Our first cat, male, is suddenly beating up on the last cat we got nine months ago.

Quick background:  We got our first cat, Stormy (male) in August of 2010  (not completely sure, but suspect that it might be a Chartreux, or at least part) ; then we got a female Tortie, Oct 2010 (Pumpkin); finally we got a female Tux, Menuet (Mennie for short).  They were all approximately the same age and all got along pretty well until....mom-in-law and sis-in-law moved in with us around two months ago.  My wife's mother brought an older (around 9?) male rescue (Roscoe) with her.  We tried not to rush introducing them, but that whole thing just hasn't jelled; our cats still see him as an intruder and it comes to "fistipaws" each time.  Our male, Stormy, although he growls and hisses at Roscoe, doesn't make a physical move at him, but then after so much growling and hissing, Roscoe usually lunges/chases at Sotrmy.

Now, we have just about decided to keep Roscoe in my mom-in-law's room.  Nevertheless, starting around a month ago, Stormy started attacking Mennie, with no apparent provocation.  It's gotten bad, with him biting off big chunks of fur.  Now we have to separate them too.

We're at our wit's end over this.  Any suggestions are gladly accepted!

David

They seem stressed... A little too many different people, and also different cats...

You people are perhaps also stressed??  Cats are feeling such.

There is remedy for this. A Feliway diffuser, or even two at different places... It may help.

Also playing calm, soft music is good. Classical harp music is best, but almost any will do.

You can also make more places for the cats by building in 3D... so they can climb up.  This way they will have easier for getting from each others way, not disturbing.

And they will also have more to do, and have more fun... Unloading the stress and tensions.

Good luck!  *vibes*

Ps.  Welcome to the TCS site and our TCS-forums!

ps 2.  Are you sure the cats are healthy? Your Stormy beating up Menuet, particular?

Cats who are not well (or stressed by something) have less patience then otherwise. And thus - teaching lessen as they are needed or not.

With any luck this stress IS the stress we discussed, just one additional symptom.

But it MAY be some physical problem too.

Well, yes there has been some stress associated with the move in and adjusting to the personalities involved, although there hasn't been yelling at each other, etc.  On the other hand, we recently had some roomers who were here from Nov 2010 to late July 2011 whose presence caused a lot of stress (the father and son had such knock-down drag-out verbal spars with horrible yelling and throwing things that we had to call the cops on them several times).  Any tension with the new family arrangement pales in comparison to this and Stormy was not bullying any cat then.  This leads me to think it's more about the presence of the other male cat, and that it is perhaps displaced aggression, since he sometimes gets beat up by Roscoe.  Question is...if I'm right...what do to about that?

Are all the cats fixed?

We have a high strung male that does OK with all the other cats but when we brought in an older/bigger male, he couldn't handle it. They have to stay seperated at all times.

Are these arrangements permanent?

Try the Feliway mentioned above. You may also want to talk to your vet about other options to calm your cat if the Feliway doesn't help as much as you need it to.

Yes all are fixed and my MIL's male cat is also declawed-ours are not.  He (Roscoe) is much larger than our three and I guess seems to them to be very menacing.  None of them will play with him and Stormy seems to get harder to deal with when he even senses him in the area.  Prior to the older cat coming into our home there was never an issue between our three cats.  Stormy is however higher strung than the other two.  He was not even weaned when we found him and is very attached to me.  We got another kitten pretty quickly so that he would not become a neurotic spoiled brat:-)  We have the Feliway but it didn't seem to help.  We are going to try it again both in our room and in common areas of the house.  Thanks for all the great advice:-)

Check with your vet, Stormy may need some kitty Prozac for a bit, at least until he can regather himself.

Welcome to TheCatSite,
Behavior issues can be very stressful for you as well as your cats.

In addition to the excellent suggestions above, if you have not done so already....
start a thread about this issue in our Behavior forum.
Be sure to take a look at the permanent threads at the top of the forum...
you might find some helpful suggestions there too.
Behavior Forum

Hi there

, so sorry that you're kitties are having issues.  I see that you've got some good advice from other posters and hope their suggestions can help.

We're so happy to get the chance to welcome you and your fur and non-fur family to TCS. I'm sure you'll enjoy your stay with us - we're one great big family and you'll find loads of friends here. If I can help at all while you're finding your way around TCS just click on my username and send me a Personal Message - I'll do what I can to answer your questions.

Thanks for all the great advice.  The vet recommended using the Feliway and keeping him away from the "intruder" cat as much as possible.  We had already been doing both but got two more diffusers fo a total of four.  Things seem to be settling down a bit.  Stormy has not attacked Menuet as aggressively and as often as before-so we are hoping a corner has been turned:-)