I have a problem

Johnny Cat has been living with us for a year and a half now. He was
picked up from the parking lot, was starved, flea infested. Anyways,
he is a very sweet, loving boy, he was neutered when we took him in.
Never showed any aggression towards anybody not even Chelsea who
never liked him.
Tiger, I took home when the nut lady got evicted and threw her cats on
the street two months ago. I also took in Moki then. I neutered him,
checked him out, treated him for worms and ear mites. He is around 10
months old now. For six weeks he was hiding in the cabinet under the
sink.
Moki and Johnny Cat are best friends and so is Moki and Tiger.
Now my problem is, since Tiger started coming out from the cabinet,
he and Johnny keep on fighting. No blood or so, but hissing, chasing,
growling, you get the picture. Tiger is not aggressive, but Johnny
Cat won't stop growling when Tiger comes anywhere near him. Tiger
does go up to Johnny, I am not sure if he wants to play or just get
to know Johnny.
Both get the same attention and I am trying to keep things for Johnny
Cat the same as before( attention/routine/food etc) Tiger is a lap cat, but JC
shouldn't mind that, because he is not.
Is there any way to make those guys get along, will they ever get
along? My husband gets more upset about it than me, I just watch them
and let them sort it out themselves, since they are not overly
aggressive. But things haven't gotten better in the past two weeks.

Thanks for any advice.

Reti

If they are both males, they may be fighting for Alpha status. This sometimes happens with male cats in a close environment. They'll probably always chase each other, but they shouldn't be growling or hissing constantly. As for how to fix it, I''m not sure. I'm a diagnoser (sp?), but I'm sure one of the MODs will be on shortly to help you out. Good luck!

You have a multi cat household, therefore you have a blend of cats that may or may not know how to get along with other cats. It truly depends on their history, where they were born, what happened to them along the way before they ended up in your care- questions you will likely never know the answers to.

It doesn't sound (on this end) like you really have a problem. It sounds like two alphas may be colliding for control. There are several boooks out that will help you- cat-vs-cat hiss-n-tell both by Pamela Johnson Bennett. Excellent books for multi cat homes.

Take a look through our archives in the Behavior section of the website-not the forum. Two cat behaviorists Amy Shojai and our current columnist Wendy Christensen has no doubt addressed this issue. You want to look for Tabbytudes or Herding Cats in the search mode and then just start reading through the letters and replies.

If I were you, I would be burning some feliway comfort zone room diffusers, one in every room the cats inhabit frequently. I would be using the vanilla extract trick on all the cats and just keep the stress level in the house down. By that I mean when the cats start to act out- don't pay attention to them, don't yell, stomp your feet-throw pillows or react in any fashion.

Make sure you have levels of space they get to to get off the floor- cat posts, cat condos, cat ramps window perches etc- that will help

Separate litter pans and one extra, each has own toys, own food bowls and water dishes

Good luck

Thank you for all the references, Hissy. I will check them out.

They do have their space to go, when needed. They have litter boxes and separate toys, Johnny Cat doesn't care much about toys anyways.
I don't interfere when they get started, other than maybe telling them to stop, they ignore me anyways, but I don't yell or anything. I just talk to them.
I hope at least they will learn to ignore eachother.

Thank you so much.

Reti