Do cats get more rambunctious as they get older?

My fiancee and I moved in together. In the move, she brought her lovely two cats: Max (eight) and Batman (four). When Max moved in, he was calm and just relaxed all the time. Batman was the rambunctious one that always caused mayhem.

Nearly a year later, the two have switched personalities. Max has begun to terrorize Batman, he scratches the sofa and he even bit my fiancee for the first time ever. Batman cuddles, tries to love Max and is quiet all day long.

Question: do cats become chaotic with age?

I have never had this experience. I have always had rambunctious kittens when they were young, but as they aged they always liked to run away and hide under the bed. I rarely saw most of my cats after they hit the age of 2. Maybe Max is jealous for some reason? Have you changed types of cat foods lately?

I can't say that I've had that experience. My calico is 16 years old. For at least 14 of those years she was a very quiet and timid cat. She never really meowed at all. The last couple of years, the girl has found her voice. And that voice is loud and strident and demanding.

It's a bit funny, except on those mornings when she's eaten everything that was put out for her the night before and has decided it's time for the humans to get up and wait on her majesty.

But that's the only difference I've seen in her with aging. Otherwise, she's a couch potato. She doesn't move unless it's to eat, use the litter box, or otherwise engage in some activity that revolves around her wants and needs.

I actually had to Google what "rambunctious" means. Fail, me. Fail.

Anyway, I don't entirely think that's the case? My cat seems to grow more timid and... well, nonchalant as the months go by. It's not that she's sick or anything... I think it's because she's growing fat and lazy, haha, but that's just my take on it.

Humph. I wonder what the issue is then since no one has had this problem. The cats' food has never changed and has remained the same since they were both kittens, according to my fiancee. Max even bit my leg the other day when I tried to stop a fight between him and Batman. I ignored him for a day and he was really sorry. Since then, he has been good, but maybe he's just getting his cat-like menopause? Also, he has nothing to be jealous of because they both get the same amount of love, attention and affection.

Thanks all for your responses.

To Rphoenix: Trust me, it happens to me too when I'm absolutely tired.

Not in my experience. Tabitha is 13 and has lost most of her desire to play. Phoebe is a two year old Bengal who wants to do nothing but play. However, people have told us that Bengals never lose their playfulness. This will get interesting when are darling Phoebe is 16 years old and still zips around the apartment. Of course, I will be nearly 70 by then.

That's odd. I've always had the opposite experience; my cats have always been full of energy and spunky as kittens but the older they've gotten the more mellow and generally lazy they've gotten. Perhaps the change in your cats has nothing to do with their ages but other factors; the new living situation, change in diet, or perhaps that was their real personality all along and it took moving to a new place for it to come out.

I need to mention that there were other factors in Tabitha losing her desire to be playful. She got depressed when we moved from Colorado to Key West, Florida because our new apartment has tile floors and with one exception, lousy window views. Then she developed kidney disease, and her teeth got so bad that she had trouble eating.

As I said before, her previous owners were trash. They neglected and abused her. So now, we are trying to do what we can to make up for the first eight years of Tabitha's life. First, we had her bad teeth removed. Now, we give her fluid infusions three times a week, and have her on kidney food only. We also give her Thyroid medicine every day.

For her depression, we started giving her and Phoebe pet stroller rides at night. We take them on rides at least three times a week and they love it. Since we started this, Tabitha shows no sign of depression. The only real drawback was that the two strollers were about $100 each, but it is well worth it to us and to our darlings.

From my personal experience, the older the cat gets, the more reserved it becomes. Some old cats will just sit up there on top of the cupboard and watch the world go by, so to say. It's usually the younger ones that demand more attention.

I don't think it's an age thing. They do seem to go through personality cycles, though. They tend to calm down with age in general, but then they'll have phases where they're really spunky or kitten-like. It sounds like maybe that's what's going on with your cat right now. Give it a year or two and the other may do it, too.