Most of you board regulars remember the horrible time I had getting my old cat Tara to tolerate the new kitten Drusilla. It took them 6 months to like each other, after many, many bloody fights and hiding out for days. Problem is, now they refuse to be seperated!
Drusilla is 9 months old now and she's slowing down from her kitten crazies. She's also taken to chomping down her meal AND Tara's. So she eats a bowl of kitten food and a bowl of adult food. She's already started to put on weight and I wanted to curb that. So I put Tara in another room to eat. Tara refused to eat and sat at the door crying. No matter what I did she wouldn't stop, until I let her back with Drusilla. Tara is an ex-feral and is usually aggressive and dominant, but she lets Drusilla walk all over her and doesn't stop her at all when Drusilla chows down on her bowl of food.
I've tried seperating them for longer times and just ignoring Tara's cries, figuring she'd get bored or hungry and eat. Nope. She went on for almost three days and then I got worried she wouldn't eat at all so I let Drusilla in, but put her harness on her and tied her to the bedpost so she couldn't go over and eat Tara's food. Sure enough, when Drusilla was in the room, Tara went over and picked at her food a bit.
Tara won't eat a specific time though, and I can't always leave Drusilla tied up. God knows she'd manage to hang herself or she'd try to jump somewhere and get hurt. I have Feliway to lessen the anxiety but it doesn't seem to work with Tara. I also tried putting food down for a few minutes and picking it up, figuring eventually she'd HAVE to be hungry enough to come right over and I could stand guard a few minutes and make sure Drusilla didn't push her out of the way. Again, that went on for three or four days before I relented out of fear she'd starve herself to death. This cat is the most stubborn cat I've ever met. I'm starting to get worried because she's thinning a bit, while Drusilla is plumping up, but I can't find any reasonable solutions to this alone. I had Tara to the vet and he didn't find anything immediatly wrong, though he couldn't do much because she went berserk and attacked him and me. He said that Tara would eat when she was hungry and that I shouldn't underestimate the cat "pack order" and that if she truly wanted her food and didn't want Drusilla to eat it, she'd make it so Drusilla didn't get it.
Ideas?
Drusilla is 9 months old now and she's slowing down from her kitten crazies. She's also taken to chomping down her meal AND Tara's. So she eats a bowl of kitten food and a bowl of adult food. She's already started to put on weight and I wanted to curb that. So I put Tara in another room to eat. Tara refused to eat and sat at the door crying. No matter what I did she wouldn't stop, until I let her back with Drusilla. Tara is an ex-feral and is usually aggressive and dominant, but she lets Drusilla walk all over her and doesn't stop her at all when Drusilla chows down on her bowl of food.
I've tried seperating them for longer times and just ignoring Tara's cries, figuring she'd get bored or hungry and eat. Nope. She went on for almost three days and then I got worried she wouldn't eat at all so I let Drusilla in, but put her harness on her and tied her to the bedpost so she couldn't go over and eat Tara's food. Sure enough, when Drusilla was in the room, Tara went over and picked at her food a bit.
Tara won't eat a specific time though, and I can't always leave Drusilla tied up. God knows she'd manage to hang herself or she'd try to jump somewhere and get hurt. I have Feliway to lessen the anxiety but it doesn't seem to work with Tara. I also tried putting food down for a few minutes and picking it up, figuring eventually she'd HAVE to be hungry enough to come right over and I could stand guard a few minutes and make sure Drusilla didn't push her out of the way. Again, that went on for three or four days before I relented out of fear she'd starve herself to death. This cat is the most stubborn cat I've ever met. I'm starting to get worried because she's thinning a bit, while Drusilla is plumping up, but I can't find any reasonable solutions to this alone. I had Tara to the vet and he didn't find anything immediatly wrong, though he couldn't do much because she went berserk and attacked him and me. He said that Tara would eat when she was hungry and that I shouldn't underestimate the cat "pack order" and that if she truly wanted her food and didn't want Drusilla to eat it, she'd make it so Drusilla didn't get it.
Ideas?
