(Sorry for the long post)
I have been looking around at some of the behavioral posts and I don't see any that address my issue(s). There are probably posts that address each issue I am having, but I didn't know if what I should do would change considering the other issues I'm having.
A little background:
We have 4 cats and we live in a heavy traffic area so all four cats stay inside (we do have a screened in porch so they do get to see the real world quite often). Petra is our oldest cat, she's about 11 years old. Cleo is about 5 or 6. We had both of them before we moved into our current house. They seemed to get along fine, no agression as a matter of fact it was common to see Petra grooming Cleo. (We think Cleo may be Petra's grand daughter if that means anything in cat world) After we were living here a year or so we rescued a kitten on our road that was in pretty bad shape. We kept her in the basement for a while until she got healthy enough to find her a home. But, of course by that time we had gotten atached to her and given her the name Connie so we brought her upstairs. After this Petra started pooping outside the cat box on the floor surounding the box. Petra and Cleo never have really taken to Connie but I've not noticed any agression towards her. There was the occasional spraying by Cleo as she was not fixed at this time. We had Connie fixed not too long after she was old enough to do so. Now, about a year ago we rescued another small kitten on the road while visiting my parents. We brought her in cleaned her up, named her Leela and took her to the vet several times to get her healthy. Up until about two months ago we had two "teams", Cleo and Petra go along and interacted fine and Connie and Leela would play and get along together. Then Leela went into heat and Petra attacked her and Connie soon followed. Now Connie and Leela can't be in the same room together with out Connie attacking Leela. Petra also attacks her but not as often. Leela will not leave the bedroom unless she follows one of us out in the morning. Cleo seems to care less about any of it. Connie has also started spraying.
So, to recap, my problems are:
1) How do we get Petra to start using the box again.
2) How can we mend the relationship between Leela and Connie/Petra.
3) How can we get Connie to stop spraying (I'm guessing if we fix #2 this will stop also)
After reading a few articles online this is what we are currently planning on doing. We are going to shut Connie up in the upstairs bathroom with a personal litter box and food/water vessel. We are going to shut Leela up in the downstairs office with the same items and we are going to leave them in there 24hrs a day for several days/weeks. This way Connie has her territory, Leela will be safe and maybe since Connie and Leela won't be using any of the "Public" cat boxes Petra will start doing #2 inside the box again.
Whattya think? Should that work? I hate to lock them up, I'm affraid they'll think we are punishing them but I don't know what else to do.
Sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure I gave every detail. We are very stressed about this and we really don't want to have to get rid of any of them.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks,
Matt
I have been looking around at some of the behavioral posts and I don't see any that address my issue(s). There are probably posts that address each issue I am having, but I didn't know if what I should do would change considering the other issues I'm having.
A little background:
We have 4 cats and we live in a heavy traffic area so all four cats stay inside (we do have a screened in porch so they do get to see the real world quite often). Petra is our oldest cat, she's about 11 years old. Cleo is about 5 or 6. We had both of them before we moved into our current house. They seemed to get along fine, no agression as a matter of fact it was common to see Petra grooming Cleo. (We think Cleo may be Petra's grand daughter if that means anything in cat world) After we were living here a year or so we rescued a kitten on our road that was in pretty bad shape. We kept her in the basement for a while until she got healthy enough to find her a home. But, of course by that time we had gotten atached to her and given her the name Connie so we brought her upstairs. After this Petra started pooping outside the cat box on the floor surounding the box. Petra and Cleo never have really taken to Connie but I've not noticed any agression towards her. There was the occasional spraying by Cleo as she was not fixed at this time. We had Connie fixed not too long after she was old enough to do so. Now, about a year ago we rescued another small kitten on the road while visiting my parents. We brought her in cleaned her up, named her Leela and took her to the vet several times to get her healthy. Up until about two months ago we had two "teams", Cleo and Petra go along and interacted fine and Connie and Leela would play and get along together. Then Leela went into heat and Petra attacked her and Connie soon followed. Now Connie and Leela can't be in the same room together with out Connie attacking Leela. Petra also attacks her but not as often. Leela will not leave the bedroom unless she follows one of us out in the morning. Cleo seems to care less about any of it. Connie has also started spraying.
So, to recap, my problems are:
1) How do we get Petra to start using the box again.
2) How can we mend the relationship between Leela and Connie/Petra.
3) How can we get Connie to stop spraying (I'm guessing if we fix #2 this will stop also)
After reading a few articles online this is what we are currently planning on doing. We are going to shut Connie up in the upstairs bathroom with a personal litter box and food/water vessel. We are going to shut Leela up in the downstairs office with the same items and we are going to leave them in there 24hrs a day for several days/weeks. This way Connie has her territory, Leela will be safe and maybe since Connie and Leela won't be using any of the "Public" cat boxes Petra will start doing #2 inside the box again.
Whattya think? Should that work? I hate to lock them up, I'm affraid they'll think we are punishing them but I don't know what else to do.
Sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure I gave every detail. We are very stressed about this and we really don't want to have to get rid of any of them.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks,
Matt