Hello,
My husband and I adopted two cats about three weeks ago, we already had two and we've been having trouble with the four of them not getting along. I am wondering if anyone here can read our situation and give some advice about how to deal with some aggression problems we've been having.
We already had Guts and Vinny, a brother & sister pair we adopted when they were 4 months old, they are now 4 years old. Both are very laid-back, both like to play and get pets but generally on their own time; they'll let you know when they're in the mood.
Now we have also adopted Roland and Fizzgig, not siblings but seemed to do well together at the shelter we adopted from. Roland is 1 year old and Fizzgig is 2 years old. Fizz is pretty laid back and is very sweet - he follows you around the house and likes to ride around on shoulders. Roland, however, is nutty. The shelter told us he was "feisty," which we now know was code for aggressive and a little crazy, but my husband just fell in love with him and had to have him. Now I feel like he is completely disrupting our home and I'm at a loss of what to do with him. Here are our main problems with him:
1. Roland seems to have huge mood swings. In the isolated room with just Fizz, he can be very sweet and melts onto our laps for pets. Then the next moment if you touch him he tries to bite the crap out of your hand. When he's out in the whole house with all 4 cats he becomes very aggressive if you touch him at all and makes a lot of hissing/yowling noises if you try to pet him.
2. He stalks the other cats. Fizz does not seem to mind and they will play together, but our old cats HATE it. They are definitely scared of him and he does not give it a rest. We have been trying to have a spray bottle handy whenever we have him out with the other cats, but the spray bottle stops him for about 10 seconds and then he'll start stalking/trying to pounce on someone again.
3. I am completely unable to clip his nails, which leaves me really worried for the other cats as he is the only one I can't clip so he's the only one with fully sharp claws. We have tried holding him in small increments, touching his feet, etc. to get him used to the process but he is just awful anytime we try to clip them. He absolutely destroyed my hand the last time we attempted it. We are going to try again tonight by wrapping him up in a towel, but I am scared of getting hurt. We also have some sedatives from our vet for our other cat (she gets very upset being put in a carrier) and are also thinking of giving him a very small dose of that in order to clip his nails.
I am just so confused about what to do with him. I'm not giving up on him and I refuse to take him back to the shelter - I'm just unsure of what to try. We took the introduction process very slowly - first just letting them sniff a towel with the other cats' scent on it, then site swapping, then peeking through the door, then playing in a room together, etc... but our old cats are still so fearful. And no wonder, because he tries to pounce on them!
If anyone has any advice on how to fix this with all four cats, or what to do about the youngest ones' aggression, I would be so grateful. Thank you.
My husband and I adopted two cats about three weeks ago, we already had two and we've been having trouble with the four of them not getting along. I am wondering if anyone here can read our situation and give some advice about how to deal with some aggression problems we've been having.
We already had Guts and Vinny, a brother & sister pair we adopted when they were 4 months old, they are now 4 years old. Both are very laid-back, both like to play and get pets but generally on their own time; they'll let you know when they're in the mood.
Now we have also adopted Roland and Fizzgig, not siblings but seemed to do well together at the shelter we adopted from. Roland is 1 year old and Fizzgig is 2 years old. Fizz is pretty laid back and is very sweet - he follows you around the house and likes to ride around on shoulders. Roland, however, is nutty. The shelter told us he was "feisty," which we now know was code for aggressive and a little crazy, but my husband just fell in love with him and had to have him. Now I feel like he is completely disrupting our home and I'm at a loss of what to do with him. Here are our main problems with him:
1. Roland seems to have huge mood swings. In the isolated room with just Fizz, he can be very sweet and melts onto our laps for pets. Then the next moment if you touch him he tries to bite the crap out of your hand. When he's out in the whole house with all 4 cats he becomes very aggressive if you touch him at all and makes a lot of hissing/yowling noises if you try to pet him.
2. He stalks the other cats. Fizz does not seem to mind and they will play together, but our old cats HATE it. They are definitely scared of him and he does not give it a rest. We have been trying to have a spray bottle handy whenever we have him out with the other cats, but the spray bottle stops him for about 10 seconds and then he'll start stalking/trying to pounce on someone again.
3. I am completely unable to clip his nails, which leaves me really worried for the other cats as he is the only one I can't clip so he's the only one with fully sharp claws. We have tried holding him in small increments, touching his feet, etc. to get him used to the process but he is just awful anytime we try to clip them. He absolutely destroyed my hand the last time we attempted it. We are going to try again tonight by wrapping him up in a towel, but I am scared of getting hurt. We also have some sedatives from our vet for our other cat (she gets very upset being put in a carrier) and are also thinking of giving him a very small dose of that in order to clip his nails.
I am just so confused about what to do with him. I'm not giving up on him and I refuse to take him back to the shelter - I'm just unsure of what to try. We took the introduction process very slowly - first just letting them sniff a towel with the other cats' scent on it, then site swapping, then peeking through the door, then playing in a room together, etc... but our old cats are still so fearful. And no wonder, because he tries to pounce on them!
If anyone has any advice on how to fix this with all four cats, or what to do about the youngest ones' aggression, I would be so grateful. Thank you.