I moved in with my GF this weekend, and she already has two cats. Now there are three. Naturally, there is some animosity between them and a lot of growling. My cat and one of the others get along fairly well, mostly growling and a few small attacks, the other cat however, man, it's like the Exorcist!!!
Currently we have been rotating them in and out of the spare room. Let my cat roam, get his smell in the house and let them have at it through the door (Which is pretty tame, mostly low growling and hissing).
Now, face to face they get a little more angry, and we have been avoiding this (Mainly because of the two attacks I have suffered from this!). We are thinking that we should string both of them up on their leashes and harness and let them have at it just out of reach of each other. That way they can have the face to face and get a bunch of the hissing and psychoticness out of them.
Has anybody else dealt with this? What are your thoughts on it?
I have some experience with this. We took in a stray last year and our existing cat didn't take too kindly to it. The early days were pretty scary, lots of chasing and fur flying, but now they have settled into a tolerance. They still get into the occasional heated argument but it's getting better. As K_OS said, they'll work it out and you'll probably find that one becomes the dominant one, at least that's what the vet told us.
Both our cats are indoor cats and one issue we did have, and still have from time to time, is that one of the cats will take out his frustration by pissing anywhere he pleases, usually while looking right at you.
Well....it's a little to late but the best way as told to me by a vet and someone to rescues cats is to take the new cat and leave them locked in a room that the other cats can't access, don't even let the existing cats see you put them in. They will smell each other but won't be able to see each other. This will gradually let them figure it out....a google search will help you out but it may be too late...
When I moved in with roomies, their cat and my cat absolutely hated each others guts at first. They're both girls. After a month or so they started to tolerate each other and a month after that they were the bestest friends in the whole wide world. Give it time, keep them separate when not under direct supervision at first and let them be around each other when you're around. After awhile they're figure out it's really your territory and not their territory and that's when they start to tolerate each other.
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The instructions above represent standard practice for introducing new cats to each other over time.
I'd have tried that first--researched before move-in? Instead of letting them cross paths while the other one(s) are out of the room, let them each have their own territory distinct from the others, until they stop being bothered by having the other(s) in the house.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacDaddy
We are thinking that we should string both of them up on their leashes and harness and let them have at it just out of reach of each other.
With luck, whatever motivates that kind of dubious statement won't get in the way of the humans getting along.
Don't let them get face to face until they stop hissing and growling through the door. Cats are very territorial and they have to establish their own hierarchy among themselves... it takes time. Sometimes, a very long time. And let the new cat (your cat) have one space that is his territory so he can feel safe, and keep him out of the existing cats' territory for a while so they don't feel threatened by this interloper in their midst. Wait for ALL the hissing and growling through the door stops.
When I introduced cat #3, it was 4 months before I felt comfortable enough to let her out of the extra room unsupervised, and even still, we had the occasional catfight for next 5 years. (That is when cat #3 passed away--she was the oldest of them all.) The other two never came to like her, but they mostly tolerated her presense.
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See, the only reason that we let them see each other right away is because both her cats and my cat have lived with other cats/dogs before.
Neither of us have seen reactions like this before. Normally, it was some slight hissing, a few swats and some growling for a few days and that was it (With the odd playfighting). The two of them get along OK, its just him and the other one that seems to invoke complete and utter chaos!
We both are aware they are territorial, I guess our experiences we not standard at all by what we have been reading and hearing.
Cat#3 had lived with another cat before, and Cat#1 had lived with a dog before... Cat#2 was just a kitten when I introduced her, so she'd been with her mom and littermates before.
It was still a bit of a challenge....
You just have a bit of a personality conflict here. Maybe the two fighting cats settled into the top of the hierarchy in their previous groups of cats, but they are having a bit of a power struggle at the moment because neither one wants to back down--just theorizing a bit, but slow it down and let the cats move at their own pace.
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