- Joined
- Nov 18, 2015
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It has been a while since I have been on here since I didn't have internet in my house for several months so a few quick updates on my cat household:
In January I took in a pregnant cat named Stormy. She and her kittens stayed with me until the end of May but had their own room and during this time I did not introduce my cats to them as I planned on finding homes for them once they were old enough. My cats were very aware there were other cats in the house they heard them meowing and got used to their scent however I managed to keep them apart until the kittens were over 10 weeks old and I had found a home for Stormy. I ended up deciding to keep 2 of the kittens and since June I have been trying to introduce them gradually to my resident cats.
Everything was going pretty smoothly until mid June during a heatwave when I could not keep the kittens in their own part of the house due to a lack of air conditioning. The kittens had been spending time in the same room as the rest of the cats for part of the day and all seemed to be accepting each other but I only had allowed them to be together while I was able to supervise them and I kept them separate at night and when I was not home. During the heatwave I was unable to keep them separate because the part of the house that I normally had the kittens in was too hot and had to have the cats and kittens together in an 600 sq ft converted attic space/bedroom all day and night for a couple of weeks.
During this time the kittens were spending a lot of time in the bed. My cat Treasure would not go on the bed as long as they were there (this is her favorite place to sleep). She would go hide somewhere or sit up on the cat trees all day and was very withdrawn. Suddenly she began going on the bed again and being more social and acting more "comfortable" around the kittens. As soon as she returned to sleeping in the bed I noticed the bed smelled of urine and saw she was spraying the bed and nightstand and the wall/baseboard next to the bed. She also sprayed on me while I was sleeping and all over my sheets and blankets a couple of times, which was shocking. Many, many times she would spray the bed right in front of me, looking directly at me. She would pace back and forth across the bed while I was sleeping, often waking me up, and start spraying and I would wake up to the smell of urine.
It seemed so bizarre that she was acting as if she was accepting the kittens, playing with them and sharing the space, yet she was spraying. She has never sprayed. After taking her to the vet it was clearly not a case of a UTI or some other medical condition. They said it was probably due to stress and all the changes that happened in my house with the cats and recommended trying calming collars and feliway. They thought she was just spraying as a way of coping with the stress of introducing the kittens suddenly and having them stuck in a small area together which she wasn't used to.
I tried feliway plugins, feliway spray, calming collars, pretty much everything except putting her on Prozac. The strange thing is that her behavior around the kittens doesn't seem like she is stressed but more territorial marking behavior. She now bullies the kittens and does whatever she can to make them uncomfortable around her and is also fighting with my other cats who have bonded with the kittens. She seems to be happy when she is by herself in her own room and as long as the kittens are not in the room she is happy being around my other cats. The biggest thing that she seems to be reacting to is the kittens scent being on things that she thinks belong to her. If the kittens try to sleep in the bed, play with the toys that she thinks are "hers", etc she will actually spray on the cat toys and then the kittens will not use them. She also started spraying directly on their toys.
I have purchased additional cat trees, cat beds, cat toys, etc and none of it seems to be helping. She seems to feel threatened by the kittens being in "her" space even though all they want is to make friends with her and will try to take ownership of anything I introduce into the room. Trying to get the urine smell out of the room has been hard. It seems that no matter how much I clean things still stink. It's horrible. I really just want her to be happy. If I have to throw the bed out and buy a new one I can deal with that, but I feel awful that deciding to keep these 2 kittens has completely turned her world upsidedown. The bedroom was always her safe spot and I have no idea how to give that back to her.
In January I took in a pregnant cat named Stormy. She and her kittens stayed with me until the end of May but had their own room and during this time I did not introduce my cats to them as I planned on finding homes for them once they were old enough. My cats were very aware there were other cats in the house they heard them meowing and got used to their scent however I managed to keep them apart until the kittens were over 10 weeks old and I had found a home for Stormy. I ended up deciding to keep 2 of the kittens and since June I have been trying to introduce them gradually to my resident cats.
Everything was going pretty smoothly until mid June during a heatwave when I could not keep the kittens in their own part of the house due to a lack of air conditioning. The kittens had been spending time in the same room as the rest of the cats for part of the day and all seemed to be accepting each other but I only had allowed them to be together while I was able to supervise them and I kept them separate at night and when I was not home. During the heatwave I was unable to keep them separate because the part of the house that I normally had the kittens in was too hot and had to have the cats and kittens together in an 600 sq ft converted attic space/bedroom all day and night for a couple of weeks.
During this time the kittens were spending a lot of time in the bed. My cat Treasure would not go on the bed as long as they were there (this is her favorite place to sleep). She would go hide somewhere or sit up on the cat trees all day and was very withdrawn. Suddenly she began going on the bed again and being more social and acting more "comfortable" around the kittens. As soon as she returned to sleeping in the bed I noticed the bed smelled of urine and saw she was spraying the bed and nightstand and the wall/baseboard next to the bed. She also sprayed on me while I was sleeping and all over my sheets and blankets a couple of times, which was shocking. Many, many times she would spray the bed right in front of me, looking directly at me. She would pace back and forth across the bed while I was sleeping, often waking me up, and start spraying and I would wake up to the smell of urine.
It seemed so bizarre that she was acting as if she was accepting the kittens, playing with them and sharing the space, yet she was spraying. She has never sprayed. After taking her to the vet it was clearly not a case of a UTI or some other medical condition. They said it was probably due to stress and all the changes that happened in my house with the cats and recommended trying calming collars and feliway. They thought she was just spraying as a way of coping with the stress of introducing the kittens suddenly and having them stuck in a small area together which she wasn't used to.
I tried feliway plugins, feliway spray, calming collars, pretty much everything except putting her on Prozac. The strange thing is that her behavior around the kittens doesn't seem like she is stressed but more territorial marking behavior. She now bullies the kittens and does whatever she can to make them uncomfortable around her and is also fighting with my other cats who have bonded with the kittens. She seems to be happy when she is by herself in her own room and as long as the kittens are not in the room she is happy being around my other cats. The biggest thing that she seems to be reacting to is the kittens scent being on things that she thinks belong to her. If the kittens try to sleep in the bed, play with the toys that she thinks are "hers", etc she will actually spray on the cat toys and then the kittens will not use them. She also started spraying directly on their toys.
I have purchased additional cat trees, cat beds, cat toys, etc and none of it seems to be helping. She seems to feel threatened by the kittens being in "her" space even though all they want is to make friends with her and will try to take ownership of anything I introduce into the room. Trying to get the urine smell out of the room has been hard. It seems that no matter how much I clean things still stink. It's horrible. I really just want her to be happy. If I have to throw the bed out and buy a new one I can deal with that, but I feel awful that deciding to keep these 2 kittens has completely turned her world upsidedown. The bedroom was always her safe spot and I have no idea how to give that back to her.
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