New cat

[harrison]

About 2 weeks ago, my father and I, who own a 5 year old Korat neutered Male moved into his girlfriends house, and she has a cat, american shorthair neutered male who is much smaller than our cat. Our cat, Shadow(The Korat) is generally pretty nice, and doesn't get into fights, but with the girlfriend's cat, Jack, he is always attacking him. Jack barely comes inside now because he's afraid of Shadow, even when he's locked in my room.

 

[yayi]

Better read the stickies on introductions. Jack's reaction is normal. He is only protecting his territory.

 

[harrison]

Originally Posted by yayi

Better read the stickies on introductions. Jack's reaction is normal. He is only protecting his territory.

I think I wrote it weird, it would be normal for Jack to attack Shadow. But Jack is afraid of Shadow. Shadow is the one being aggressive, even though he's never been aggressive in his life with any other cat.

 

[yayi]

Oops- my fault - did not read it right

Sorry!
Shadow may be one of those dominant cats. I've had a couple of newcomers that just decided to be alphas the moment they came in the house. I also had two who did not like each other the minute they met.
BTW, Korats are beautiful!

 

[harrison]

Originally Posted by yayi

Oops- my fault - did not read it right

Sorry!
Shadow may be one of those dominant cats. I've had a couple of newcomers that just decided to be alphas the moment they came in the house. I also had two who did not like each other the minute they met.
BTW, Korats are beautiful!

Well Shadow's always been pretty passive, the only times he has been in a fight is when he was running away from the aggression, this is the first time we've witnessed him being like this. He was fine with his old companion cat.

 

[mimi3908]

My smaller female was in the same situation. Our new larger female (adopted 6 weeks after the smaller one) was giving her fits, but they have adapted somewhat. Both are spayed. We have a house with plenty of space for them so I think that really helped them get along since the small one can go to her comfort areas without feeling threatened all the time. The situation is still that our bigger female would dominate and chase the smaller one around and the times when it appears to get out of hand, we do step in and have the bigger one move to another room and the smaller one seem to know this and gains confidence. We also try to feed them, groom them and play with them at the same time so they know food/attention isn't an issue and that has helped as well. Their relationship isn't exactly the best, but good enough that we don't have to watch them when we go out for long periods of time. We kind of accept the fact that our alpha kitty needs to strut her stuff from time to time and the smaller one has to be game for a chase every now and then... otherwise her life would be too boring anyway. We did worry about surprise ambushes so we had the bigger cat wear a bell ringing collar and that worked well to alert the smaller one. We are resigned to the fact that they will have their rough patches as long as no one gets hurt. We do wonder if cat sizes are a strong factor of whether they get along or not. This is also the first time we have 2 cats in our house.

 

[harrison]

Originally Posted by mimi3908

My smaller female was in the same situation. Our new larger female (adopted 6 weeks after the smaller one) was giving her fits, but they have adapted somewhat. Both are spayed. We have a house with plenty of space for them so I think that really helped them get along since the small one can go to her comfort areas without feeling threatened all the time. The situation is still that our bigger female would dominate and chase the smaller one around and the times when it appears to get out of hand, we do step in and have the bigger one move to another room and the smaller one seem to know this and gains confidence. We also try to feed them, groom them and play with them at the same time so they know food/attention isn't an issue and that has helped as well. Their relationship isn't exactly the best, but good enough that we don't have to watch them when we go out for long periods of time. We kind of accept the fact that our alpha kitty needs to strut her stuff from time to time and the smaller one has to be game for a chase every now and then... otherwise her life would be too boring anyway. We did worry about surprise ambushes so we had the bigger cat wear a bell ringing collar and that worked well to alert the smaller one. We are resigned to the fact that they will have their rough patches as long as no one gets hurt. We do wonder if cat sizes are a strong factor of whether they get along or not. This is also the first time we have 2 cats in our house.

Thanks for the advice, next time we go to the pet store we're going to pick up a bell collar for Shadow to see if this helps.

 

[just mike]

Originally Posted by Harrison

Thanks for the advice, next time we go to the pet store we're going to pick up a bell collar for Shadow to see if this helps.

That was a good suggestion and it might help. You can also try the Feliway plug in. I've had really good results with it for a variety of behavioral issues including aggression and urination outside of the litter box.

http://www.amazon.com/Farnam-Comfort.../dp/B000FH708I