Cats fighting
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive August 2008:
Cats fighting
I have a 10 yr old Tortoise Siamese,Daisy Jayne. She is a quiet sweet cat.
My daughter gave me (surprise!) a rescue she found at Petsmart. Her name is Callie. She is a 10 yr old calico & huge! She has no front claws.
For the first week, we kept Callie in my room & she was fine. The we opened up just a bit more of the house to her, she would hide, but not alot. However............When Daisy sees her, she charges at her & tries to scratch her. Callie is very vocal! When Daisy comes at her you would think you were listening to a Halloween tape, the screaming is terrible!!!!
I feel so sorry for Callie, she can't protect herself & I feel bad for Daisy, she is just protecting her home.
Does anyone have any advise?
They'll either work it out, or they won't. I have added cats over the years and it helps to go to Petsmart and buy "at Ease" and spray a little of it in your house every day. Or you can buy a plug-in called Feliway, but it's more expensive. Seems to clam my cats down a LOT.
Until they do work it out they have these things called soft paws that you can put on Daisy's paws, you just glue them on.
Good luck I had a Munchkin Torte that I had to just give away because our kitten got bigger than her & beat her up. Cocoa, the Munchkin, started using the bathroom everywhere in the house to voice her dislike of what was going on. Since the kitten was my dd's, I had to find a new home for mine. I just made sure she would be the only cat & cried for a week.
They will probably adjust in time. Poor Callie. She must feel so unwelcome!  I, too have introduced new cats to my household and there was a lot of meowing, growling and hissing in the beginning, but they got over it.
There is an herbal product that you can buy in any healthfood store. It is made form essential oils of flowers. It is called "Rescue Remedy". Just ONE drop in their water bowl should calm them both right down. It is very potent, but all natural. You can read about it online by googling it.
Maybe giving Daisy extra loves, too, so she doesn't feel so threatened might help.
I had one male kitty once, a big lovable orange tabby (neutered, of course). I brought home a stray white Manx cat who was a bit of a bully. Kind of a street wise guy. He would pick on my yellow boy, so much so that yellow boy started spraying in the house. My vet had to put them both on a very low dose of valium for a few days. Eventually, they would sleep on the same bed together.
I tried some of the stuff from Petsmart. Twice today....You put it in their water and it is supposed to calm them down........Daisy went after Callie this evening and I have never seen such fur fly. I am just lost, I have no idea what to do except to send Callie back. I hate to do this but, she has been hiding behind the tv for 3 weeks now, what kind of life is that?
I love them both and I am just sick about it.
Cats are very territorial. Callie has invaded Daisy's territory. They are also very scent oriented. They identify each other by scent and nudge things with their cheeks to mark their territory. Introducing strange cats needs to be done very gradually, and sometimes it just doesn't work. That said, this is how we have successfully introduced new cats into our feline family.
The new cat is kept in a closed spare room with food, water and litter box for a few days. Visit often and give the new cat lots of TLC. Then switch cats. The resident cat gets put into the spare room while the new cat gets to explore the house on his/her own. This way they each get to smell each other but not come face to face. The new cat also gets to explore the new territory without feeling threatened. Then we take a towel and rub down the new cat. Immediately use the same towel to rub down the resident cat and go back and forth rubbing each cat down. This transfers their scents onto each other. Keep switching the cats between the spare room and the house for a few days. Try supervised visits after the towel trick to see how they do. Continue this process until they tolerate each other with little to no aggression.
Good luck!
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