Very aggressive behavior

Hi,

I currently am fostering a 8 month old spayed female cat for the rescue group I belong to. I currently have five cats of my own. 1 eight year old female and the rest males ranging between 6 months old and four years.

The cat I am fostering was living in a kennel for a long time before she was rescued and underweight and skittish. When I slowly introduced her to my cats she was fine. Hissed a little bit but that was it. Then a week later she viciously attacked my eight year old female cat with no provocation. My female cat is very mellow and just minds her own business. She ignores my male cats.

Then last night we tried letting her out amongst my cats again and she viciously attacked my eight year old female cat and it was vicious. I don't use that term lightly. I got bit in the process of trying to pry the two apart. My eight year old was scared and just trying to get away but the foster cat would not let go of her and it was horrible.

This foster cat has no where else to go and I don't want to keep her locked in a crate or a bedroom until she is adopted. Do you know what I could do to fix this problem? I already tried all of the traditional ways of slowly introducing cats and it just did not work.

I don't know if because of the foster cats situation in the kennel has caused a major behavioral problem or not. She was in a crate in the kennel with another female near her age so I am not sure what is going on. When she is alone with me she is very affectionate and purrs and loves to be around me.

Any advice is much appreciated.

That's so unfortunate!

I've never dealt with a similar situation but maybe you could even try seperating the rescue cat again, this time try it for at least 2 weeks. Don't let her get anywhere near the others. On the second week, rub the cheeks of the female cat she fights with a towel as much as you can to get her scent on it, bring it into the room of the rescue cat and see what her response is. If she hisses or shows signs of aggression, keep them seperated for another week...and so on!

I've also read a lot about a product named Feliway. It's some kind of pheremone that reduces territorial behavior in cats and helps them to get along. I just ordered some since I'll be introducing my 8yr old male to 4mo old female. The reviews for it seem great so...try that as a last resort.

Good luck!

Thank you! They are separated again. I am going to try rubbing the towel on the cheeks of my cat Clea, the eight year old, and then let Izzy the foster cat smell that and see what she does.