Expert: Dear Tabbi - 4/1/2009

Question
ok, to start out I guess I need to give some background
we have 6 cats, 3 of them are/were kittens (they are big now) of 2 of our other cats. One of the 3 belongs to me (CloverLeaf). The Father of the cats (Tommy) is our oldest cat he is about 7 years old. Recently Tommy has been chasing, attacking, and sexually abusing CloverLeaf. CloverLeaf is a male, all our females are fixed, and CloverLeaf has a brother so I know it's not about him being male. so I've been keeping CloverLeaf in my room with me when I sleep. but every morning when I let him out he goes and attacks Tommy, and urinates on my mom and stepdad's stuff. I'm guessing he does it to them because they are Tommy's owners.. But the problem is we don't know how to stop either behavior.. and it's not a very big house so we can't separate them for long periods of time. I just wanted to know if you knew of anything I could do to stop either problem. I believe CloverLeaf is acting out of anxiety and anger (the other week he was also throwing up stomach bile) But I don't know what to do, I've owned many cats my whole life and have never ran into this problem

Please help if you can
<3
Kitty

Answer
Jaded,

Your cat is exhibiting tomcat territorial behavior. You should get him neutered ASAP. He may be reacting to females in heat that he can smell up to a block away, even if he is a housecat.

He may also have a urinary tract infection, or urinary crystals. They are common, but if not treated, urinary crystals can cause a complete blockage in male cats which is usually fatal.

He may have redirected aggression which is also common. A cat sees a stray cat out the window that he can't get to to defend his territory, so he turns on other animals in the household and fights them like they were the other cat.

I would make sure he doesn't have a medical problem causing his behavior before dealing with it as a behavioral issue.

Tabbi