Sibling Rivalry???

[gilbert kittens]

I have 3 cats, all raised together and all 6 years old. 2 males and 1 female. Non of them are established as a leader of a pack, they are all just easy going family members with different personalities.

Yesterday in the a.m. the female, Jewels, became very aggressive to one of the males, Jinx. She has never done this. It is still going on a day later. She chases, hisses and has batted at him. She is still fine with the other male. Has anyone ever dealt with this "out of the blue" behavior?

No changes to diet or living conditions.

 

[rad65]

It sounds like something could have happened between those two while you weren't around. It's possible Jinx startled Jewels, maybe coming out of the litterbox or something and now Jewels is nervous around Jinx and feels threatened a bit, so she is lashing out. One of my cats was sleeping in the sun and when he opened his eyes, my other cat was right next to him and the sleeping cat freaked outand acted strangely around the "offender" for a couple days.

 

[white cat lover]

Welcome to TCS!

Are all three of them spayed/neutered?

It may have been something as simple as she saw another kitty outside the window & he was around, so she's redirecting her issues towards him.

 

[shp26]

Hi! Like you, I also have 3 cats (but all are girls, and all are spayed). 99% of the time, everyone gets along, or at least is indifferent to one another. But occasionally Heidi and Pepper will go through a phase of 2-3 days where they hiss and growl at one another and we really have to get onto them to keep a fight from starting. It always seems like it starts for no reason and usually it ends for no reason too.

I think sometimes they're just like kid siblings -- they have squabbles we either don't see or understand, and then they have little chips on their shoulders for a couple days. Whatever it is, for mine, they get over and are cuddling a day or two later.

That said, if it's completely out of character and lasts for more than a couple days, maybe a trip to the vet would be a good idea. Animals sometimes start to act weird if they're sick or in pain, although I'd assume that they wouldn't isolate the behavior toward just ONE of the other cats.