Expert: Kate Tilmouth - 8/6/2008

Question
I adopted a stray cat my daughter brought to me. She is a loving cat towards
humans and is fine with dogs but she is aggressive toward my other 2 cats
and will viciously attack them without warning. The cat she is most agressive
with is very mild mannered and de-clawed. We have tried everything and now
have her on Amitriptiline, she has her own cat carosel/faris wheel and loads
of room to roam including a contained yard but still continues her aggression
esp. when the other cats run from her. I can think of all kinds of reasons for
her behavior but am a loss as to how to correct it. We even tried a stimulus
collar for dogs but it didn't affect her. Please help.

Answer
Hi
The simple answer is that you may not be able to correct it. It is not a bad behavior that we can try to stop, it is instinct. cats are not pack animals like dogs and living in close quarters with other cats which they have not known all their lives is just something that a lot of cats are not happy with.

the hissing and aggression is her way of warning the other cats off, as far as she is concerned this is her patch and they are trespassing, so she warns them off.

usually in these cases the worse that happens is the hissing and growling and no actual fighting a apart from perhaps the odd warning swipe. This is normal and they can rub along like this without any real harm, just avoiding each other as it were. if this is the case then this is just how it is.

if it is worse than that and full blown fights break out all the time then unfortunately you may have to consider finding a new home for her. especially as you other cat is declawed and cannot defend himself any more. (please do not declaw you new cat, it is not the answer, but do make sure that they are spayed as this can help with calming them down)

Lets hope that they decide to just tolerate each other so that they can all live together.

best wishes Kate
http://www.our-happy-cat.com

PS