Fight For Dominance - Should I Rehome My Cat?

[gingercatluci]

we adopted a kitten on the 6th of August, 2016 at about 8 weeks of age. Everything was fine (despite some minor disputes) between him and our two three year old girls until recently. Now that he's getting older, more problems are arising. He is neutered, neutered about a week after we adopted him. Now that he's older and becoming more of a teen/young adult, he has a constant drive for dominance.
Our older female (older by a month) has always been the matriarch, the top cat. With this new male, he wants to be top cat, and she's not about to just step down for a new kitten.
He is constantly attacking her and our other female when he gets the chanc (sometimes to the point of hair being ripped out and cutting each other up). Both females try to run away and do so yelling and hissing in protest. He'll continue to Persue them, despite their efforts to tell him enough is enough. The older female will sometimes stand up for herself and fight back, but eventually she wants no buisiness with the dispute.
The male will attempt to bite the oldest female's neck and mount her. She absolutely does not tolerate this and will turn around and fight him, which leads to me having to break them up.
He's now starting to spray our household walls. Our younger female, isn't comfortable using litter boxes anymore as he marks all of the walls and sides of the pans. (We have 4 boxes, all in different locations). He is also deliberately peeing in clothing. He isn't marking but actually peeing in our clothing.
It's getting to the point where I feel it's not worth the stress to myself and my cats. Despite my attempted efforts, nothing has worked. I've tried to feed his ego, letting him eat first, attention first and everything for him first. I've tried positive reinforcement, removing him from situations to cool off elsewhere.. nothing works. He believes he's entitled to everyone's food, cat or human, and is a constant struggle ensuring our very submissive cat feels comfortable enough to eat. They all eat in separate locations, but she still feels threatened and will not eat half the time without me sitting and consoling her. If the others don't finish before he dies, and my eye is awayvfor a second, he butts in and takes their food, grabbing a mouthful as I rip him away.
Last thing to try is possibly feliway, but seeing how no matter what I do he still tortures these two cats to no end.
Please help me solve this situation..
The last thing I want is to see him go, but the other thing is I don't want my other cats feeling unsafe in their own home.

 

[Mystikal kitten]

If he is neutered why is he spraying?

 

[gingercatluci]

If he is neutered why is he spraying?

Dominance

 

[gingercatluci]

Can anyone offer help or advice? I've posted several times on this forum and never receive help.

 

[Ardina]

Have you tried separating your male cat from your other two cats and doing a slow reintroduction? You would keep him in a room by himself (still give him lots of attention and time!), and after a week or two of no contact, start with scent exchanges and site swapping. I'm no expert, but perhaps @calicosrspecial may be able to help?

 

[gingercatluci]

Have you tried separating your male cat from your other two cats and doing a slow reintroduction? You would keep him in a room by himself (still give him lots of attention and time!), and after a week or two of no contact, start with scent exchanges and site swapping. I'm no expert, but perhaps @calicosrspecial may be able to help?

We did an initial slow introduction when we adopted him, they all get along fine, it's just when he feels the need to assert his dominance they begin to fight. I could try to keep him in a spare room for a while and re introduce him again, but I feel he'll just go back to trying to enforce his dominance on the other two.

 

[Willowy]

If he is neutered why is he spraying?

Neutered males, and even females, can and will spray if they feel like they need to mark their territory. They feel like marking less than unneutered males, but it still happens sometimes.

Do you play with him a lot, does he get enough exercise? If you can run him until he's tired, he may not have as much drive to harass the ladies. A Da Bird toy or a laser pointer are best for really getting them tired out.

This may be a case for medication. Maybe a psychiatric med like Prozac, or else a feminizing hormone like Ovaban. Sometimes even a short round of meds can reset things enough to make a difference.

 

[Ardina]

How old is your male cat? And how much is he getting fed? He may be food-aggressive if he isn't getting enough. Teenage cats can eat a lot more than you expect.

 

[gingercatluci]

Neutered males, and even females, can and will spray if they feel like they need to mark their territory. They feel like marking less than unneutered males, but it still happens sometimes.

Do you play with him a lot, does he get enough exercise? If you can run him until he's tired, he may not have as much drive to harass the ladies. A Da Bird toy or a laser pointer are best for really getting them tired out.

This may be a case for medication. Maybe a psychiatric med like Prozac, or else a feminizing hormone like Ovaban. Sometimes even a short round of meds can reset things enough to make a difference.

