Fighting Amongst Two of My Cats Help Please!

BlazenlyObvious

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I have 7 cats in my household. They all get along great, minus a few skirmishes then and again but everyone (minus Nala) treats each other well. Nala, on the other hand, doesn’t.
We found Nala in a parking lot almost 2 years ago now, she’s probably around 3-4 years old. She was pregnant when we found her and we also have her only surviving kitten, Tiana. Nala is very much an independent cat, she doesn’t like the other cats bothering her and will pick fights with almost all the cats (minus our two older males, Chester and Scorpius, who are 7 and 5). This includes her own daughter.
She’s never hurt anyone and they’ve all been little skirmishes and chasing, and most of the cats just leave her alone and there’s normally peace. However, our youngest, Bennie, is suddenly terrified of Nala.
I don’t know what happened, but Nala won’t let Bennie downstairs to the basement to use the litterboxes. If Bennie sees Nala, she starts growling, and if she gets too close to Nala, Nala will go after her. The other day Nala actually drew blood and had a claw stuck in Bennie’s forehead (thankfully nothing bad just a small scratch on her cheek). I think that’s what started all this but I’m not sure, it was in the middle of the night.
Since Nala won’t let Bennie in the basement, Bennie is pooping in the bathtub and peeing in the tub or in front of the water dishes (just happened once this morning) instead of trying to go downstairs.
Obviously this can’t continue.
I kept Nala because I didn’t want her to feel abandoned AGAIN, and she’s a good cat when not around the other cats. We’ve had her for almost two years now.
I’m not sure what to do. I’d hate to have to find Nala a new home, I love her, but I know she’d do better in a single cat home. She’s special to me, though, and I’d hate to do that to her.
I know there’s calming collars I can try and there’s also that plug-in diffuser (I can’t think of the brand name right now for some reason) that can help with cat aggression.
And I don’t really have the ability to separate the two cats with having 5 others. My bathroom is too small to fit a litterbox in, and I know if I stick one in there the other cats will try and use it too (and my oldest has a tendency to miss the box completely 😅)

I’m just really not sure what to do.I can’t keep having two cats fighting like this, and I can’t keep cleaning cat feces and urine around the house because my youngest is too scared to go to the basement.
 

Bren224

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I had been through this before. I had to separate the cats. You might have to find another place a liter box for bennie. Ours got so bad, we had to get rid of the trouble maker. She might have been abandoned due to her behavior or the hormones of being pregnant might have left her an unfriendly cat to the other cats.
Good luck
 
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BlazenlyObvious

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I had been through this before. I had to separate the cats. You might have to find another place a liter box for bennie. Ours got so bad, we had to get rid of the trouble maker. She might have been abandoned due to her behavior or the hormones of being pregnant might have left her an unfriendly cat to the other cats.
Good luck
Thank you for your response. I’ll buy a covered box for the bathroom, thankfully only a few cats prefer those boxes, but if the fighting gets worse or continues I’m not sure what else I can really do. Nala is a good cat, but if she keeps tormenting our other cats it isn’t going to work. It just sucks because I really would hate to do it to her, she’s takes a long time to adjust to anyone. She’s attached to me.
 

CarmiesMom

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question are they both fixed? right now my two males are having issues due to the vet being closed most of last year due to covid our 2 y/o male isnt nutered yet and his daddy 7 y/o Mignon cant be (due to issues with anestesia when he was a younger cat) our vet also recently retired and the new vet who took over is higher so moneys a factor as well as the back up (nutering apppointment for Royal Augest 3rd) anyway Royal and Mignon take turns being confined to a pet taxi when i cant be at home or at night when were asleep their good about the potty boxes and respect each others potty times but will fight at any given time if one looks at the other wrong i keep the squirt bottle handy to break them up the only time waving it and saying squirt squirt with out actually useing it dosent work lol so anyway if the younger isnt fixed yet that could be an issue , but when i first got Mignon i had a 3 y/o cat already RainDrop and she hated him he was a week old when his bio mom(feral) dropped him at my feet and refused to take him back and he was fostered with my sisters cat who had a liter a week and a half older untill at 8 weeks he got sick wouldnt eat drink or play i was able to nurse him ack but it was a hard road and he eededa lot of extra attention untill then Rainey had been my baby girl but she was also showing other signs of agression like bitting my roomies eyelid while she slept try the calming colar and either Feliway difuser or Natures MIricle calming spray it might help and dont rule out jelousy we ended up having to rehome Rainey though shed been mine sence about 5 weeks of ge found under the nebighors porch but she was just geeting much too violent to keep not just with Mignon but my roomie and my self as well the final straw was when she attacked my senior dog who was recently diagnosed with diabetis whom shed been raised around and knew loved her. so i wish you luck with Nala sometimes i guess they just need to be the only kitty.
 
