Why does my cat “make love” to his toy?

: Why does my cat “make love” to his toy?
My cat is a 1 and a half year old neutered male cat.
Anyways, ever since we adopted him, he’s had this little stuffed toy cat. He carried it around everywhere he went, and he still does. But now that he’s older, he’s been “making love” to it. He’ll just carry it to the middle of the living room and start to do his thing. It’s funny and weird at the same time.

Why does he do this?

Answers and Views:

Answer by AlieNz
Because you’re cat is in a stage… My dog also was like that… But then he grew out of that stage and is now very calm

Answer by nickman
The same reason you make love to your hand…

Answer by Just Ducky
Tape it and put it on youtube, that sounds hilarious! Who knows it might go viral lol

As for why he does it… no idea! He shouldn’t have those urges anymore, he sounds like a strange little fella.

Answer by STEVEN
my cat did the same thing and there’s a thing called spaid what the vets do to stop it but you might be thinking of somthing different if the cats paws are going up and down then its not making love its trying to get milk out the toy because it thinks its real my little cat does it all the time and it purrs while its doing it but dont stop it nothing to worry about

Answer by Cupcake08
If he was neutered late in life (1 year or after), then he may have produced enough testosterone in that time that it’s just now a learned behavior. If not, there’s the slight possibility he could have a bit of testicular tissue left behind, or even more rare, a third testicle. According to the vet I work for, you can try to check his penis for barbs. This would indicate he is producing testosterone and his neuter may not have been complete. My male cat does this, and he was neutered at 7 months. I can’t quite bring myself to check his penis, despite my vet tech training, I just don’t have that kind of relationship with my cat. Basically, I was told, it’s not hurting anybody, it’s just one toy, so the rest of the house is safe, and we just deal with it and laugh at him!

Answer by I love my Belle!
Awwww……I wish my cat was smart enough to literally have a favorite stuffed cat to bring wherever it goes.She might have kittens someday so I still have a chance!

Answer by Ariane deR
Agree with the vet tech who answered, but it might happen even if the cat was neutered before 1 year old if it was puberty… it’s probably more likely if it’s later though. and even more likely if already sexually experienced.

Neutered cats are not really totally “neutral” . Although they have had the major source of testosterone removed, they do have a little bit of testosterone elsewhere in the body. And their brains were soaked in testosterone before birth — so they still have a male brain even if they have a lot less of male hormones than a mature intact tom. Apparently your cat has enough that he started to behave sexually with the toy as he got older… it may seem weird he is only starting now, but some male cats do not reach behavioural sexual maturity until about this age so maybe he is sort of on the schedule he would have been if not neutered… except he would have been much more aggressive and territorial,, spraying urine on everything, yowling, trying to escape to mate and fight for females and territory etc.

He probably really was neutered, but as the other answerer said, one sign that it was not done fully is tiny ‘barbs’ or ‘spines’ on his penis. Intact mature tomcats have those , but male cats who are neutered lose the penile spines as the testosterone level drops in the weeks after neutering.

One possibility, which is not very common, is if one or both of the testicles did not drop but stayed retained inside him (called cryptorchidism) and they never did the surgery to remove it/them. Cryptorchids still have barbs/spines on his penis. Here is a link to a photo of what those look like (and the page it’s from is actually about cryptorchids ) https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://www.pet-informed-veterinary-advice-online.com/images/penis-spines-cat.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.pet-informed-veterinary-advice-online.com/cryptorchidism.html&usg=__EX60R61AJ_eetXDSsOm3fQPtu5I=&h=150&w=150&sz=9&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=iIbAKgJu4TOq8M:&tbnh=120&tbnw=120&ei=20K7TcyRMtL2gAfFw-zFBQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcat%2Bpenile%2Bspines%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3MOZA_enUS347US347%26biw%3D1011%26bih%3D821%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=601&page=1&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0&tx=62&ty=55

But it’s more likely he really was neutered. There are definitely some male cats who were properly neutered, don’t have any penile spines, and still will “mate” with toys etc. I’ve got one of them — I adopted a cat who had been just neutered , he was about 1.5 – 2 yrs old and for years he seemed to be completely in denial about that little operation. First he would tread in place and purr loudly with a sort of blissful expression and a major erection, then proceed to humping a stuffed animal, and even ejaculated! I brought this up with the vet at his next check up and he said he really was neutered – he had no spines – and the fluid would not have any sperm.

Anyway, he had a long, torrid affair with his stuffed animal “girlfriend”. and we figured, oh well, just let him enjoy himself, as long as he does not get obsessed and start doing it constantly. He eventually stopped when he was almost 10.

Answer by Sebas-Chan
Its probably because he wants a girlfriend my girl cat was acting all werid when someone touched her tail or even close to it she would stick her butt into the air in the middle of the night she would go around the house with her loud meows and wake the whole house up, but ever since she mated she stopped doing all of these things. If not then maybe he just hit puberty XD