Question for multi-cat households.

MsFifers

Well, my cat situation is a bit complicated. I have two of my own, a neutered brother & sister. I am also minding another two for a friend - neutered male and female. Then there is the 5/6 month old kitten from next door who visits A LOT.

Not to mention then the 2 skinny strays that hang around outside (I've started feeding them in the hope I can get them tame enough to catch and rehome them)and there also is another cat who invades my home if I leave a window open. He's an intact tom and I am going to have to find the owners to neuter him as he has already sprayed inside my house.

So, to my horror, I have turned into the neighbourhood crazy cat lady! :eek:

Anyway, my problem is that they all just do not seem to get along very well. They can be fine together for a day or two, but then the chasing starts! The kitten is hyper and launches attacks at my friends tom cat, who then gets riled up and chases my friends girl cat, who then chases my tom cat and....you get the picture!

They all get agitated by the strays and especially by this home-invading tom cat - who even attacks me when I try to chase him out.

The very worst though is my girl-cat Milly, hisses and swipes at any of the others that come near her at all. The rest do seem to calm down quite a lot of the time and will sleep together on different corners of a bed or couch but not Milly! The rest all seem scared of her now and will back away if they see her in the room.

Sorry for being so longwinded, but what I want to ask is - in other multi-cat households, is there a lot of chasing and swiping between them? They don't ever cause any injuries to each other, but I'm wondering if they are stressed out by too many cats living together.

A family member might take Milly (although I'd really miss her as she is the most affectionate to me), and I think that if her aggression was gone the rest might calm down. But then, I'm wondering if its necessary to rehome her, as maybe this rumble-tumble is just part of having young-ish cats?

What happens in your house?

Thanks!

The Sweeper

This is what happens in my house tbh.



But seriously, there will always be a certain amount of rough and tumble. A good rule of thumb is rough-housing without noise = play, rough-housing with squalls, snarls, growls, squeals etc. = not play, or rather play that's gone over the edge.

Cats can adjust well to one or two newcomers at a time, but more than that breeds a sort of 'independence in a group' mentality - they'll bond with maybe one other cat, and you, but then they stay very stand-offish with other cats in the group.

If you want your two and the two house-sittee cats to bond, you need to keep the kitten, strays and especially the un-neutered tom at a distance. Once they're more comfortable, you can reintroduce the kitten. Keep the strays outside and feed them out there - I wouldn't let them mix with yours anyway, you've no idea what diseases they may have. The tom has to go until he's been spayed, as he'll be very upsetting in the mix for all of your cats.

I'm lucky in that I've developed the ideal situation (as you can see from the pics). It took my two boys a few weeks to adjust to the kittens, but now they love them. My house-mate's cat never took to her two new kittens, and will still hiss at them and never has the close greetings or body contact my lot have.

It has to be said, when I got my kittens, I utterly ignored them and totally spoiled my existing cats for the first few weeks. I never chastised my cats for hissing or swiping at the kittens, but hugely praised any tiny sign of tolerance on their part. If it looked like there might be a brawl, I distracted all parties with a mixture of treats and toys so they split up and the situation was diffused. It worked, because the kittens understood totally that they were the underdogs and the big cats understood totally that they were still my number one moggies. If the kittens got swatted for overstepping the mark, then so be it.

There is still the occasional exchange of growls over a choice piece of food for instance, or a favourite toy mouse, but there's also the close-contact chilling you see in that pic.

You need to be wary that none of the pecking order growling and swiping ever develops into a full blown fight, or you'll be the victim of some hefty vets bills. As it stands, try not to react to it apart from to distract the parties, because your intervention can contribute to the stress if you come in shouting at one cat not to hiss or swat at another.

Weidii

I'd say you should rehome the more dominant cats, though there's no guarentee that when one of them is gone that another won't step up and become the new bully!

Themadhouse

Your two feel threatened. They have invaders on their turf. Random cats coming in with different smells and especially the one spraying will upset them. The new cats r not invested in the hierarchy that has been established and will try to become boss. We have 8 cats here and yeah every now and again there will be a bit of agro, nothing major. Over time the new ones that have come in have accepted the alpha and things calm down. But if a cat dare to sit on the wall of the enclosure there will be trouble! Get the tom fixed if u cant find the owner.

cotton

Yep, Id say they are threatened too. Intact toms coming into their home would stress most cats out. If you can get them neutered, do. Try investing in some feliway plug-ins too.
We've 9 here plus kittens at any given time & we're usually ok. Lots of rough & tumble & chasing each other around the house. Jasper hisses at anyone that comes near her if she's in a particularly grumpy mood, but apart from that they tend to get on. 2 youngest (10 months) can get a bit rough but the old dears put them back in their place sharpish.;)

lucky111

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

This is what happens in my house tbh.



That pic is class:D

MsFifers

I love that pic!

Well I'm glad to hear there is some chasing & rough & tumble in other cat households. Its generally not too bad in my place apart from Milly. I'll try to sort out the home-invader cat, and if that doesn't sort it I'll see if I can bear to be parted from Milly until my friends come home.

Thanks all for the info.