cats very aggressive to one cat

[jfrai]

Ok, I have a household of 9 cats. One originally, then took in a stray who happened to be pregnant, had babies, by the time the kittens were old enough I couldn't separate them because they were all so attached. 5 kittens, and 6 years later they still sleep in piles with the mama and "daddy" (the original kitty) like they did when they were babies so they're still very attached. When they were 4, I found a dying cat and took him in, after months of nurturing him back to health he had become part of my life so he stayed. Then found another black stray in a colony in a bad neighborhood and couldn't leave her, so took her and she got insanely attached to my boyfriend so shes his baby now.

Problem is the original crew is so close to each other, the last 2 have such a hard time fitting in to their pack. The one that was dying can hold his own and for the most part hes not harassed because he stands up for himself, so they've given up on bothering him. The black one however is so docile, she cowers when they come near, and they see that she won't defend herself so one beats up then the family all run over to join in. They're like pack animals. I've tried to build her confidence to no avail. As confident as she gets, the second the others are in the picture she falls on her back and starts screaming, causing them to attack her worse.

I've read so much on multi-cat homes and aggression but everything talks about two or 3 cats, and my situation is a bit different from 2 cats. I always wonder, how do people foster several cats? Or those shelters with the hundreds of cats running free in a building, how does the fighting not happen? Does anyone have advice on what I can do to make them at least tolerate each other? I've stopped every fight for the past 2 years, lots of litter boxes, water bowls, they all eat from separate bowls, tons of beds and toys everywhere so there isn't competition with that stuff, all spayed and neutered, healthy, they just won't stop! I know finding the little black cat a new home is an option, but that'll be the last last resort. I'm not going to give up trying to solve this until I've tried everything, so advice on fixing this issue is what I need. Anyone, tell me what ideas you have that could help, please!

 

[Norachan]

Hi jfrai,

I have a similar problem with one of my cats. I have 20 cats altogether and one of the female cats (Mia, who has been with me since she was a kitten) can't tolerate the other cats at all.

She was my fourth cat and is now 4 years old, but hasn't got on with any of the others, including her mother and other kittens she was raised with, since she was about 6 months old.

The situation was really bad at our last place as all the cats had outdoor access and Mia would regularly disappear for a couple of days at a time.

Things are much better since we moved this summer into a place where I was able to make a big outdoor enclosure.

 Mia now has her own room. She doesn't have to share a litter box, bed or food bowls with the other cats and has her own little part of the enclosure fenced off from the others. I also have feliway diffusers, one in Mia's room and one in the rest of the house. This seems to have calmed everyone down a lot.

Mia's room also doubles as my office so while I'm working one or two of the others will sometimes come in there with me. Mis doesn't mind it too much, now that she has her own space she is a lot more confident and will even fall asleep on her chair while the others are in here.

Is there any way you could give your little black cat her own room? It doesn't have to be a permanent thing, once she's feeling more comfortable you could start reintroducing the other cats one at a time until they all accept her. Check out some of Jackson Galaxy's  tips on reintroducing cats on Youtube, learning to associate the other cats with treats or playtime works really well.

I'd recommend separating them for now though. The more they attack her, the more timid she'll become. The more timid she is the more "cornered prey" vibes she'll give off and they'll just keep going for her.

 

[jfrai]

Hi Norachan,

Thanks for the reply. She actually does have her own room, the bedroom, we separate her every time we're not home, because we're scared what we'll come home to if we leave her alone with the others, and at night she sleeps with us. I almost feel like the others bug her more for this because they see shes getting different attention. When shes in there I usually try to put one of the worst meanies in there with her without the others to see if they'll calm down when there's no pack around, under supervision of course, but it doesn't help much, the black one isn't AS scared as when all are around, but she still cowers and stuff. I'm going to get some feliway diffusers and see if that does anything, fingers crossed. Thanks!

 

[Norachan]

Why don't you try with the friendliest cat first? Rather than putting them in the room together have the door open a crack and feed them one either side of the door so that they learn to associate each other with food. You'll have to be really strict about this and only feed them when the other cat is on the other side. You could also try rubbing the black cat with a towel and then putting the other cats food bowls on top of this so they get used to her scent at meal times.

If you do a Google search for Introducing Cats you'll find lots of tips like this. I think you'll have to go back to the start and reintroduce them all as if they've never met before. If the black cat is still nervous and cowering the chances are they'll keep attacking her. Get her comfortable with eating with one of the others just the other side of the door before they come face to face again.

It's taken me 4 months to get to this stage, but Mia is now sitting quite happily at the top of her cat tree with three other cats in the room.

I still can't let Button or Albert, the two worst bullies, into her room but I'm working on it.