Female cat suddenly hates male cat.

[barton comstock]

I have two indoor only cats that are both just over a year old now. Both are fixed and vaccinated and three months apart in age. Neither come from the same parents. Both have always gotten along very well.

The male cat is very chilled in personality and not very vocal, only meowing when locked out of the same room as you. He at times would lay with the female cat and would occasionally briefly groom her. When it comes to toys he is more inquisitive than her. They share the same food and water sources and never fight over these. He seems to really like her and anytime she is in distress, say she got locked in a room, he always scrambles to try and free her. 

My female cat is the youngest by a couple months. She is extremely vocal and will carry a conversation with you. She is more of a lap cat and likes to be held and is very trusting. She never gave a lot of notice to the male cat, who was first to the household by a few months, they now have been together a full year and suddenly she is starting to hiss, spit, growl, and even attack him. It seems to be very distressing to him as he does not understand why and when I separate them he will try to free her. 

I am becoming increasingly concerned as both cats still have their claws and I am afraid she will hurt him. She is only aggressive with him and not with me or any other humans in the house. Seperating them is not much of an option since he will try to free her and neither like to be held in a room that I am not in with. 

What can I do?

 

[barton comstock]

I should also mention that the male cat is starting to become afraid of the female but still tries to free her.

 

[di and bob]

I'm afraid they are just growing up and there is little you can do. In my fifty years of having cats, I have seen this many times. They are extremely lovey at a younger  age, but maturity brings out the 'diva' qualities in the females and they rule the roost with an iron paw. Once the male 'learns' his place in the hierarchy of the home things will settle down, but that usually means he will avoid being too close to her.  That is why I have a three cat household if at all possible, two males who keep each other company and entertained, and a princess to watch over them. Your little female is by no means being mean, she is still a loving and the beautiful cat you love, she's just grown up. The best cat I ever had was a diva, and she didn't even like other people, but she was the cat I was the closest to in all my years, so just love yours for what she is.

They rarely hurt each other, maybe a scratch here and there, and I always worry about eye damage, but that very seldom happens. It sounds a LOT worse then it is, she's just letting him know who is boss. I always broke it up and put them apart, just make sure she has a high spot she can get to to be away from her 'brother', my little girl had a bed on top of the fridge. All the luck and keep us posted!

 

[ashley berner]

This is very similar to my situation. I have two cats, male and female, two years old, siblings, indoor, fixed. They got along rather well until almost three weeks ago. The female was suddenly very upset with her brother. She couldn't even look at him without hissing or growling. I separated them for two days. Then supervised for about four days... separating them at night. And now they've been loose all of the time. My male will still ambush her and try to play rough with her, and this upsets her... but I put him in a time out for about ten minutes and that seems to calm both of them down and then they are fine with each other. It's just worrying me because it's still happening quite frequently. I also plugged in a Feliway diffuser, not sure it's helping -- but it's something to try if you haven't already.

 

[luminous]

Ashley, were you ever able to resolve this? My cats, two siblings, a male and a female are also over a year old and up until a month ago they all of a sudden broke out into a fight in the middle of the night. I don't know who or what started it, but it ended up with the female being cornered and having urinated and the male in attack mode. Ever since that incident I have cleaned up, separated them and the female continues to hiss and yowl at him. I have tried the "re-introduction" method, I'm still working at it, but at some point when I thought they were finally okay again unsupervised they broke into another fight. I still don't know if he is starting the fights, he is overly confident and a bit overbearing, not respecting anyone's personal space and she now seems to hate him and be very fearful of him. I wish this thread would get updated more than a few years at a time, I'm hoping someone can provide more help and insight on what to do.
I'm at a place in my life that I don't know that I can maintain doing everything separately for them. Feliway also does not seem to be helping, nor feeding them close to each other or reinforcing with treats. Anyway, I've been doing this for a bit over a month now and from the sounds of earlier posts and other articles I have read, it seems you need the patience of an angel, time, energy, and perhaps also accepting that they may never be close again. I don't want her to be terrified of him, why else would she urinate herself? I don't want him to attack her, but as I said, he also has a very strong personality and is too "smart" for his own good. He's almost like a puppy cat.

Help.