Cats fighting...

[renegade7]

About a year ago we adopted a stray cat. We already had two cats, one of them doesn't really care about the new one (although will still hiss if the new one gets too close) but the other one has gone pretty much insane about it.

She (the old cat) stalks her (the new cat) constantly, spending nearly all of her waking time lying in wait around corners or under tables waiting for the new cat to come close to attack. I'll hear her attacking and screeching about two or three times a day, especially annoying because this tends to happen very early in the morning.

So to solve the problem I tried keeping the new cat in my room. This didn't work: the old cat will sit outside the door literally all night trying to get in, pawing at the door, mewling to be let in, and scratching at the bottom (they've learned they can pull doors open by grabbing from the bottom). If I open the door even a crack to try to get to the bathroom, I have to be careful because she'll try to force herself through. I timed it once: she began scratching and mewing at one point and didn't stop at all for 4 hours, and this kept me awake. I tried moving the new cat to her own closet...same problem, the old cat would wait outside the door, sometimes all night, for her to come out through her cat flap.

The new cat bonded with our dogs pretty quickly so they tended to scare off the old one when she got aggressive, but they both died recently and that's when the old cat really went berserk. Not only is she still stalking the new cat with no abandon whatsoever, but she is also marking everywhere. Peeing on things wasn't a problem, but now she pees on anything she can reach. I'm having to scrub the bases of the walls multiple times weekly because she can cover the bottoms of the wills in piss within days. Clothes have been ruined and furniture has been damaged.

I'm kind of at my wit's end about what to do...help?

 

[Chrozi]

Are any of the cats spayed/neutered? If not, doing so will probably help things immensely. You say "she" is marking everywhere. That's usually something male cats do. Are they both male? Could be a territorial dispute.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Cats are not naturally social animals, and while you might see your older cat's behaviour as aggressive it sounds like she sees your new cat as an intruder and is trying to see it off. It may be that they eventually learn to share a range and avoid each other, but if this hasn't happened within the year I'm not sure you can rely on that happening on its own.

The first thing to try would be to check the layout of your house. Make sure your cats aren't sharing resources. Give each cat its own food, water and litter trays and put them far enough apart that the cats can avoid each other. Avoid putting food and water together, just spread everything around as much as possible for now even if it means having random bowls of food and water all over your house. Consider getting a few covered beds or cat perches which are only big enough for one cat and spread those around. Also, make sure your older cat is getting enough time outside (if she goes outside) or socialization (if she doesn't).

If that doesn't work, maybe try using a pheremone scent. This might help your older cat to calm down or feel more secure, and may at least help with the excessive marking.

Don't worry if they end up completely avoiding each other. That's totally natural. Just to try to facilitate them in doing that and make sure they can get buy without running into each other all the time.

 

[nyankaty]

First, take your older cat into the vet to eliminate the possibility of any health issues. That can be something that starts problems.

Unfortunately, cats can react really strongly to emotional situations like the death of housemates and that's really hard to fix. I would suggest trying to give her a safe area for a while all to herself - her own room with her own food, water, litterbox, toys, sleeping area, etc. In time, introduce her to the shared house again, slowly.

Are both the cats fixed? I found that our older cat, Evil One, tried to murder the unspayed girl Abbie when we first got her, but once Abbie was fixed, EO's hatred subsided slightly. They still are separated at all times but there's a little less bloodshed when they meet.

Honestly, I've always just waited till cats could get along on their own and fighting is part of that, but the peeing everywhere is a serious problem. The vet will be the best help there; they can rule out health problems and they can also help suggest medications/calming pheremones to possibly help. When EO was peeing out of box for a while, we just ended up having to totally seal her out of the room where she did it and she hasn't been near it since so it's hard to say whether she'd pee there again.

Cats are tough. :C I can usually do REALLY well with behavioral issues (Cat Whisperer style) but I really would have to have a massive amount of information and meet them in person. I've never had a cat that I couldn't understand and help, at least enough for them to be fairly happy.