# "Overstimulation"?



## LestatTheCat (Sep 1, 2012)

My kitten has just turned 4 months. He's healthy and happy. He plays a lot - after dinner around 6 he starts playing and doesn't stop until 7:30 or 8.

We throw things across the room and he chases it and brings it back. You know, usual fun games. The only thing I worry about is that there's a point where he starts to freak out a little. He randomly darts back and forth across the room, up the backs of chairs - and he jumps if you try to touch him. He then darts back into the bedroom and hides under the bed skirt. Sometimes he does that creepy sideways run - but he gets very very jumpy and doesn't want to be touched and runs super fast around the room just freaking out.

That's what I worry about. I've heard Jackson Galaxy talk about "overstimulation" - and I wonder if this is that? 

I'm worried that one day if he's playing and gets scared he will associate the two. The scared and jumpy state only lasts for 5 minutes in the middle of an hour long play session.

Anyone have any experience with this or ideas on how to help him? Or is this just normal kitten behavior?


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## nicichan (Jul 6, 2012)

I was looking after someone else's kitten for a bit earlier this year and she did the same thing all the time when playing. I think it's normal, but I don't have a lot of experience with kittens. My own cat is 2 years old though and also does this occassionally when she gets overexcited when playing.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

I call that the 'Boodgekitties!' My 8 year old gets like this ALL the time, he has since I adopted him @ 3 or 4 years old.


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

Yep, my crazy one is 3 and she still does weird stuff like that. It's what being a cat is all about. Your cat's just playing.


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## OctoberinMaine (Sep 12, 2006)

Murphy does the same thing and he's 6! Lots of sudden darting around, up and down off furniture, up and down stairs, for no particular reason. My husband just says, "Guess he had somewhere he had to be."


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

All four of my youngsters can do this - although Oz and Baz are by far the worst!


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## SirBenedictOfKelso (Aug 29, 2012)

My middle kitty gets so excited she climbs the doorways. It drives my partner nuts but I don't think anything we'd do would change it. They all have a crazy cat hour at around the same time as yours but there's always one loony in the bunch.


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## minikin44 (Aug 25, 2012)

Two of my three kitties have these little spaz fits... I just shake my head and laugh. One also does the sideways walk you're talking about haha


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## LestatTheCat (Sep 1, 2012)

what a relief! this is great to hear! Thanks for all the great replies!

he's so fascinating to watch and it does look like he's having fun!! so I'm glad it's normal. He's such an acrobat - he uses the back of the couch as a springboard to bounce off of and land on the chair! 

The sideways walk scared me at first! It was nighttime and I see this big puffy fuzz ball literally galloping at me sideways!! All his hair stands on end, too!

I feed him, and then he plays but everything I've read says I should play with him and then feed him so I'll start switching it around. Sometimes if I go get something to drink at night, he comes to the fridge and does manipulative little meows so I give him a little bit of his wet food - but I don't feed him dry food, let alone free feed.


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

It sounds like pretty normal "crazy time" to me. 

But if you notice rippling of the skin on his back he may have _hyperesthesia syndrome_, which can be serious with some cats.

Read this website info: Feline Hyperesthesia

Cats with FHS on youtube:


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## lausa (Sep 23, 2012)

Yep, that's totally normal! My 5.5month old kitten always does it!
He'll have his dinner, then for the next 2 hours he'll be crazy, running everywhere, climbing up everything, he'll run away from you if you go to touch him.
His tail gets extremely fluffy when he's like this! I just think he gets excited haha


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