Hi all -
I'm wondering if anyone has advice on how to help my 2 female cats, ages 8 YO, and 10 months, get along better.
Background: We didn't intend to get a 2nd cat, but ended up with one and could not find a new home for her, early last September 2014. We did a VERY gradual introduction - over many weeks - and by about October/November they were sharing the house pretty well. Older cat was very wary of younger cat - older cat has never been around other cats before. But they were doing ok - not grooming each other, but sleeping in the same room, rarely hissing when wrestling or chasing, etc - seemed pretty good. Then we went away for a week over Christmas. We had friends over 2 times per day to feed and play with them. But since then they've had a lot more trouble - much more aggression, hissing.
Current situation: They actually do fine for a lot of the day. But just about every evening, after dinner, they start fighting - a lot more aggression, hissing, fur flying, yowling. Occasionally during the day they will get "into it" also - more frequently if younger cat is sleeping in a place that older cat doesn't like - she will bite and chase her away. They also used to sleep within a foot or 2 of each other, but they don't anymore. They'd even snuggled together a time or two before our trip, but never since then.
What we've done so far: We bought a cat tree to give more vertical space. That's been good - the kitten likes the upper two levels, and the older one prefers the lower levels. We've moved things around so we can divide the house into 2 large halves, and we separate them in the evening - sometimes before the start fighting, sometimes as they start fighting, but ideally before it gets ugly. We alternate which cat gets which half. (The family is usually in the living/dining room half in the evening, so we don't always want to put one cat in the bedroom half without us. They are both cats that love lap-sitting and being around people.) We try to monitor them during the day to make sure they are peaceful - most of the time they are fine, though there are occasional fights. We've always separated them for feeding. Right now we are doing always-available dry food, and give wet food to both cats in separate spaces in the evening.
But I"m discouraged at this 2-steps-back, and don't want to spend the next 10 years constantly on alert! Do you think things might improve as kitten gets older? Any idea when that would be? Anything else I could do to encourage peace? (They ARE both spayed, by the way.)
Thank you!!!
I'm wondering if anyone has advice on how to help my 2 female cats, ages 8 YO, and 10 months, get along better.
Background: We didn't intend to get a 2nd cat, but ended up with one and could not find a new home for her, early last September 2014. We did a VERY gradual introduction - over many weeks - and by about October/November they were sharing the house pretty well. Older cat was very wary of younger cat - older cat has never been around other cats before. But they were doing ok - not grooming each other, but sleeping in the same room, rarely hissing when wrestling or chasing, etc - seemed pretty good. Then we went away for a week over Christmas. We had friends over 2 times per day to feed and play with them. But since then they've had a lot more trouble - much more aggression, hissing.
Current situation: They actually do fine for a lot of the day. But just about every evening, after dinner, they start fighting - a lot more aggression, hissing, fur flying, yowling. Occasionally during the day they will get "into it" also - more frequently if younger cat is sleeping in a place that older cat doesn't like - she will bite and chase her away. They also used to sleep within a foot or 2 of each other, but they don't anymore. They'd even snuggled together a time or two before our trip, but never since then.
What we've done so far: We bought a cat tree to give more vertical space. That's been good - the kitten likes the upper two levels, and the older one prefers the lower levels. We've moved things around so we can divide the house into 2 large halves, and we separate them in the evening - sometimes before the start fighting, sometimes as they start fighting, but ideally before it gets ugly. We alternate which cat gets which half. (The family is usually in the living/dining room half in the evening, so we don't always want to put one cat in the bedroom half without us. They are both cats that love lap-sitting and being around people.) We try to monitor them during the day to make sure they are peaceful - most of the time they are fine, though there are occasional fights. We've always separated them for feeding. Right now we are doing always-available dry food, and give wet food to both cats in separate spaces in the evening.
But I"m discouraged at this 2-steps-back, and don't want to spend the next 10 years constantly on alert! Do you think things might improve as kitten gets older? Any idea when that would be? Anything else I could do to encourage peace? (They ARE both spayed, by the way.)
Thank you!!!
