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I have three cats
Mephistopheles (Stoph)who is about 5 or 6 now. Feral kitten, rescued at about 10 or 12 weeks of age, male, neutered. Very calm, sweet temperment, but does like to play. He is all black and weighs 20 pounds.
Tatsu who is female, spayed, rescued after being hit by 3 cars, including mine. Feral female about 5 years old, okay with Stoph, but would rather be by herself. Friendly, likes to be petted, when she gets upset she likes to pee on my bathroom rug, even though litter box gets fresh litter daily. ABSOLUTELY HATES Chewy. When they are loose together, they fight constantly.
Chupacabra who is female, feral 4 week old kitten, rescued after 5 days with her siblings in a neighbors bush. Momma fell over my fence and was attacked. After we got momma a kits home, they were reunited, but I played constantly with Chewy since she was tiny. She is the smallest, maybe 7 pounds and short statured.
Problem…Chewy acts like a dominant dog. She eats all the cat food no matter how much I put down. She will eat the dog food also until it is gone, if she thinks the other cats are interested.
She constantly wants to be on my lap on the sofa and if her spot is occupied, by an object or by another animal, she will bite me or the other animal until her spot is free.
She will constantly pick fights with Tatsu, just because Tatsu is near her. I have to cage Tatsu in a Cat cage and lock Chewy in a bedroom during the day, to stop the fighting. In the evenings they are still fighting. Hissing, spitting, rolling around. No real injuries, but sometimes to the point of peeing on a rug..
Chewy is even dominant with the dogs and will bite the dachshunds tail and chase the larger dogs.
Anything I can do about this? I hate keeping them locked up, but I have been living with this for 6 months now. I am considering finding an adoptive home for Tatsu, where she can live without other pets or kids.
Any suggestions for those of you with multiple cat rescues?
Multiple cat households are extremely difficult to manage if you’ve got more than a couple.
Were I you I might go back to square one with the fighters and a do a gradual reintroduction (i.e. keeping them separated at first, feeding them with a door between them, etc) with the ones that fight.
It’s really just fluff reading, but you might get some ideas on this process from Dr Dodman’s book The Cat Who Cried For Help. Or find a behaviorist in your area who knows a thing or two about cats who can work closely with you.
Something else you can try is a pheromone called Feliway. You can get it in a spray or a plug-in diffuser and it’s available from your vet. The pheromone has a calming effect and it does work, although to varying degrees depending on the cat.
Good luck. Cats are difficult!
Are your cats neutered? They all seem to get along better if they are.
Rusti has the right idea. Re-intruduce them, and do it slowly. Cats all have their own personalities and will sometimes never get along.
I had four cats at one point (in a two bedroom appartment) the two females got along but, my boys and the females never did. The females had to stay in my room for nine months before I found them a home. I was talking to one of my friends who has a cat rescue and she told me it was because the males were neutered and the females were not.
I hope the re-interduction works for you. Good luck.
You put your finger on the spot when you said Chewy acts like a dominant dog. If I recall from her photos, she’s a tortie, right? For whatever reason, the tortie and calico tend to be rather high-strung personalities. But more to the point, cats are very territory-oriented. Some cats will not behave themselves around other cats, and this may progress to the point of one cat driving another away.
Chewy is showing some red flags behaviorally. First, if she isn’t spayed and she’s four months old or older, spay her NOW, don’t wait. Hormones kick in early in some cats and will make things even worse. Second, she’s way young to be challenging the established, older Tatsu: this is not a happy thing. It may mean that she’s got a powerful drive to be solo cat. Tatsu is reacting to Chewy’s aggression by defending her territory. It is possible that Chewy really thinks she is the replacement cat: she came in disadvantaged, got lots of attention (which is necessary to tame them down), and now has all the same treatment as the older cats. You may need to take steps to lower Chewy’s social rank. This is harder with cats than it is with dogs, and your best resource is a feline behavioralist. Sorry–I can talk dogs here but not cats, and the two species definitely have different wiring.
Some cats will stop once they’ve driven away their chief enemy. Other cats will progress to the next cat in the household, and so on until there are no other cats. They can really be unkind at times. 🙁
For now, separate them and find that behavioralist. Separating them will at least allow you to establish separate territories for the two. Don’t be surprised if they still continue to threaten at the boundary, and Chewy will undoubtedly be offended (but that’s better than open warfare). Good luck!
All of the Cats and Dogs are fixed. I rescue, therefore I spay and neuter.
