Can’t We All Just Get Along? No?...help!!

[dustyroads07]

I’ve had cats my entire 38 years and I’m stumped. I need some suggestions. Long story short, we live rural and people like to drop cats at our house. I currently have 5 indoor/outdoor cats (all rescues). They all get along great. However, someone dropped off a cat in the cloak of darkness and it’s just thrown a monkey wrench into our nice little happy feline family. Nan (the new meanie drop off) of course was pregnant. Kittens just hit the 9 week mark and are completely weaned. The problem I have is she keeps chasing (not necessarily attacking....yet) all my other cats. She’s not playing. It’s serious chasing. I cannot get her to acclimate. I live in MN so I don’t like having outdoor cats with winters getting very harsh. Rescues are overrun so I don’t really want to surrender her but I’m running out of options. Does anyone have any ideas? She has been in a 4’x8’ screened in room the entire time she’s had kittens in our basement. It’s close to the food dish and litter box room so I thought she’d get comfortable with our other cats by now knowing that she sees them all the time. That’s not the case. I’m looking for any ideas on how to get her to calm down and quit chasing & hissing at everyone. Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

 

[abyeb]

Hi there! Getting a new cat to integrate into a household can be tricky at times. You might have success separating Nan and then reintroducing her to the others. This article explains the process: How To Fix An Unsuccessful Cat Introduction

Be sure you have plenty of water bowls, scratching posts, and litterboxes (at least one litterbox per cat plus one), so that the cats don’t feel like they have to compete over resources. A Feliway diffuser could also help. This article has more info about keeping the peace in a multi-cat household: The Multi-cat Household

Thanks for caring!

 

[kittypa]

I’ve had cats my entire 38 years and I’m stumped. I need some suggestions. Long story short, we live rural and people like to drop cats at our house. I currently have 5 indoor/outdoor cats (all rescues). They all get along great. However, someone dropped off a cat in the cloak of darkness and it’s just thrown a monkey wrench into our nice little happy feline family. Nan (the new meanie drop off) of course was pregnant. Kittens just hit the 9 week mark and are completely weaned. The problem I have is she keeps chasing (not necessarily attacking....yet) all my other cats. She’s not playing. It’s serious chasing. I cannot get her to acclimate. I live in MN so I don’t like having outdoor cats with winters getting very harsh. Rescues are overrun so I don’t really want to surrender her but I’m running out of options. Does anyone have any ideas? She has been in a 4’x8’ screened in room the entire time she’s had kittens in our basement. It’s close to the food dish and litter box room so I thought she’d get comfortable with our other cats by now knowing that she sees them all the time. That’s not the case. I’m looking for any ideas on how to get her to calm down and quit chasing & hissing at everyone. Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

I’m feeling ya. I have 4 pet housecats, and now 2/3 outdoor community cats that I take care of. One of them is recent and a problem. A few times he’s run off MamaKitty who I adore and have spent 2 years making friends with. I’ve been sick about it. Then there’s the normal fighting with the other male. This week he was TNR’d and there lie my hopes.

 

[catsknowme]

I can only commiserate. Last year, I adopted an experienced companion cat for my disabled daughter from a lady entering hospice. Unknown to anyone, the cat was pregnant. 2 times, the vet had to cancel the spay date. 3 days before the third spay appointment, the cat had 6 kittens. While the cat, Kelly, is docile and friendly to people, she became sheer terror to other cats as well as my mom's little dog. Even though her kittens are over 1 year old now, Kelly fights other cats on the rare occasions that she encounters any.