My cats vs my mom's cats

paul n steve

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
25
Purraise
1
Location
Iowa
Ok- 4 cats total living in a nice sized home. (1 girl, 3 boys- all spade & neutered)  My 2 cats (Steve and Paul) and I live in the basement. There is plenty of light & windows, food & water, beds and comfy high spots for them down there.  I let them come upstairs in the morning (between 4am and noon) but then they have to go back down to the basement when I go back to work for the rest of the day until 5. 

My moms 2 cats, Petey and Shirley stay upstairs all day. Recently, when Steve and Paul come upstairs in the morning, Petey goes and hides in the bedroom. He seems to be intimidated by my cats. Steve is the alpha cat and when he sees Petey, he just stares at him. I try to break the stare off by trying to play with toys and redirecting the attention to something else. Petey still runs off to the bedroom. I feel so bad- this is Peteys home too and he feels scared it seems. Petey has been over grooming also, he has lost a little bit of hair on his legs and has small little bite marks from licking and just grooming waaaay to much. 

Is there any way to get Steve and Petey to like each other? Steve can be a bully sometimes, he hisses a lot but isn't aggressive. He bullies Paul around sometimes but they are brothers and play all the time, groom each other, roll around and chase each other. When I say he bullies Paul, I mean if Paul is sitting on a chair that Steve wants, Steve will jump up and nibble Pauls fur to get him to move. 

Also- I thought this was kind of funny. I have always had one food bowl and one water bowl downstairs. Well, recently I gave Paul his own little food dish by his favorite box. (You can see it in the picture below I think) I pretty much taught Paul thats HIS food dish. When Steve goes near it and eats out of it, all I need to do is say "Steve!" in THAT tone of voice, and he knows to leave it alone and goes to his own food dish. He's doing pretty good now and seems to understand thats Pauls 'property'. Steve hardly ever sleeps in Pauls box, thats really Paul Pauls special spot. I know that cats don't exactly know whos food dish is whos and I never want to discourage them from feeling free to eat- but I gave Paul his own food dish because of Steve being a little alphaish and also he's bigger than Paul and I noticed sometimes when Paul was eating out of the food bowl, Steve would jump in causing Paul to leave the food dish. 

So last night, I was watching a movie in the dark and Paul was laying with me on my bed. I heard "crunch crunch crunch" and sat up to see who I THOUGHT was Steve sneaking a bite from Pauls food dish- so I said, "STEVE!" and "Steve" didn't move (like he normally would when I say his name like that) But it happened to really be Paul- who didn't move at all- he kinda turned his head to me as if he was saying, "Mom, it's ME, PAUL" LOL! I noticed Steve was up on his cat bed on the shelf. I felt so bad when I yelled Steves name and it was actually Paul. But he knew that he wasn't doing anything wrong because #1- Paul hardly EVER does anything wrong and #2- I believe they know their own names- 

I ALWAYS say their names when I talk to them, and I talk to them ALLLL the time, hehehe. They're my only friends sometimes!!


Steve and Paul 
 

allenkm

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
393
Purraise
17
Location
Madison, Wisconsin USA
I also feed my cat brothers from separate dishes for similar reasons to yours and I think that is great
. I do feel bad for your mom's cat though. What about not letting yours up stairs at all? I think they would be fine staying down stairs. Also you can try Feliway cat pheromones that work like a glade plug in. They will calm the nervous cat. It is vet recommended. Otherwise I have learned "eat, play, love" from animal planet. Basically get the two cats to eat treats or food in site of each other, slowly moving them closer over time. Have them play together like with a wand toy. They will start to realize good things happen when they are together.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

paul n steve

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
25
Purraise
1
Location
Iowa
Thats a good idea! I can use the stringy fishing pole to make them 'happy & playful' when they're together and soon they'll realize that playtime and treats happen when their together! Good one
 
Top