Hi all,
My name is Anat and I leave with my partner and 3 cats in our lovely flat in Berlin. I would like to get your advice on introducing our newest addition to the house and how to solve some aggression issues. But first, a bit of background on our three cats:
Arik - male, 9 yrs. Lovely, super social and cuddly. Simply a cat from heaven. I adopted him from my neighbor who used to mistreat him.
Fawlty - female, 6 yrs. Adopted from the street. Not the biggest socializer but with a lot of love over the years we've managed to build her confidence enough to tolerate others. She and Arik have a very close bond.
Behemoth - male, 6 months. Adopted from a charity organization. Extremely quiet and friendly even though a bit scared.
I'll try to give as many details as possible without making this an un-ending story:
We've adopted Behemoth about 3 months ago and even though initially the introduction was a bit stressed it seemed to go ok. Until a week later when we took all cats to the vet to get their vaccinations, and then immediately after Fawlty started to get super aggressive towards Behemoth and attacking him on sight.
Initially, we separated them by keeping Fawlty secluded to the back of the house and allowing Behemoth to roam the main living room, but then we switched and now Behemoth is secluded to the study during the days and to the living room during the nights.
We started re-intorudction with feeding them 3 times a day across a gated door and we've managed to get them to eat in peace about 1-2 feet from the door each, with not a lot of drama. That took about 2 months of slow progress.
Problem is we're currently stuck. Fawlty can tolerate Behemoth while she's eating and even back away when she's done, but she will try to attack on sight if he moves too much (=plays).
We tried bringing them together within the same room for a feeding/playing session and she attacked him. Her aggression also manifests when she's aggressively scratching at the door of whatever room he's locked in.
Behemoth himself is very scared of Fawlty and the minute she turns aggressive he completely submits himself and either cowers or hides which entices her even more.
Our main question is how do me manage to graduate the re-introduction from where we are currently? What should be the next steps?
Some notes:
- In the meantime, Arik and Behemoth are the greatest pals and they love playing together and grooming one another.
- Fawlty doesn't lack attention as most of the time she's with us and Arik while Behemoth is alone.
- We have high places for them to climb to in both main areas - living room and study. Behemoth spends most of his days in the nest he has in the study.
- We give Fawlty herbal powders daily that are supposed to calm her down and for a long period, we also had 2 Feliway defusers.
- We do spend a lot of time playing with all cats to try and 'empty their batteries' but Fawlty doesn't like to play and is rarely active doing so.
- All cats are neutered
I would appreciate any advice or insight, thank you very much for reading!
Anat
My name is Anat and I leave with my partner and 3 cats in our lovely flat in Berlin. I would like to get your advice on introducing our newest addition to the house and how to solve some aggression issues. But first, a bit of background on our three cats:
Arik - male, 9 yrs. Lovely, super social and cuddly. Simply a cat from heaven. I adopted him from my neighbor who used to mistreat him.
Fawlty - female, 6 yrs. Adopted from the street. Not the biggest socializer but with a lot of love over the years we've managed to build her confidence enough to tolerate others. She and Arik have a very close bond.
Behemoth - male, 6 months. Adopted from a charity organization. Extremely quiet and friendly even though a bit scared.
I'll try to give as many details as possible without making this an un-ending story:
We've adopted Behemoth about 3 months ago and even though initially the introduction was a bit stressed it seemed to go ok. Until a week later when we took all cats to the vet to get their vaccinations, and then immediately after Fawlty started to get super aggressive towards Behemoth and attacking him on sight.
Initially, we separated them by keeping Fawlty secluded to the back of the house and allowing Behemoth to roam the main living room, but then we switched and now Behemoth is secluded to the study during the days and to the living room during the nights.
We started re-intorudction with feeding them 3 times a day across a gated door and we've managed to get them to eat in peace about 1-2 feet from the door each, with not a lot of drama. That took about 2 months of slow progress.
Problem is we're currently stuck. Fawlty can tolerate Behemoth while she's eating and even back away when she's done, but she will try to attack on sight if he moves too much (=plays).
We tried bringing them together within the same room for a feeding/playing session and she attacked him. Her aggression also manifests when she's aggressively scratching at the door of whatever room he's locked in.
Behemoth himself is very scared of Fawlty and the minute she turns aggressive he completely submits himself and either cowers or hides which entices her even more.
Our main question is how do me manage to graduate the re-introduction from where we are currently? What should be the next steps?
Some notes:
- In the meantime, Arik and Behemoth are the greatest pals and they love playing together and grooming one another.
- Fawlty doesn't lack attention as most of the time she's with us and Arik while Behemoth is alone.
- We have high places for them to climb to in both main areas - living room and study. Behemoth spends most of his days in the nest he has in the study.
- We give Fawlty herbal powders daily that are supposed to calm her down and for a long period, we also had 2 Feliway defusers.
- We do spend a lot of time playing with all cats to try and 'empty their batteries' but Fawlty doesn't like to play and is rarely active doing so.
- All cats are neutered
I would appreciate any advice or insight, thank you very much for reading!
Anat
