By Admin on Mar 20, 2010 in Cats
My cat has some weird issue with our other cats…
Two years ago we got two kittens and at first he didn’t seem like he had a problem with them but now if he even goes around them or theu walk past him he starts growling and hissing. (Even if they aren’t even doing anything he ducks down, puts his ears down, and starts growling and hissing)
We have three other cats that we got before him and he doesn’t have a problem with them. But he just really hates the other two.
What is his problem?
Copyright
They probably aggravate him so he is saying back off and leave me alone
Fleur D | Mar 20, 2010 | Reply
He just doesn’t like them. It’s perfectly fine. Do you like every human you come in contact with? My cats do the same thing. Not everyone can get along. The "kittens" might have just reached a stage where they are threatening or something to your other cat.
Anonymous | Mar 20, 2010 | Reply
Jealous perhaps? Kittens are very difficult to resist petting, and your cat might by envious of their super cuteness.
Ahren | Mar 20, 2010 | Reply
There’s a fairly strong possibility that the sight of the other cats makes your cranky one feel threatened, jealous, or just scared.
1. When the kittens were small, they wouldn’t be perceived as a threat. Now that they’re adults, cranky guy sees them differently. Maybe one or the other has been more assertive toward him than he can stand (or just pesky, trying to get him to play); maybe the two of them ganged up on him sometime. Maybe one blocked his way to or from a litterbox he wanted to use – that’s a favorite trick of some cats, & it seems to inspire lots of resentment.
Or maybe they’ve been angels, and it’s just that the older one perceives that they occupy a chunk of territory he thought he controlled, & he’s hacked off about that… or he’s worried he will lose more & more of his standing in the pecking order over time.
2. It might be displacement, rather than anything the younger cats have done. Cranky guy may not feel well, & is just touchy because of that… & it feels "safest" to vent his ire against the members of the household who are lowest on the totem pole. The ones you had before he arrived are his superiors; he would have to be an unusually pushy guy to challenge them.
3. It might only indirectly be the newcomers: your cranky one may feel that the available resources (space, clean litter, attention from you, number of good nappy spots in sunny places.. who knows?) was adequate, or almost adequate, when there were 4 resident cats…. but "this place aint big enuf for the 6 of us!"
Another indirect problem could be that he got hurt or very frightened once by something that had nothing to do with the other cats…. a loud noise, or something fell on him or almost on him…. and in that moment of shock and fear he glanced around and happened to see the young ones… & now the sight of them reminds him of sudden fear, tho he doesn’t remember why.
They’re really individuals; it’s hard to predict how they’ll respond to things you do to influence them. But if one is making you, or other pets, miserable, you have to find a way to prevent that or change the circumstances.
I adopted a shelter cat who turned out to be unusually aggressive — she threatened the two I already had. She growled like a big dog, screamed like a banshee and completely intimidated one of the other cats — wouldn’t even let him in the same room with her. She wanted all the food, all the space, all my attention. The other cat simply ignored the newcomer and her displays of temper, and to my amazement the new one never laid a paw on her, despite her constant threats of mayhem. But for the sake of the one she was browbeating, I set up the new girl in my spare room (food, litter, water; bed, window, time with me) and kept her door shut.
She was happy there! She had wanted to be the "only cat." Maybe it was a side effect of living for years in a shelter, sharing a room with 3 dozen other cats. I was worried she would be there forever… but after about 3 months she began acting like she wanted the door open. She laid in the open doorway for 2 weeks, just watching the others. Then she kind of began to blend in.
She’s still jealous, & quick to hiss or grumble, but she behaves much better, and hasn’t tried to hurt either of the others any more. (It’s been 2 years.) She doesn’t play or sleep with them; they kind of co-exist in separate universes. She likes to play hockey with her plastic bottle tops, and the first two play tag and box with each other. The one she had terrorized isn’t a bit scared of her any more.
peach | Mar 20, 2010 | Reply
well im thinking that its not used to athore cats
tenyearoldgirl920 | Mar 20, 2010 | Reply
Sometimes a cat will act aggressively simply because they are sick. Nobody knows your cat as well as you, any sudden change in cat behavior should be checked by your veterinarian. Cats are territorial, that is their nature. Your pet accepts what she is used to, if she is accustomed to seeing strangers of the human kind in her home she probably reacts without too much fuss. But what if a strange cat should enter her territory, an event that she perceives as a threat? You may call her violent reaction aggressive cat behavior, but in reality it is instinctive protective behavior.
KittyCat | Mar 20, 2010 | Reply