2 Cats, Extremely Aggressive. Is It Hopeless?

[Matt93eg]

Hello all, I am hoping someone can help me. I will be as brief as possible with this.

I have a cat(Jasmine) that I have had since she was a kitten. She means a lot to me as I have had her since I was 15 and I am now 32. About 6 months ago we had a stray that would come by, he was a male. Beautiful cat, he would be cut up from fights and he was malnourished. We felt bad for him and would give him food and fresh water outside on our front porch. He eventually let us pet him and he was very sweet. My Wife fell in love with him and wanted to adopt him.

I had explained to her before that we could not have another cat because Jasmine does not tolerate other cats. She had a litter way back before she was spayed and she slapped her own kittens around. Long story short I gave in. We took the new cat to the vet. Got him whipped into shape. We kept them seperated. He stayed in our bedroom with is own food, water, and litter box. We also kept the hallway door shut. I did not want Jasmine to know he was there. We have been doing this now for several months. I really want them to get along so I looked at some videos online about introducing cats.

We started with the sock trick, rubbing a sock on there cheeks, then taking it to the other and letting it smell the sock. Jasmine seemed unphased by this much to my surprise. Garfield on the other hand would hiss sometimes. He has been nuetered now as well. We then started letting them smell under the bedroom door. Jasmine is the "retreat" type. As in when it comes to another cat she wants to get away. We then bought a dog crate. We put Garfield in it and let Jasmine see him. She ran away and hid. We then put Jasmine in the crate and Garfield will approach. He does a meow deal that we looked up and it appears to be a mating call. Anytime he gets within 2 feet of her she growls and hisses. If he closes more she will strike towards him at the cage. One time she laid her head down, he snuck up behind her and struck her butt through the cage. She hissed vilontely.

After a few days this interaction seemed to get better. I decided to let them together under strict supervision. It doesn't go well. He approaches her and she cowers down hissing but he still comes close to her and then he will strike her once close. She ran the first time and he chased her. I had to run around the corner and heard all hell braking loose but didn't see the actual altercation that was obvisouly physical. I put him away after that.

I let them meet again a bit ago with food, trying to get them to see that food is part of there interaction. He actually attacked me on my legs and broke the skin in several places.

I really don't think they can get along. They both are just to aggressive. If he would leave Jasmine alone she would be fine but he won't, he constantly goes to her. She is old and I can't have this stress on her. It was mistake taking him in but its to late now, I can't kick him to the curb, we all love him. What can I do?

 

[Valentina3]

It took me a long time to make my cats get along too. It was a different situation (adult cat and female kitten) but I thought he was too aggressive and I had to give up. He was not only incredibly aggressive with me but it also looked like he was constantly aiming to bite the kitten's neck and kill her and I was sure, at some point, that I had to replace her for her own safety. Long story short, now they are in "best friends forever" mode.

I'm saying this because sometimes you think it's hopeless and in the end it goes well, even if requires a lot of patience and time.

Also, I thought that my dog was too old (she's about 15 years) to deal with new animals and adapt to a cat and I felt guilty because I was bothering her at such a old age, but eventually she got used to it too.

It's possible your cats won't become "friends" because that's their personality or because she's too old to adapt, but it's also possible that they will learn to live in peace, ignoring each other.

 

[Matt93eg]

Thank you for the message and making me feel there is hope still. Hopefully at some point this will subside and at the minimum they can learn to tolerate/ignore one another.

 

[Willowy]

Is she OK with staying in one room? I have a 17-year-old who stays in the bedroom because she doesn't like all the young whippersnappers, lol. That way she gets to sleep with me and the dogs but doesn't have to be around the other cats. If she isn't happy withmone room maybe there's another way you could divide the house; upstairs and downstairs maybe.

 

[Valentina3]

Being a different situation I can't give you many suggestions but I'll tell you a couple of things I did and I think helped a little bit:

- I cut their nails (carefully, just a bit, while they were sleeping) I know you are not supposed to and it's not healthy for them but I thought "at least I don't have to worry they cut each other or rip an eye or something, I will just have to check the bites"

- feliway pheromones: it looked like they were useless but after a couple of months I realized they helped to calm the adult cat down at least a little bit

- routine: i realized it worked better when I scheduled every day like the one before. I mean, first breakfast, then short meeting through the doors, then lunch, then short supervised "playtime" etcetc. It's like at some point they knew what was coming next "ok after lunch I'm going to see that furry bother again". So less "random surprise" factor helped too.

- supervised playtime in a space where I could check on them. Usually in a room without too many places where they could be out of reach (I was afraid he could bite/kill her under a couch or in a place where I couldn't immediately intervene)

- keep calm. It was difficult for me because I was very stressed and I honestly was very very tired of the male behaviour, but the usual suggestions (don't yell, act calm, quiet soothing voice, no sudden movements, intervene with a "No!" or separate them just in case of need otherwise let them be) in the end are useful.

Don't give up!

 

[Dilutetortislave]

I don't think it's hopeless at this point. It is completely normal for an adult female to dislike other cats. It took probably 1-2 years for my 2 females to kind of peacefully co-exist. They began a ritual that looked like they were playing (?) where they would chase each other for a bit every day. Play fighting?

I would look into a pheromone spray or diffuser, either Feliway or Comfort Zone with Feliway have good products and should be available at pet stores. The spray is to be sprayed in the environment on carpets, furniture, in the air, on their beds, etc. not on the cats!

Also, calming treats may help so that when they both have free roam of the house they may be to calm or tired to attack each other.

I have used a brand called Quiet Moments with Melatonin, which also has tryptophan and chamomile in it. These are firm, yet soft enough to be squished between my fingers and mixed with canned food if they won't just eat the treat.

Composure is another good brand, it has L-Theanine as the active ingredient. I find these are harder than the Quiet Moments, so harder to squish. Both of those treats should be available at pet stores/online.

At Whole Foods, I found a gel-type calming aid called Zen Pill-Free Licks, near the people supplements section. They make one for cats with L-Theanine. This has an oily paste texture similar to those hairball gels, and can be fed as is or mixed with soft food. It could be syringe-fed if needed. My cats all hate this.

Good luck!

 

[ArtNJ]

Honestly, Matt, 17 year old cat, I'd just keep them separated. Time improves these problems quite a bit, but if it takes a big chunk of time, is it fair to a 17 year old cat? The other solutions that people are talking about are likely partial solutions. I mean, I've seen Jackson Galaxy solve all kinds of intercat issues in literally a few weeks on his tv show My Cat From Hell, but I'm not sure how likely that is in the real world. If keeping them isolated isn't working, try folks tips, binge watch My Cat From Hell and maybe you'll get lucky with a quick improvement.