I do try to play with him as much as I can, he does prefer to play by himself and keeps himself entertained throughout the day. We have a couple puzzle toys for when we're away. Usually when we are playing with him and one of the girls wants to join in, he'll stop and attack them and chase them away to continue playing by himself.

 

[gingercatluci]

How old is your male cat? And how much is he getting fed? He may be food-aggressive if he isn't getting enough. Teenage cats can eat a lot more than you expect.

He's about 10 months old now I believe, he only eats 2 full cans a day lie the girls. I could definitely try 3 a day and see if that helps his food aggression, thank you.

 

[Ardina]

We did an initial slow introduction when we adopted him, they all get along fine, it's just when he feels the need to assert his dominance they begin to fight. I could try to keep him in a spare room for a while and re introduce him again, but I feel he'll just go back to trying to enforce his dominance on the other two.

He may return to being aggressive, but I think it might be worth trying for the sake of your other cats. It will give them a much needed break and allow them to build up confidence again. Even if you decide against it, I would at least feed the male separately and keep him in a closed-off room so he can't interrupt mealtime for the other two. Similarly, I would keep him in a separate room when you play with your females so they can get uninterrupted play time.

Do you have cat trees or high places for your female cats to escape to?

 

[Willowy]

Yeah, teenage boys need a lot of food. A lot! Give that a try, maybe it will work.

 

[ellenature]

A possible solution/idea: I purchased a one story crate/cage for my female kitty to stay in while the male is able to roam the room.
I have some posts with info on their aggressive behavior towards each other but in brief: they started fighting out of the blue a few months ago and it was brutal. I tried many solutions and none worked. They are both on prozac right now and are kept apart except when she is crated so they can safely visually interact again. It's helping her feel less anxious when she sees and smells him.

 

[gingercatluci]

Do you have cat trees or high places for your female cats to escape to?

I do have cat trees, our more skittish female spends most of the day upstairs away from him, and our other female usually across the room from him or up in the tree.
Now what could I do about his spraying? It's starting to get out of hand now that he's getting older.

 

[gingercatluci]

Yeah, teenage boys need a lot of food. A lot! Give that a try, maybe it will work.

I'll definitely be trying to give him more (:

 

[gingercatluci]

A possible solution/idea: I purchased a one story crate/cage for my female kitty to stay in while the male is able to roam the room.
I have some posts with info on their aggressive behavior towards each other but in brief: they started fighting out of the blue a few months ago and it was brutal. I tried many solutions and none worked. They are both on prozac right now and are kept apart except when she is crated so they can safely visually interact again. It's helping her feel less anxious when she sees and smells him.

What exactly does the Prozac do? I thought of a cat cage before just for him so we can control where he sprays when we aren't home.

 

[ellenature]

What exactly does the Prozac do? I thought of a cat cage before just for him so we can control where he sprays when we aren't home.

Prozac for cats is supposed to help with the anxiety which results in aggression, fighting and spraying/litter ptoblems.

 

[danteshuman]

Is it possible your cat was only partially neutered? It is rare but sometimes the vet misses a ball, especially in young kittens. If that isn't it, I think you have as some one else coined it, a bully cat. I have one, they grey mini terrorist that thinks his name means "hey you stop!' If you have a bully on your hands, maybe try separating for now, lots & LOTS of play and long harness walks? That way he can claim territory outside. Also you can work on building up your other cats confidence one on one without him around. Good luck ... please keep us posted? My punk gets bored and "hunts" my other cat, unless I tucker him out. That also includes him trying to hunt birds in the backyard. He is 10 years old and still a cute punk! If he is 2 much to handle after all that, then yes he may be happier being an only kitty.

 

[gingercatluci]

Prozac for cats is supposed to help with the anxiety which results in aggression, fighting and spraying/litter ptoblems.

Hmm that may be a good idea. Is this something he'd have to be on all the time or will a few doses help?

 

[gingercatluci]

Is it possible your cat was only partially neutered? It is rare but sometimes the vet misses a ball, especially in young kittens.

I actually was wondering if that could be a possibility. I'll have to bring him in to the vet to see, maybe he had an under developed testicle or something, he was relatively young. I'll definitely have to have some one on one playtime with him and the girls, and he loves being outside so that's a great idea as well. Thank you very much for all your help! I'll update the forum once we have him checked out by our vet.