Cats not getting along

ibarelycare

We got our male black kitten Marvin, at 8 weeks old. He’s nearly 5 months old now, feisty, playful, and affectionate when he’s in a calm mood. We decided recently to adopt a male rescue kitten while Marvin was still young.

Franco arrived in our house on Wednesday, about 3 months, white/tabby mix. He has a very sweet affectionate temperament with humans as he was hand-reared and bottle fed from 1 week old. He was reared with his sister, who was re-homed a few days before Franco came to live with us.

We didn’t expect the two of them to be best pals straight away but we didn’t expect things to be quite this bad (naive maybe!). Franco was doing a lot of hissing at Marvin from the start, which would cause Marvin to pounce and attack him. As of now the hissing has mainly stopped but the fighting hasn’t. Marvin has his eye on Franco all the time and is constantly pounced ready to attack. We have to separate them all the time, which causes the one who is put out of the room to cry loudly. We have monitored the fighting plenty to see if it’s playful or serious. A lot of the time it is playful but it always descends into biting, clawing, growling and screeching. Marvin enjoys backing Franco into a corner and practically torturing him! We have tried playing with them for distraction but it doesn’t work.

At night or when we’re out we separate them and leave their food bowls on either side of the separating door (a tip we read - supposed to make them calmer in each other’s company). Nothing is changing though and it’s causing massive stress and upset to my bf and I we want to give them a proper chance and the thought of giving Franco back devastates us (we’re very attached to him already, he’s so loving), but just being in the house around them is so hard, and obviously we don’t want them to hurt each other or be stressed themselves.

Neither cat is neutered yet btw, Marvin still has about a month to go before our vet will neuter him. I know that having them neutered can help their temperament but we can’t put up with all this fighting until then!!

Does anyone have any advice please???

Lycoge

There are specific ways to introduce a new cat into the home with an existing cat. You need to keep the new cat in a separate room initially and gradually introduce the cats to each other e.g. after a few days open the door into the room a little bit so the cats can see / smell each other but with the door separating them under your supervision. Google will provide further details. You only got the cat Wednesday really it's far too early to expect them to be getting on. Cats are territorial and your first cat is likely feeling very threatened by the new one. Google the appropriate steps, have patience with it, put in the work and they'll get on in time (or at least tolerate each other). We introduced a kitten to our 1.5 year old cat, it took a few weeks before they could be allowed out lose together unsupervised.

ibarelycare

Hi, thanks for taking the time to response. Of course we’ve googled the shít out of what to do, and we get lots of conflicting advice, so this is why I asked here. But being told to be patient and not rush things is helpful, so we will keep them separate and slowly introduce time together. Thanks.

Lycoge

Youre right there can be a lot of info out there. It won't let me post the full link here on 1 line, but look at this website as it describes a lot of the steps we found useful

Https//:
www. catbehaviorassociates.com/

how-to-introduce-a-second-cat/

Graces7

OP it is very early days. These things take time. I brought a cheeky year old in a few years back to an established pair of cats. To this day my female hates him, while the male loves him.

yes they need keeping apart a while.

Good luck

spookwoman

Neutering is the first step and best, if you don't not only is there the aggression but they peeing on clothes etc. The other is if you 1 get out they might not come back. they will have to be kept separate and introduced gradually to each other and can take a long time. Don't stress cause they pick up on it as well which doesn't help. feliway plug and spray helps calm cats and is safe. Reality is they might never get along and will just tolerate each other.

ibarelycare

Thanks for the advice all, thinks are definitely improving already. Kept apart for most of yesterday and when they were together things were a lot more playful. It took a couple of hours for the fighting to start and then they went back to being kept apart. Looks like patience is key!

Graces7

ibarelycare wrote: »

Thanks for the advice all, thinks are definitely improving already. Kept apart for most of yesterday and when they were together things were a lot more playful. It took a couple of hours for the fighting to start and then they went back to being kept apart. Looks like patience is key!

Absolutely. With us, with critters

aonb

I have a hand-reared rescue female cat. She arrived 3 :eek: years ago.
Last year another feral , adult, half-dead cat arrived and has since become so tame and loving and moved into the house
The original cat HATES the newcomer, and will have nothing to do with her. Will hiss and swipe at her to this day. The first cat just keeps away from the newer cat. The newer cat takes this handbag-swinging in her stride. They've pretty much agreed to not be friends , which is a shame, but we can live with it at this stage. Hopefully because your two are young they will become friends. When they're neutered and thus less territorial, things might be much better too... good luck

ibarelycare

Thanks all. Things have improved remarkably quickly

Graces7

aonb wrote: »

I have a hand-reared rescue female cat. She arrived 3 :eek: years ago.
Last year another feral , adult, half-dead cat arrived and has since become so tame and loving and moved into the house
The original cat HATES the newcomer, and will have nothing to do with her. Will hiss and swipe at her to this day. The first cat just keeps away from the newer cat. The newer cat takes this handbag-swinging in her stride. They've pretty much agreed to not be friends , which is a shame, but we can live with it at this stage. Hopefully because your two are young they will become friends. When they're neutered and thus less territorial, things might be much better too... good luck

You are describing my older girl and the young over confident upstart
I rescued.... Only he never learns... loved everyone.. the language is amazing.. BUT no injury is ever done. Important is that..

storker

aonb wrote: »

I have a hand-reared rescue female cat. She arrived 3 :eek: years ago.
Last year another feral , adult, half-dead cat arrived and has since become so tame and loving and moved into the house
The original cat HATES the newcomer, and will have nothing to do with her. Will hiss and swipe at her to this day. The first cat just keeps away from the newer cat. The newer cat takes this handbag-swinging in her stride. They've pretty much agreed to not be friends , which is a shame, but we can live with it at this stage. Hopefully because your two are young they will become friends. When they're neutered and thus less territorial, things might be much better too... good luck

We have a 13/14 year old female whose same-age male companion died last year - they were almost inseparable. In July we got two kittens from the local rescue, a male and a female. We did the whole gradual introductions thing but the older female doesn't appear to have much time for them, especially the female. The strange thing is that you often see them in the same part of the garden together i.e. not close together but within three or four metres of each other, and their garden area is pretty big.

There is occasional hissing and swiping by the older cat, but I don't think she actually makes contact. She appears to watch the little female very closely, especially if the newcomer is off to one side or behind her, so she seems to see her as a threat. It seems to be getting better, though, but very slowly, and not enough for my daughters, who want them all to be "best friends".