If the group is stable enough, it doesn't happen. A kitten coming of age, loss of an alpha, or illness in the alpha can upset the balance.Originally Posted by merrytreecats
I've never seen this among cats already living together.
Ootay (rb 5/09) was Top Cat here and kept every one in line. I was very interested in seeing who would take over that position. Two females (ages 3 and 5) and a male (he was 10). The girls unanimously elected my Tolly boy. I was very surprised at first, but I guess I can see why, or perhaps it was easier to elect the Boy, who loves everyone, than fight it out among each other.Originally Posted by strange_wings
If the group is stable enough, it doesn't happen. A kitten coming of age, loss of an alpha, or illness in the alpha can upset the balance.
I know there's a few on here that lost their long time alpha cats and had some chaos in the home for months after.
I agree. My 15 year old Stumpy has been alpha since he was 18 months old in spite of the fact that he's had an auto-immune disease most of his life. The only time that things got upset during that time was when his illness got seriously bad, and even then the other cats didn't attack him, they only got testy with each other (it's been 4 years since that happened and the remaining pecking order wasn't sorted out in my house then). I actually don't expect chaos when I lose Stumpy, as it is now clear that Spanky will step in immediately to fill that role. He already plays that role when Stumpy is ill but then immediately defers to Stumpy when he is feeling better.Originally Posted by strange_wings
If the group is stable enough, it doesn't happen. A kitten coming of age, loss of an alpha, or illness in the alpha can upset the balance.
I know there's a few on here that lost their long time alpha cats and had some chaos in the home for months after.