We adopted our third cat, Ruby, back on July 21st after which we went through a slow introduction to introduce her to our two resident cats Carrot (male) and Angua (female). There was a bit of normal hissing at first but they soon became friends and started playing with each other. There was just one incident where my husband was playing a video where there was an angry cat and this made Ruby poof up and Carrot did the same. They then attacked each other, but no one got hurt and we separated them right away.
Since then they have been doing well together sleeping together, grooming each other, and playing. Carrot and Ruby rough house often, wrestling and chasing each other. That was all good up until about two weeks ago. For some reason, they've started poofing up at each other randomly, then they begin screaming and attacking each other. Last weekend they did this early in the morning, waking everyone in the house. It looked like they'd been wrestling, went into the poofing mode and then Carrot got his teeth caught in Ruby's collar. Her collar is a break away one so it was laying on the ground. After this incident, they couldn't be in the same room for a few hours. If we let them see each other they would start raising up their hair again. After a couple of hours they were totally buddies again and even shared a window perch and slept together.
This kind of behavior has continued, with them randomly turning to attack each other. No one ever gets hurt, but there is a lot of yowling and both cats make themselves look huge. Angua is sometimes a trigger for these situations. She doesn't play with Ruby much, and sometimes will hiss if Ruby wants to play and she doesn't want to. This especially seems to set Carrot off, making him go after Ruby. If Angua hisses even at our dog, he will glare at Ruby and start some kind of confrontation. Other times, they seem to arbitrarily lock eyes setting off some kind of a reaction that has both of them getting all puffed up.
We've just been separating them whenever they do this. They are fine and are good friends most of the day, but often at night or in the morning they get nasty with each other. Has anyone else dealt with something like this before? What can be done to get them to stop acting this way?
Since then they have been doing well together sleeping together, grooming each other, and playing. Carrot and Ruby rough house often, wrestling and chasing each other. That was all good up until about two weeks ago. For some reason, they've started poofing up at each other randomly, then they begin screaming and attacking each other. Last weekend they did this early in the morning, waking everyone in the house. It looked like they'd been wrestling, went into the poofing mode and then Carrot got his teeth caught in Ruby's collar. Her collar is a break away one so it was laying on the ground. After this incident, they couldn't be in the same room for a few hours. If we let them see each other they would start raising up their hair again. After a couple of hours they were totally buddies again and even shared a window perch and slept together.
This kind of behavior has continued, with them randomly turning to attack each other. No one ever gets hurt, but there is a lot of yowling and both cats make themselves look huge. Angua is sometimes a trigger for these situations. She doesn't play with Ruby much, and sometimes will hiss if Ruby wants to play and she doesn't want to. This especially seems to set Carrot off, making him go after Ruby. If Angua hisses even at our dog, he will glare at Ruby and start some kind of confrontation. Other times, they seem to arbitrarily lock eyes setting off some kind of a reaction that has both of them getting all puffed up.
We've just been separating them whenever they do this. They are fine and are good friends most of the day, but often at night or in the morning they get nasty with each other. Has anyone else dealt with something like this before? What can be done to get them to stop acting this way?
