16 Cat Quirks That No One Warns You About Before Becoming a Pawrent

Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor

Jul 2, 2026 5:30 PM EDT

Taking on the care and development of a feline child is no small feat. If you adopt a kitten you are in for more than a decade of cat chaos and shenanigans. So we figured that you prospective cat pawrents might be interested to hear what veteran pawrents wish they had known about the various quirks of their cat children.

The unknown of bringing another soul into your family is a difficult thing to deal with. As much as we might try our best to visualise and imagine all sorts of different scenarios that might happen with our future cat child, the truth is that nothing can fully prepaw you. And that is because cats are mystical creatures that follow a very loose set of rules. They refer to things such as limiting pets on the head as it can be considered offensive for a feline of their stature to be touched on the head by mere peasants like us (this applies to all body parts really). The rules also dictate that no cat should ever take a downgrade in their nutrition and that pawrents who cheap out should be made to buy 40 packs of cheap food that will never be eaten. But beyond the vaguely written rules there are also several curious quirks that our cat children come with. Some are individual to them while others are a little more universal.

And thanks to the kind pawrents from Reddit's r/AskReddit subreddit, we have a fine collection of strange and annoying feline behaviors that no pawrent is warned about before taking the plunge and bringing home a cute cat child. So consider yourself somewhat warned and prepawed, but always remain vigilant, you never know how a feline fur baby will decide to surprise you next. Good luck out there cat lovers.

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This is such a common misconception amongst new pawrents and this particular pawrent has most certainly set the record straight here. So many people think that a cat is easy to handle, and while it is true that they spend a lot of time doing their own thing, and that they do not necessarily want to be loved on all too much. It is also true that you as their pawrent will likely spend a lot of time running after the messes they leave behind while independently causing chaos. At least they do not force you to wreck your house along with them.
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Yup, this is a very very real thing, and yes it is incredibly problematic. First of all this trait is not universal to all cats, so it might just be that your cat child wants to eat your arm. Second, even with a fur baby who does give love bites, the biting can change from loving to eating in the blink of an eye. Third of all, you as a pawrent will never quite know which kind of bite is coming your way, but being the hopeless feline romantics we are, we will always hang around to be bitten on the off chance it happens out of love.
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