Six questions sorts which pattern yours most resembles.
About a minute. Your result shows immediately, free. Three of the six results don't recommend buying anything at all — including the one that sends you to a vet, where the next steps stay free too.
What to do next
The specific steps for this result are just below — add your name and email and they'll appear on this page.
What you told us
Get the specific changes to make
The exact things to change for the pattern you landed on, plus the short email series that walks through them — and a printable page of your answers you can take to a vet. If your result is the medical one, the steps are already on screen and always will be.
Ready to print
Your answers and your plan on one page, with today's date.
Why the same behaviour has different answers
Almost every piece of cat behaviour advice online is written as though the behaviour is the problem. Cat spraying? Here are nine tips for spraying. But spraying from a cat who can see a strange cat through the patio door needs something completely different from spraying by one of three cats sharing two litter trays, and both need something different again from spraying that started the week a urinary infection did.
That's why tip lists so often fail. Not because the tips are wrong, but because they're answers to a question nobody established. The useful first step is narrowing down which kind of problem you've actually got.
The one that matters most
If your cat is straining in the litter box, crying while trying to urinate, or producing little or no urine, stop reading and phone a vet. In male cats that can be a urethral blockage — the most time-critical emergency in cat medicine, fatal in roughly 24 to 48 hours and entirely treatable before then. It is also commonly mistaken for a behaviour problem, because what the owner sees is a cat going to the tray repeatedly and not using it.
A cat who hasn't eaten for 24 hours is the other one. Cats develop liver problems from short fasts far more readily than dogs or people do, and "he's just being fussy" is how several days go by.
What this quiz is for
Sorting. It takes what you've noticed and tells you which of five patterns it most resembles — separation-related stress, territory and resources, routine and environment, normal settling, or something medical. From there you know what to try, what to read, and whether a structured programme is the right purchase or a waste of twenty-nine dollars.
Related reading
Common questions
Is this a diagnosis?
No. It sorts what you've described into the pattern it most resembles, based on your own answers — which is useful for deciding what to try next, and is not the same as knowing what's happening with your particular cat. Anything that could have a physical cause belongs with a vet, and the quiz will tell you so rather than selling you a behaviour plan.
Will it just tell me to buy something?
Two of the six possible results recommend nothing at all. If your answers suggest a medical cause, you get sent to a vet. If you've got a kitten or a cat who's been home a few weeks, you get told that what you're describing is normal settling and to wait rather than spend. We'd rather you trusted the result than bought on the back of a rigged one.
How long does it take?
Six questions, about a minute. You see your result immediately and without giving an email address.
Why do you ask for my email at the end then?
Your result — which pattern your cat's behaviour fits and what that means — is free and on screen before we ask you anything. The email buys the specific list of changes to make for that pattern, plus a printable page of your answers. One exception, and it's deliberate: if your result is the medical one, the steps are shown free and always will be. Putting "phone a vet today" behind an email form would be indefensible.
My cat has more than one of these problems.
That's the common case, and the quiz will say so when two results fit you equally. Cat behaviour usually has a few contributing causes rather than one. Start with whichever result you got, since it's where your answers weighted most heavily, and read the runner-up too.