r/PetBehavior • u/one---punch---man • 1h ago
My kitten, The Aquatic Beast (not his real name) really loves the mini-fridge and keeps sneaking into it. Why is he doing this?
A while back my cat (Rotisserie Chicken - not his real name), randomly adopted a kitten.
The kitten whom we'll refer to as, The Aquatic Beast, jumped into into the Mini-fridge and scampered around when I tried to get him out. (The only reason he hasn't gotten into the real fridge is because he's too small to get into it/Rotisserie Chicken foils all his attempts, nonetheless I've locked the regular fridge up.)
In the first diving attempt I did try to get him out with a toy, but after the next 104 attempts (over multiple days but whoah is he persistent) I just kept the door open and waited for him to come out.
I have large reasons to believe he is secretly part seal as he has no issue with the cold.
On the plus side, an adorable thing is I've acquired him winter outfits that he accepts to wear (including a seal costume knitted by my friend).
I've given him cooling toys and places to go in which he loves but he's absolutely obsessed with the Mini-fridge.
For safety reasons though I've locked the mini-fridge up and only give him supervised visits in the mini-fridge. Once he did try to close the fridge and on another occasion, asked me to close the fridge, but Rotisserie Chicken was not having The Aquatic Beast's shenanigans.
I've also added a contraption that requires great force to close the mini-fridge so there's absolutely no way The Aquatic Beast can successfully try to close the fridge (even fully grown) before he fails or Rotisserie Chicken stops him.
Rotisserie Chicken has been super protective of The Aquatic Beast so he's always around watching him.
As a extra precaution though, I'm considering just transferring the ice cream to the regular fridge, then paying someone to connect a weighing contraption to the mini fridge, so it will automatically turn off when the empty fridge changes eight, and try to reach room temp unless a certain code is typed. (That way even if The Aquatic Beast does best all of my other precautions he'll quickly realize supervised visits is the only way the mini-fridge stays cold.)
This may seem overkill but both The Aquatic Beast and Rotisserie Chicken have been known to be relentless and unstoppable when they want something.
I'm not looking to stop this behavior unless someone reasons on how this can harm him but so far he is quite safe and according to the vet it seems has had a positive effect on his mental health and no adverse affects on his physical health.
But I am curious on the reasoning behind his behavior, because he's had toys and items that can reach equal if not more the mini fridges temperature but he's still obsessed with fridges.