Brotherly love.. not so much now.

Nacho and Orion love each other. Er.. they used to anyway. Anyone who has ever seen pics of them could tell that they could never be separated.

But in the past 3 or 4 days they have been at each others throats. Literally.
We have been having multiple fur flying fights a day in between the two of them.

I can't even tell which one starts it. Orion will be sitting away from the patio door, looking out it, and Nacho is sitting at the patio door, and looks at Orion, then screams bloody murder and they go to war.

It mostly only happens at night..or morning. During the afternoon they are pretty well always sleeping.

It's driving my mum crazy.. because she is the only one who sleeps with the door open, and they keep her up all night.
I really don't want to separate them at night if I don't have to, then I have to decide how to separate the other three as well. Which would go with who, and such. (Poptart and Nacho.. then Orion and the other two would be my best bet. Cappy, the little monster should probably be on his own as well!)
My house is becoming a battle zone, and I dont' know what to do about it.

Could it be an alpha post dispute? One of them is not well? Strange cats/female in heat outside?
The one who starts it is the one who goes forward towards the other one.

I think it's Nacho then.But I wasn't sure if Orion was instigating it by giving him 'dirty looks'.

When I worked at the cat rescu, I saw my fair share of those looks.. enough to start a 20 cat pile up.

The female in heat is the only thing I can think of. As well as the strange cats. I think we had 2 cats dropped off around here(or someone moved to the area) and they keep coming up to the patio door. Nacho always screams when they come up there.. but they always take off and I haven't had a problem. This has been going on for a little over a month now. But the problems only recently started?

And I really don't know which of the 5 are alpha.. How do you tell?

I sat with them last night and pet the both of them when they were together. Made them lay down beside each other and continued petting them. Then Nacho came and laid down with me while i was watching a movie. (he hasn't been really affectionate the past few days either) and purred and kneaded the blanket.

No fighting last night.. but a bit of attitude this morning.

Originally Posted by Leto86

which of the 5 are alpha.. How do you tell?

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The one nobody argues with. When the alpha has a toy or snacks on a treat no one comes and tries to get it. The alpha occupies the highest spot in the cat tree/cabinet/shelves... The alpha walks by, the rest of the cats either follow, or sit and let him pass, or take a step back.
But remember, the alpha title changes hands often.

They all share the same dish, and even wait turns if there are heads in the dish already.

If I had to choose one.. it would be Cappy. He is always fighting with everyone, and the only one that doens't cuddle up with the others.

I really don't know who is.

I had siblings (m/f) that were inseperable for 7 years, then one day just couldn't stand each other. I never figured out why, but they could be across the room from each other and hiss. He started hanging with a different cat and she did the same. This went on for about 4 years and then just as suddenly as it started they got along again. My family decided that the other cats in the family changed the dynamics and the male sibling became the alpha over everyone and she lost her equal status. In those 4 years I lost some of my older cats and they got to be the elders, of sorts, and when he no longer needed to assert himself over her to gain his status he calmed down and went back to being her brother. This might be the case with yours and the cats outside. We found by treating them equal and spending special time with each one, they hissed less and found their own security. Good luck

i had exactly the same problem with my 2 toms billeye and buddy. They where together from weeks old, and where the best of friends. Up in till they where just over a year old, then they started to attack each other. It got so bad that billeye almost lost his eye in one of the fights and then stopped coming home altogether. Things went down hill very quickly. Even separating them into separate rooms did not work as they could still smell each other. They where both being protective over me and also there sister rani. I had them castrated, I tried a pheromone diffuser I tried all sorts. In the end I had to find one of them a home. He went to an only cat home and was a lot happier!
Billeye was always happier with other cats.

They seem to be doing a lot better.

Today they were snuggling and grooming each other.. so I'm taking that as a good sign.