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fallen2grace · Oct 27, 2009, 09:03 PM

Hello!
I posted a question here a few months ago about my two cats fighting.

We have two in-door cats, one we have had for many years now, and the other one we got a year ago as a 6 week old kitten. The older was fixed when we first got him, but the younger one was fixed about two or three months ago. Before he was fixed he started attacking the older cat. We had to separate them. When the younger was fixed he seemed fine around our other cat, but the older one didn't like him.

Now the younger cat is back to attacking the older cat. The older stays in another room the whole day until we shut the other one up in the bathroom for the night.

Is there a reason why the two don't like each other?

I hope I didn't confuse anyone. :|

morgaine300 · Oct 27, 2009, 09:53 PM

If the older one doesn't like the younger one, the younger one is probably sensing this and sort of trying a "preemptive strike" to establish himself. He might seriously just be getting aggressive as a sort of getting-him-back kind of thing, or may just be putting out feelers as to what he can get away with.

I don't find anything unusual about it.

One question is whether anyone is seriously getting hurt. (What does "attacking" mean?) I think I may remember your post and my advice would be the same, which is letting them work it out for themselves. Keeping them apart is preventing them from working it out, which I personally think is something they need to do.

There's conditions though. First, if you do not trust them at this point in time, I think keeping them separated while you are gone or at night when you're asleep is probably a good idea. If they like to sleep with you, you might try either alternating who gets to be available to you, or simply separating them elsewhere in the house and not letting either have access to you. If one gets shut away from you all the time, they may develop a worse jealousy of the other having access. Is the older one perhaps getting upset over getting shut away all the time?

Also, you do have to intervene if one is seriously getting hurt. I don't mean you just see some swatting going on or something. I mean if there's a serious issue going on.

They may never totally get along. I had a cat once who simply would not get along with any other cats, and would hiss, scream, swat, whatever any other cat near her, and she would do this if they'd been together for years. I had one who would be more assertive and adventurous and actually try to provoke her. I just figured if he wanted to be that stupid, let him get scratched. But none of them ever seriously got hurt.

Cats just are what they are. Sometimes it's really obvious what's going on. Sometimes it is not. Some cats don't like any other cats. Sometimes two particular cats just don't like each other. There may have been a change when the younger got fixed that the older sensed - something maybe you can't sense yourself.

I think you are trying too hard to find reasons for things, as though cats are just automatically going to get along if they live with each other long enough. I think they would be better off if allowed to work this out for themselves.

fallen2grace · Oct 28, 2009, 06:24 PM

The older one had no problem with him when we first got him. It wasn't until he was about 6 months old that the younger cat started attacking the older one. And by attacking I mean, the younger one jumping and clawing at the older one to the point that the older cat would loose fur. It was really hard to get them to stop.

Oh. Both are males, I probably should have said that. Anyway, when the younger got fixed he didn't seem to care about the other cat anymore. But the older one I think still though he would attack.

No, he doesn't mind being shut away, as long as he can be out at night.

Thanks for your advice. =)

morgaine300 · Oct 28, 2009, 11:34 PM

I see my cats lose a little fur occasionally. I'm not sure at one point we call that a problem.

You might try a thing called Feliway. I have an issue going on here that has gotten me to the point of trying it, but I haven't yet. My vet thinks there is more success with the spray on kind than the plug-in kind. (That's his opinion; I don't know.) It's supposed to sort of make the area a "feel good zone" or something and vet said it had about 50% success rate in his experience.

It's expensive though, so me, I'm trying eBay or something. :-)