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BlazenlyObvious

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question are they both fixed? right now my two males are having issues due to the vet being closed most of last year due to covid our 2 y/o male isnt nutered yet and his daddy 7 y/o Mignon cant be (due to issues with anestesia when he was a younger cat) our vet also recently retired and the new vet who took over is higher so moneys a factor as well as the back up (nutering apppointment for Royal Augest 3rd) anyway Royal and Mignon take turns being confined to a pet taxi when i cant be at home or at night when were asleep their good about the potty boxes and respect each others potty times but will fight at any given time if one looks at the other wrong i keep the squirt bottle handy to break them up the only time waving it and saying squirt squirt with out actually useing it dosent work lol so anyway if the younger isnt fixed yet that could be an issue , but when i first got Mignon i had a 3 y/o cat already RainDrop and she hated him he was a week old when his bio mom(feral) dropped him at my feet and refused to take him back and he was fostered with my sisters cat who had a liter a week and a half older untill at 8 weeks he got sick wouldnt eat drink or play i was able to nurse him ack but it was a hard road and he eededa lot of extra attention untill then Rainey had been my baby girl but she was also showing other signs of agression like bitting my roomies eyelid while she slept try the calming colar and either Feliway difuser or Natures MIricle calming spray it might help and dont rule out jelousy we ended up having to rehome Rainey though shed been mine sence about 5 weeks of ge found under the nebighors porch but she was just geeting much too violent to keep not just with Mignon but my roomie and my self as well the final straw was when she attacked my senior dog who was recently diagnosed with diabetis whom shed been raised around and knew loved her. so i wish you luck with Nala sometimes i guess they just need to be the only kitty.
All of my kitties are fixed. I’m sorry to hear everything going on with your kitties. Nala barely wanted to take care of her kittens when they were practically newborns, so she’s never been keen on other felines. I can’t keep having Bennie terrified of everyone and everything, and I can’t keep having Nala beating up the other cats whenever she’s in a bad mood
 
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BlazenlyObvious

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Update: This morning I discovered that there was urine in and around the water bowls AGAIN (disgusting) and while I was feeding the cats (everyone was downstairs except for Bennie waiting for food) Bennie was upstairs and pooped in the tub again.
I have confined Nala in my bedroom with food and a litterbox to see if Bennie’s behavior stops now that Nala can’t attack her.
If her behavior does stop, I’ll know Nala is the issue.My boyfriend and I have already discussed if we will need to find Nala a new home or not, and it’s really breaking my heart.
 

LeiLatte

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I’m sorry they’re not getting along. When I see people’s pictures of their many cats together getting along, it amazes me and I’m envious!

I have 4 because the first kitty attacked the second cat we got. Then the third kitty, he also attacked him only sometimes and the cat didn’t like it or want to play enough. The 4th cat got along well with the first one.

So now I keep them separated in pairs. I can sometimes let them out together but I always have to keep either the first or second kitty away from each other in another room. It was stressing the second kitty out to be attacked all the time and she would scream.
 
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BlazenlyObvious

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I’m sorry they’re not getting along. When I see people’s pictures of their many cats together getting along, it amazes me and I’m envious!

I have 4 because the first kitty attacked the second cat we got. Then the third kitty, he also attacked him only sometimes and the cat didn’t like it or want to play enough. The 4th cat got along well with the first one.

So now I keep them separated in pairs. I can sometimes let them out together but I always have to keep either the first or second kitty away from each other in another room. It was stressing the second kitty out to be attacked all the time and she would scream.
For the most part all 6 of my kitties get along. The occasional disagreement between them but they all play and snuggle from time to time. Throwing Nala into the mix completely throws that off, though. If I could keep them separated and happy I would, but as I’m typing this Nala is crying because she’s stuck in that room and doesn’t have access to the whole house.
 

Gaffney

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I have 7 cats in my household. They all get along great, minus a few skirmishes then and again but everyone (minus Nala) treats each other well. Nala, on the other hand, doesn’t.
We found Nala in a parking lot almost 2 years ago now, she’s probably around 3-4 years old. She was pregnant when we found her and we also have her only surviving kitten, Tiana. Nala is very much an independent cat, she doesn’t like the other cats bothering her and will pick fights with almost all the cats (minus our two older males, Chester and Scorpius, who are 7 and 5). This includes her own daughter.
She’s never hurt anyone and they’ve all been little skirmishes and chasing, and most of the cats just leave her alone and there’s normally peace. However, our youngest, Bennie, is suddenly terrified of Nala.
I don’t know what happened, but Nala won’t let Bennie downstairs to the basement to use the litterboxes. If Bennie sees Nala, she starts growling, and if she gets too close to Nala, Nala will go after her. The other day Nala actually drew blood and had a claw stuck in Bennie’s forehead (thankfully nothing bad just a small scratch on her cheek). I think that’s what started all this but I’m not sure, it was in the middle of the night.
Since Nala won’t let Bennie in the basement, Bennie is pooping in the bathtub and peeing in the tub or in front of the water dishes (just happened once this morning) instead of trying to go downstairs.
Obviously this can’t continue.
I kept Nala because I didn’t want her to feel abandoned AGAIN, and she’s a good cat when not around the other cats. We’ve had her for almost two years now.
I’m not sure what to do. I’d hate to have to find Nala a new home, I love her, but I know she’d do better in a single cat home. She’s special to me, though, and I’d hate to do that to her.
I know there’s calming collars I can try and there’s also that plug-in diffuser (I can’t think of the brand name right now for some reason) that can help with cat aggression.
And I don’t really have the ability to separate the two cats with having 5 others. My bathroom is too small to fit a litterbox in, and I know if I stick one in there the other cats will try and use it too (and my oldest has a tendency to miss the box completely 😅)

I’m just really not sure what to do.I can’t keep having two cats fighting like this, and I can’t keep cleaning cat feces and urine around the house because my youngest is too scared to go to the basement.
Check out Jackson Galaxy on YouTube (cat mojo). He has the best advice on cat issues and everything cat related. You can even send in a submission asking for advice and help. He's helped me adjust my older cat and younger cat who were fighting. It turns out my oldest wasn't used to the other cat's scent. I hope this helps!
 
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