Expert: Karen Craft - 12/13/2011

Question
I realize that there are a few other threads on this issue of new cat introductions, but I feel that our case may be slightly different, and I have tried other suggested methods that I have researched on the web and asked at the veterinarians office that I work at, which haven't worked.

To start off with basic background information, our family has two cats, and two dogs. The dogs are well-behaved and are no problem for either of the cats, which typically ignore the dogs. Our first cat is about seven and a half years old, and she had a rather traumatic beginning. A woman found her in a parking lot, and the general thought was that she had been run over or was hiding under a car for heat- either way, she ended up injured, and as a result her appearance has been permanently altered (this occured when she was roughly 6 months old). She's missing part of an ear, half of her tail, and one of her front legs was amputated (her one front paw has also been declawed). Perhaps as a result of this, she has always been a shy cat, who would come around us but not really care to be petted or given overmuch attention. She grew up around another cat we used to have, with no problems, but other cat (an older male) died about two or three years ago.

I currently am attending college, so I am away from home at times. My family adopted an 8 week old male kitten in the summer, which then became mostly my responsibility. I followed reintroduction techniques- I kept the kitten separated in my room for about two weeks, taking him out periodically to let the other cat come into his room and smell, and eventually come meet him. Our older cat mostly just hissed, growled, and stayed away from him when he was around this age. I had the kitten neutered, but not declawed, and over time he came to spend most of his time out of my room, only coming back at nights. These days, when I'm away at school, he is free-roaming the house at all times, and he is now almost 9 months old.

However, the two cat's relationship is starting to escalate beyond the older cat simply growling. The kitten is the troublemaker, attacking the older cat daily, and I don't believe it is play. When she comes into a room, his eyes focus, he crouches, and his tail twitches- almost like he is stalking prey. He physically jumps on and attempts to bite our older cat, who in response hisses, yowls, and runs away every time. There are no injuries- no scratch marks, bite marks, anything. There are three litter boxes in the house, for two cats, and plenty of spaces for them to have their own room. I have tried using a spray bottle on the kitten when I have caught them fighting- however, the kitten has become smart to that, and now will only attack the older cat in the other room, when we are too slow to be able to stop it the moment it starts. We have also tried feliway plug-ins, which haven't worked at all. The fights are daily and continuing, and they are causing our already fearful older cat to become more reclusive.

I am starting to be concerned that he is attacking her because of her appearance (the missing leg) rather than play or boredom. He has a whole bucket of toys, two scratching posts, a cat stand, etc. I am not sure what to do, if I should start the reintroduction process again- however, they are both used to each other scent by now, and he spends every night away from her when I am home, and it doesn't seem to help.

My parents are threatening to get the kitten declawed, although I am not sure how this would help as he does not leave any actual injuries on our other cat. I would prefer not to get him declawed, as he does not scratch furniture or leave an physical marks on the other cat. Neither of the cats spray outside the litter box, they both eat well (better than well in the kittens case), and they are fed in separate parts of the house.

Please let me know if you think another reintroduction would help, or if declawing the kitten would actually help, because at this point I am pretty much at a loss.

Answer
Hi Christine,

The male is 9 months old. This sounds more like a typical behavior from a male cat at that age. Even if he is neutered he is at the age where he will behave like this. Sort of like a 19 year old teenager will. All hyped up, no place to go and wants to show off his prowess. He will get over this as he gets older. However he will have flashes of this still every once in a while. You can try giving him this stuff.

http://www.petnaturals.com/vitamins_supplements/calming-support-softchews-cats.p

It works pretty good. Try it and see how he does. Please don't go the route of declawing him. Read this, it will give you good info on what declawing is.

http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/declaw.html

Time and the calming formula should help a lot. Good luck and take care.

Ciao, Karen