Male Cats Fighting At Night

[Heather427]

About a month ago, I took in my parents 10 year old male cat. We have a 3 year male cat so I was nervous about introducing the 2 to each other. I read a lot of articles online and gave the new cat his own space in our guest bedroom for the first couple of weeks so they could smell each other through the door. We gradually introduced them and all seemed fine. We recently moved the new cats litter box to the basement where the other cats is and now for the past couple of nights they will start chasing each other hissing and making noises. All seems fine during the day, but at night we will hear something and then it sounds like they are fighting. Can someone please help?

 

[talkingpeanut]

Are they neutered?

 

[Heather427]

Are they neutered?

Yeah they both are neutered.

 

[ArtNJ]

You mentioned hissing, which isn't normally found in play fighting, so yeah, they are going at it a bit. It is not the end of the world if it happens once a day, as long as there are no real injuries from it, which is uncommon. There are often different sounds when a fight is intense and one cat feels seriously threatened that are different from routine growls and hisses, and that sort of fighting colors the entire relationship - you would see changes during the day as well. So it probably isn't serious at this point. Still, you could try creating some spaces for the older cat to have privacy/a more defensible position, like a cat tree with an elevated perch.

 

[jcat]

Have you tried moving the litter box back upstairs? Cats can be "sitting ducks" while using the box, so it's best to allow the potential victim(s) a couple of options to avoid the bully. Sometimes all it takes to prevent conflict is having a couple of boxes spread throughout the house. That might also keep inappropriate elimination caused by fear from developing.

 

[TopCatLady]

My cats fought when I first introduced a new one, but after about 6 weeks the old one began to accept the new one - I gave them separate litter trays, and fed them in different places, and tried to not favour too much one or yhe other with cuddles..I also tried to initiate games with them both , eg chasing a piece of string, or a cat tunnel to hide in ...

 

[kissthisangel]

having a few litter options can help, General rule of thumb is cats+1 = how many litterboxes you need. Giving them more territory means expanding upwards. More cat furniture, more shelves more scratching posts. You want to make them feel like they own some territory. You can also help by seperating their feeding areas so that they don't come into conflict over food.