Well, its been several weeks since I introduced a few month old flame point siamese into our home and to our 25lb very large 5 year old male orange tabby domestic shorthair.
the flamepoint was a rescue, and due to his behavior and the location he was picked up, it appears he was abandoned when he started spraying and clawing things. his behavior has slowly been improving, no spraying, and he is slowly learning not to shred our carpeting or matresses or jump on the kitchen counters.
this last week he has been allowed to roam the house, and has even spent a night or two outside of the rooms he had been confined to the first couple weeks.
when we brought the siamese home, both cats had very negative behavior, and it has slowly gotten better, but it has taken forever, even with carefull scent introduction and feliway products.
at this point, they will groom eachother, play with eachother, and enjoy running around the house together, they have even been caught sleeping next to eachother.
however, some negative behaviors still exist. first, our DSH orange tabby named "beefy"...has been trying to over eat since the newcommer has been added to the house, i am still having to watch his diet carefully, as he gained a couple pounds before i removed his automatic feeder. he had never over eaten ever before, and always prefered canned food over dry, and rarely touched the dry food...but since the siamese we call "Nai Lehn" has been in the house, beefy wants more food at every waking moment. and before i get yelled at...beefy is very large, he currently is not overweight...his shoulder height is currently 14 inches and a nose to tail lenth of over 29 inches.
the siamese is half grown at this point, with massive paws, and after finally being on a good diet, he has regained the weight he lost while he was feral, and is now about 13 pounds...not a small kitty by any means.
the issue i have currently, is that at times, beefy or nailehn will be cranky or tired, and in no mood to play. they both have boundary issues and refuse to back off and find something else to do when the other is in a bad mood. at that point i either have to seperate them, or a conflict results.
they were very hostile towards eachother the first week, but after week three they seemed to get along very well...however, the last few days, i have used canned air shot at the ceiling several feet away from the cats to break up some rather serious fights. beefy has incurred very little damage from these last few scuffles, he has a very thick undercoat and sheds constantly, and i have not seen any wounds...however, nailehn has recived the bad end of the scuffles, and has some new scratches under his thin coat. not only is there significant size differance, but the scuffles have resulted in damage to the flamepoint...oddly enough, my cat is the first one to break off and run. I only allow them out when i can supervise since the first scuffle occured 2 days ago.
i am wondering, will this behavior stop? i have had people telling me that they shouldnt be allowed together much because of this, and others telling me, they will have to scuffle some untill they can learn to live with eachother. which is right? because of the size differance, i worry about the flame point...he is a scrapper, and doesnt let the size issue or his thin fur bother him...and beefy doesnt normally behave this way, but in the past before i confined him to indoors only, when he would get into a catfight, it wasnt good...he would "win", but some of the damage was very severe.
i am afraid to just "let them figure it out for themselves"...because i am worried the fighting is actually doing more harm than good, and I dont want to see either of these cats harmed. any help on this would be appriciated!
p.s. some pictures of the cats
the flamepoint was a rescue, and due to his behavior and the location he was picked up, it appears he was abandoned when he started spraying and clawing things. his behavior has slowly been improving, no spraying, and he is slowly learning not to shred our carpeting or matresses or jump on the kitchen counters.
this last week he has been allowed to roam the house, and has even spent a night or two outside of the rooms he had been confined to the first couple weeks.
when we brought the siamese home, both cats had very negative behavior, and it has slowly gotten better, but it has taken forever, even with carefull scent introduction and feliway products.
at this point, they will groom eachother, play with eachother, and enjoy running around the house together, they have even been caught sleeping next to eachother.
however, some negative behaviors still exist. first, our DSH orange tabby named "beefy"...has been trying to over eat since the newcommer has been added to the house, i am still having to watch his diet carefully, as he gained a couple pounds before i removed his automatic feeder. he had never over eaten ever before, and always prefered canned food over dry, and rarely touched the dry food...but since the siamese we call "Nai Lehn" has been in the house, beefy wants more food at every waking moment. and before i get yelled at...beefy is very large, he currently is not overweight...his shoulder height is currently 14 inches and a nose to tail lenth of over 29 inches.
the siamese is half grown at this point, with massive paws, and after finally being on a good diet, he has regained the weight he lost while he was feral, and is now about 13 pounds...not a small kitty by any means.
the issue i have currently, is that at times, beefy or nailehn will be cranky or tired, and in no mood to play. they both have boundary issues and refuse to back off and find something else to do when the other is in a bad mood. at that point i either have to seperate them, or a conflict results.
they were very hostile towards eachother the first week, but after week three they seemed to get along very well...however, the last few days, i have used canned air shot at the ceiling several feet away from the cats to break up some rather serious fights. beefy has incurred very little damage from these last few scuffles, he has a very thick undercoat and sheds constantly, and i have not seen any wounds...however, nailehn has recived the bad end of the scuffles, and has some new scratches under his thin coat. not only is there significant size differance, but the scuffles have resulted in damage to the flamepoint...oddly enough, my cat is the first one to break off and run. I only allow them out when i can supervise since the first scuffle occured 2 days ago.
i am wondering, will this behavior stop? i have had people telling me that they shouldnt be allowed together much because of this, and others telling me, they will have to scuffle some untill they can learn to live with eachother. which is right? because of the size differance, i worry about the flame point...he is a scrapper, and doesnt let the size issue or his thin fur bother him...and beefy doesnt normally behave this way, but in the past before i confined him to indoors only, when he would get into a catfight, it wasnt good...he would "win", but some of the damage was very severe.
i am afraid to just "let them figure it out for themselves"...because i am worried the fighting is actually doing more harm than good, and I dont want to see either of these cats harmed. any help on this would be appriciated!
p.s. some pictures of the cats
