About a year ago we adopted two female kittens who are littermates. Prior to that we had just one female adult cat. Our thinking was that since that adult cat once coexisted with another cat in the past, that this shouldn't an issue.
As the kittens grew, however the behavior of the larger new one toward the "original" cat has gotten very aggressive. It's worth noting that the "original" cat is a runt, so she is undersized. She also wasn't terribly social to begin with.
Anyways, as time wore on, the two of them never seemed to click. And the aggression between the two (new cat on older cat) seems to have escalated. The new cat regularly stalks the original cat. Sometimes she will prevent the original cat from getting to the water bowl, or stop her from getting out of a room. She will just sit and watch and wait. The older cat doesn't move because she knows that she will just be attacked the moment she tries to leave.
We have been trying various things to get the behavior to improve. All of the cats are wearing pheromone/calming collars, and we have plug-ins throughout the house. None of that seems to have done much good.
All of this stress has taken a toll on the original cat. She is constantly grooming herself, giving herself bald patches, and actively tries to hide from the other cats in the house. We rarely see her anymore unless we are in the main bedroom she seems to like hanging out in.
Initially the thinking was that the bigger new cat was just trying to get the original cat to play. To this point the original cat has shown no interest in socializing or playing with the other cats. But as the aggression has increased, we are starting to believe this is about territory. The bigger "newer" cat is wanting to stake her claim and make the original cat's life difficult. She does not exhibit this behavior toward her litter mate sister, who is also undersized. Only toward the original cat.
At this point we don't know what to do. While I love the bigger new cat, this kind of aggression toward another cat isn't something that we can tolerate much longer, so we would have to adopt her out to someone else.
As the kittens grew, however the behavior of the larger new one toward the "original" cat has gotten very aggressive. It's worth noting that the "original" cat is a runt, so she is undersized. She also wasn't terribly social to begin with.
Anyways, as time wore on, the two of them never seemed to click. And the aggression between the two (new cat on older cat) seems to have escalated. The new cat regularly stalks the original cat. Sometimes she will prevent the original cat from getting to the water bowl, or stop her from getting out of a room. She will just sit and watch and wait. The older cat doesn't move because she knows that she will just be attacked the moment she tries to leave.
We have been trying various things to get the behavior to improve. All of the cats are wearing pheromone/calming collars, and we have plug-ins throughout the house. None of that seems to have done much good.
All of this stress has taken a toll on the original cat. She is constantly grooming herself, giving herself bald patches, and actively tries to hide from the other cats in the house. We rarely see her anymore unless we are in the main bedroom she seems to like hanging out in.
Initially the thinking was that the bigger new cat was just trying to get the original cat to play. To this point the original cat has shown no interest in socializing or playing with the other cats. But as the aggression has increased, we are starting to believe this is about territory. The bigger "newer" cat is wanting to stake her claim and make the original cat's life difficult. She does not exhibit this behavior toward her litter mate sister, who is also undersized. Only toward the original cat.
At this point we don't know what to do. While I love the bigger new cat, this kind of aggression toward another cat isn't something that we can tolerate much longer, so we would have to adopt her out to someone else.
