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Advice needed to pass on
So "Edo", the tuxedo kitten who is currently living with the lady who brought her to me, is being a bit of a trouble maker with the older kitty in their household. Older kitty is 13. History on him is he does not like other cats on his property. If they take him out for a walk he will try to attack any cat on "his" grass. He has always been the one and only.
Enter Edo three weeks ago. She was segregated to a bathroom from what I can understand for only one full day and let out part way through the second so the cats could meet face to face. There was a little hissing but it went not bad. The times together have gotten progressively longer. There was the requisite swatting and hissing. Nothing too serious. When kitty gets too rambunctious she goes back to "her" room. When the mom is away at work or shopping Edo is in her room as well. A few days ago Edo started attacking the older kitty face first. She comes at him and attacks. When corrected she stops for a minute and then slinks along toward him and goes at him again. Edo has just had her first (and only) heat. I am picking her up to be spayed on Sunday. I do not think Edo was ever socialized well as she was "adopted" at a young age (six weeks approx) and when she was no longer a cute kitten was put outside to fend for herself. Probably around 3 months of age. She was put into a carrier between two houses at night and allowed to run the neighbourhood during the day. From the week I had her here I know she is very rough. She will be a normal kitty for about five minutes then she totally freaks and starts biting and growling. But she is still trying to play. The older kitty hisses when she does this but will not put her in her place. When she is being a calm kitten she is the sweetest thing going. The older kitty has started hiding under the bed almost all day to get away from the kitten. I have told the new mom to take him in to her vet to be health checked. He hasn't been in for a few years. He has a diet of Royal Canin dry and some canned. I said he may not be hiding from the kitten. He may be hiding because he is sick or has crystals. I have asked her if it is possible to wean him off the dry food all together and switch to a better quality canned. I have given "Mom" all the advice I can think of. Separating them when Edo is misbehaving, correcting her consistently, not letting them be alone together, watching behaviour, trying to anticipate when Edo is about to change from to , etc. She will be separated for a week following her spay as I have explained she needs to recover as quietly as possible. During that week the older kitty is going to the vets for a check up. If she does not settle down she will in all probability come back here. Any ideas on how to correct her behaviour would be great. I told her I would ask for other opinions to see if they differ from mine or for something new I could pass on. Sorry for the novel. Had to try to get as much info as possible in.
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Assumptions do nothing but make an ass out of u and me. We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD! |
#2
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I don't have too much advices other than to use spray water bottle whenever Edo is not a good kitty and to separate them to give her older cat a break.
Coco was not too fond of the other cats here , it took a while but after almost a year , she is now ok with them. It takes a while with cats ... I'M sure Edo will settle in , but it could take a few months. |
#3
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I am really second guessing myself with this one. If she comes back here it will be interesting. No where right now to put her except for the house. Right now there are seven in here. Wonder how hubby would handle one more?
__________________
Assumptions do nothing but make an ass out of u and me. We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD! |
#4
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Main thing is for her to get her older cat "time off" , breaks |
#5
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Yes, she does give him breaks. Edo goes back to her room when she is misbehaving or has been out long enough to drive the other kitty batty.
And yes, she would send her back here. She had a lady who said she would take her but said she wanted her fixed first and was not willing to pay for it. I don't think so. You know the first thing that would happen is that Edo would be put outside again! The poor kitten has been passed around enough in her short little life. I would rather just try to fit her in here instead of having her go to a place she wouldn't be safe.
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Assumptions do nothing but make an ass out of u and me. We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD! |
#6
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It is so hard when there is such a big age difference. :sad:
But I don't think the introductions were done slowly enough. |
#7
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The thing that gets me is that the older cat was fine with Edo until a few days ago. Now he's hiding under the bed. That is making me think he is not feeling well which is why I told her it would be a good idea to get him to the vet. Sometimes cats can sense when another one is not feeling well and will attack. I'm wondering if that is what Edo is doing.
__________________
Assumptions do nothing but make an ass out of u and me. We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD! |
#8
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#9
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I agree with rainbow that the introductions were done too fast. Perhaps after the kitten is spayed, the lady can start over from step one and this time take several weeks of passing the 2 cat's scent back and forth without them seeing each other. Ensure only positive things are associated with the other cat's smell, like giving high value treats (vanilla ice cream is my cat's ultimate) on top of the other cat's bedding, playing, grooming etc when they swap rooms, stuff like that. Gradually move up to limited viewings (through the crack of a door), and only when there are no reactions to each other, allow them short supervised visits (again with lots of treats and positive rewards). Mucho patience required with this technique, obviously, but there is no better way.
I personally would not use any corrective behaviour in this situation. It can backfire and end up deepening the hostile feelings between the cats because they start to anticipate bad things happening when they're around each other. Simply separate them at the first sign of souring moods (put a pillow between them if there's a risk of getting hurt and "herd" them apart rather than pick one up). Go back a step in the introduction process and try again later. ETA - I know you know all this 14+, I just think it needs to be reinforced to the lady.
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"To close your eyes will not ease another's pain." ~ Chinese Proverb “We must not refuse to see with our eyes what they must endure with their bodies.” ~ Gretchen Wyler |
#10
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Thanks SCM. Will pass that on. I explained to her that the intros should have taken a few weeks if not a month or two but she was anxious to see how the cats would react together.
It's frustrating to me when I have tried to give someone all the info I can on introducing cats and then they do the exact opposite. I am getting two or three calls a week asking me questions as to why they aren't getting along. I keep telling her they were introduced too fast and she should start over again. When I bring Edo back from her spay on Sunday I am going to try one more time to explain to her that she needs to do the introductions properly this time. But I know if her older kitty gets a bad report from the vet I will probably be getting Edo back. :sad: Thanks for the ideas gang. Keep them coming. I will pass them on.
__________________
Assumptions do nothing but make an ass out of u and me. We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD! |
#11
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Maybe it's just that she's coming into maturity, and even though she doesn't appear to be in heat she might still be producing a lot of hormones.
I have the mother of my kittens in a room away from the other cats and I let her in here only supervised (1. She pees on stuff when unsupervised, not sure if marking or what 2. I don't want anyone accidentally letting her outside before she's fixed). Normally she gets along with everyone just fine, but right after she came out of her last heat she kept attacking my two fixed adult cats and I ended up having to put her back in her room. She'd fluff her fur up, hiss and growl aggressively and run at them, jumping on them with claws out trying to get a fight started. She was just acting completely psychotic with them. She didn't do this with the kittens, just the adults. About a week after this she was ok again, so I think it must've had something to do with hormones from being in heat. |
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