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Sorry, but as usual, this is a long post.
I have two cats: Claws and Guapo. They're both great, lovey cats. Claws had been an only cat for a couple of years, but he needed a playmate and as soon as my boyfriend and I moved to a larger apartment, we got him Guapo. Initially, things were great. No territory issues, everyone was friendly and wanted to play. Not even a growl when they met! In fact, Claws was the one who introduced intense rough housing to Guapo. Claws has always been a little dramatic, but Guapo has a great, even temperament.
Around a month ago, Claws started randomly growling and hissing during their play sessions. I'm not sure what changed. I'm not sure if he got injured, or if because Guapo has gained some weight (he was pretty thin when we got him and is now 11.5 lbs [2.5 lbs larger than Claws]) he's afraid of him. Or maybe because of that, Guapo has too much of an advantage when they play?
The thing is, Claws DOES sometimes want to play. If Guapo initiates, Claws is likely to start hissing and screeching, but if I separate them, Claws will often go start pestering Guapo until they start tussling again. He's also growled at me a few times if he's even slightly displeased with being picked up or moved around, which he never did before. Sometimes Guapo will walk into the room and Claws will just growl. His body language is also saying to back off.
He's been to the vet, everything seems normal. He even gets along perfectly fine with Guapo the rest of the time. But this is a big problem because we live in an apartment building, and they're disturbing the neighbors below us if they fight and Claws starts shrieking at 5 am. Not to mention it's stressful for me, and unusual behavior for Claws. I don't know whether or not to be worried, and I also don't know what to do to make it stop. The vet didn't seem that concerned and said he seemed fine. We also don't even know if we should split them up or not since Claws starts it up again later.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to get everyone over here to calm down?
Thanks!
I have two cats: Claws and Guapo. They're both great, lovey cats. Claws had been an only cat for a couple of years, but he needed a playmate and as soon as my boyfriend and I moved to a larger apartment, we got him Guapo. Initially, things were great. No territory issues, everyone was friendly and wanted to play. Not even a growl when they met! In fact, Claws was the one who introduced intense rough housing to Guapo. Claws has always been a little dramatic, but Guapo has a great, even temperament.
Around a month ago, Claws started randomly growling and hissing during their play sessions. I'm not sure what changed. I'm not sure if he got injured, or if because Guapo has gained some weight (he was pretty thin when we got him and is now 11.5 lbs [2.5 lbs larger than Claws]) he's afraid of him. Or maybe because of that, Guapo has too much of an advantage when they play?
The thing is, Claws DOES sometimes want to play. If Guapo initiates, Claws is likely to start hissing and screeching, but if I separate them, Claws will often go start pestering Guapo until they start tussling again. He's also growled at me a few times if he's even slightly displeased with being picked up or moved around, which he never did before. Sometimes Guapo will walk into the room and Claws will just growl. His body language is also saying to back off.
He's been to the vet, everything seems normal. He even gets along perfectly fine with Guapo the rest of the time. But this is a big problem because we live in an apartment building, and they're disturbing the neighbors below us if they fight and Claws starts shrieking at 5 am. Not to mention it's stressful for me, and unusual behavior for Claws. I don't know whether or not to be worried, and I also don't know what to do to make it stop. The vet didn't seem that concerned and said he seemed fine. We also don't even know if we should split them up or not since Claws starts it up again later.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to get everyone over here to calm down?
Thanks!