I can keep them seperate. I just felt bad doing it. If that is okay psychologically for the cats, no problem. I can try the reintroduction thing. Unfortunately no behaviorists around here, but I can get a book or research the internet.
I am so used to dogs and basically have 10 minpins living in a pack, in harmony (for the most part).
Thanks everyone…and if you all think of anything else, let me know. My vet gave me Valium for poor Tatsu. The other night it was so bad I gave Chewy and Tatsu some. I thought about dosing myself also.
It was pretty peaceful after that 🙂 😈
Sometimes drug assisted reintroduction is necessary, but I’d certainly try it without first!
And it won’t bother them at all to be separated from one another (obviously). It’s difficult, but not impossible. You can do it. 🙂
You’ve gotten lots of good advice, so I’ll just add my 2¢, experience-wise.
I have 8 cats and for the most part, they get along. We have three food/water stations, three litter boxes and one pan without litter. (The smallest cat (Sambuca) refuses to use a regular box anymore. I think they cornered her in one when we weren’t around.) They are located in three separate rooms, which means more footwork, but they seem happy with the arrangement. 😆
We trained them to stay away from the bird cages with a squirt bottle and can now leave the living room open. That helped immensely, as it gave them more territory.
The first few months, I considered putting Sambuca up for adoption, because they constantly picked on her. Not only is she tiny, she only has one good eye and they sense her weakness. The dominant male and female still harass Sambuca a bit, but not nearly as much (after a year). They get the squirt bottle treatment if they bother her, but will still attempt it if they think no one is looking. 🙄
As Barrdwing said, some cats are meant to be “solo”. I have experienced this with two of my cats. I ended up taking both of them to a true no-kill shelter. (We had privately adopted out the female to a family friend…she not only cornered their cat, she cornered their golden retriever! Needless to say, they gave her back.) I had to pay to have them placed, but it was worth it. I didn’t want to see them put down, because they were wonderful when they were by themselves. I hated to give them up, but it was better for them in the long run. They were both adopted quickly and to homes where they were the only pet.
I hope the reintroduction is successful…lots of luck!
I guess I have been lucky so far since earlier this year we got a female kitten for our 2 year old male (that is fixed) so that he would have a play mate… the first day and night was restless since he hissed at her the whole time… at night when we were sleeping I had to kick him out of the room since he cornered her under the bed and was growling and batting at her… makeing the bed vibrate….
But the next day he was all lovey on her… big ol sour puss went soft for his new friend and they have been buddies ever since.
I hope that you find a way to get things better between your kitties! 🙂
I have 8 cats, all spayed or neutered, and I’ve never really had the kinds of issues you are having. So I really have nothing to offer. Except to agree with the reintroduction idea.
Good luck!
Kyrin
I’m sorry you are having trouble with your kitties. We took in 3 kittens who were only about 5 weeks old. My sister’s friend witnessed them being thrown out the back of a truck in a large cage. We already had 2 adult cats, but luckily they both took to them quite fast. The female had 2 litters of kittens before we got her spayed and she ended up “fostering” them I guess you could say.
We only had a problem with the male cat. He didn’t want anything to do with them and would swat and hiss at them whenever they came close to him. We kept them away from him until they were fixed and trained to go outdoors.
Once they all were outside…they were fine with each other! For some reason the male was only nasty with the kittens when they were in the house. So we just would bring them in at seperate times…when he was inside they went out and vice versa.
But it kinda sounds like chewy is trying to let everyone know (including you) that this is her house now. She is the new boss and everyone else must go.
Keep trying and good luck!!My most wanted list: Peacock kitty wizard, carnelian mouse wizard, copper patina frog wizard, autumn leaf poads, pumpkin spice kitties
When we brought home Merlin, Claire got really mad and grabbed him around the head and tried to rake his stomach open. He was so tiny. I saved him from her and then she was really mad at me. I wore glasses at the time, and she pulled them off me and bit my face. They fought like crazy, and she spend the first couple months of his being at our house walking around growling and trying to bite us.
We kept him in our bedroom and had a litter box and food dishes in there for him. They could see each other through the French doors, and would yell at each other, but couldn’t fight.
We forgot to shut Merlin up in the bedroom one time when we went away to an all-day wedding, but by the time we came back, the two of them were playing and seemed okay with each other. They still fight and hiss and snarl at each other on occassion, but I think the worst is worked out.
I don’t know if any of this will help you or not, but just have faith that it will get better in time.
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