Hello, long time cat lover/owner, first time cat-forum poster.
We have a 11-year old tiger, and she's quite the territorial lady. She only shows affection to my girlfriend and I, but will hiss and swat at strangers. Back in February, we adopted a 8-month old tiger (she's about 1 year old now). She is such a friendly and energetic little girl, but she is afraid of the older cat, because she will get chased and cornered by the older cat. They don't have all-out fights, but there is a lot of yelling and hissing when it happens. The littler boxes are in the basement and sometimes the older cat will sit in the middle of the living room, and the younger one is afraid to go around her. 2 weeks ago, she went to the bathroom in our bedroom closet. Luckily (well, not so much) it was on my gym bag and not the carpet. Today, I came home to a mess on the kitchen floor, and I can only speculate that the older cat had her cornered and wouldn't let her walk by.
I need some real solid advice for how to break this habit. I am thinking about getting a bitter-apple spray, and spraying the mouth of the older one everytime she chases the younger one around. She sometimes gets nasty with us when the younger cat is around, and has already bit my girlfriend in the hand a few times.
At this point, I don't even care if they get along, but I just want to get the older one to leave the younger one alone, so she's not scared to walk by her to eat / drink / litter box.
It's been 4 months now and I'm getting a little frustrated.
We have a 11-year old tiger, and she's quite the territorial lady. She only shows affection to my girlfriend and I, but will hiss and swat at strangers. Back in February, we adopted a 8-month old tiger (she's about 1 year old now). She is such a friendly and energetic little girl, but she is afraid of the older cat, because she will get chased and cornered by the older cat. They don't have all-out fights, but there is a lot of yelling and hissing when it happens. The littler boxes are in the basement and sometimes the older cat will sit in the middle of the living room, and the younger one is afraid to go around her. 2 weeks ago, she went to the bathroom in our bedroom closet. Luckily (well, not so much) it was on my gym bag and not the carpet. Today, I came home to a mess on the kitchen floor, and I can only speculate that the older cat had her cornered and wouldn't let her walk by.
I need some real solid advice for how to break this habit. I am thinking about getting a bitter-apple spray, and spraying the mouth of the older one everytime she chases the younger one around. She sometimes gets nasty with us when the younger cat is around, and has already bit my girlfriend in the hand a few times.
At this point, I don't even care if they get along, but I just want to get the older one to leave the younger one alone, so she's not scared to walk by her to eat / drink / litter box.
It's been 4 months now and I'm getting a little frustrated.