Hi, I've just read your thread & it was really interesting.
I'm having big problems with my 2 yr old cat, Charlie. He belonged to a young man who had him in one room and I suspect was treated roughly as a kitten. we've had him since he was 7months but he has never taken to me, lashes out etc if i walk past him. My husband & 2 adult sons can stroke him and he loves their affection. We already had 2 old cats in the house and they accepted him and he was fine with them. sadly, they both died recently so we decided to adopt 2 kittens from a rescue centre.
unfortunately, we didn't read your thread before we got them and just bought them straight into the house. We expected a bit of hissing etc from Charlie as this is what our old cats did when he came. However, Charlie seems quite afraid of the kittens, he won't come in very much & if he see's them he goes straight out again. Worse though he is hissing and growling at everyone and even scratched my sons face last night because he could hear the kittens in another room. He was quite content on my sons lap until this point. The kittens aren't scared of Charlie at all and apart from hissing he hasn't attacked them at all so they go up to him as soon as he comes in unless we can stop them first.
is there anything we can do to rectify this mess? Sorry about the length of this question.

Hey,

Great tips, only thing is it didn’t really cover the one aggression problem that I’m sitting with my fully grown male cat Shado, he has been very aggressive with the other cats in our area, bullying them and looking for fights.

How do I convey the message to him that this behaviour is not on, I need to find some solution quick as our landlord has warned us that if this goes remedied we will have to move.

I don't know what to do; I am at my wits end.

Sadly some cats are very territorial and will fight with anyone that comes in to their "patch".Obvious question but is he neutered.

__________________

Yes Shado is fixed, has been since a kitten, before our other female cat that he grew up with passed away he was a very shy and scared cat, after Amber we got Leo and Chua, also fixed male kittens and for the first bit he was fine, there was the hissing and running away but no aggression to them, but then Leo ran away and then all of a sudden he has been attacking our neighbours cats and bully them into cowering under him.

It’s like he has had a complete mind shift. I have kept him inside from last night in fear of the other cat’s safety, but I feel so guilty as he has always had free access to come and go as he pleased. I feel I’m being cruel but at the moment I see no other way. Its either this or a new home on my boyfriends parents farm. I think sending him away would just break my heart as my animals are my kids.

I'm no expert so sadly cant really offer much advice but it does look like it is more fear induced aggression.Did Leo ever return and what is Shado's relationship with Chua like.If Shado accepts being kept in over night then I would say that is the best thing to do,apart from the fighting ,cats out at night are at quite a risk from injury or worse and it isnt cruel to want to protect him.

__________________

No Leo never came back, and his relationship with chau is on the tense side, he tolerates him but there is still a lot of hissing and spitting going on, seeing as Chau is still fairly new to our home, I'm hoping that the time he does stay indoors for will help him adjust to Chau! They both sweet cats with their own personalities and I wouldn't want to get rid of either of them.

Have you heard of Feliway diffusers All about Feliway I see you live in South Africa so cant advice where you would get the cheapest supply from.I have used it with a cat with behaviour issues and found it very useful.Good luck I hope you manage to sort out Shado's problems.

__________________

Hi, I am new here and found this thread really interesting as I have a big problem called Scooter.

He is now 5 and was given to me age 2 to be my stable cat as he was attacking his family and their dogs and cat. They had had him since 2 months old and he had been neutered at 6 months. He had a normal upbringing but terrorised the household to the point where they would not enter rooms/ use stairs if he was there because he tended to bite legs.

He settled in with my horse very well and stopped biting legs as a rule. Over 2 years his behaviour improved a lot and I would sometimes take him home when the weather was bad and he was well behaved on his visits.

In November we moved house and decided, as he had improved so much, we would bring him with us and re-convert him to a house cat. He likes the house and initially was only as unsettled as expected (nervous about going out etc.). Then he started spraying, made worse by a neighbour's adopted stray coming in, I dealt with this by shooing it with avengence. Outside Scooter was not too botherd by neighbouring cats, he stares them off (he is 6Kg and confident - see Scooter the adventure cat - YouTube for a video of him).

I got a feliway diffuser and spray which appeared to help until we got a new sofa, which smelt of 'new' and he started spraying a lot so we had to ban him from the lounge unsupervised.

I cannot work out the reason for his aggression. Some is dominance although not towards me any more (but he is protective of me if there is a stranger), my partner is more wary and Scooter is more likely to behave badly if he is in charge. Strangers and new things do make Scooter more nervous and this sometimes becomes aggression (the ultimate is the vet). Sometimes he attacks randomly and without warning, usually me, so probably redirected aggression. Sometimes his eyes go into hunting mode with targetting locked onto your hand. There are parts he does not like touched but I am slowly improving this over the years, and he is learning to ask me to stop before trying to sever my hand. He is not timid and asks for attention but then suddenly attack (this behaviour very rarely with me).

We have considered giving him up as the spraying is becoming impossible (never mind the attacking). However, we are fond of him as he does have redeeming qualities. He has been very easy to train not to scratch furniture, go on tables etc. with a combination of positive reinforcement and punishment. But for the spraying we have tried: not making a fuss, calmly moving him to his litter tray/outside, telling him off - nothing has worked.

I now want to try calming drops/tablets but he only eats Punira Natural Chicken biscuits and an occasional cat treat, so don't know how I would get him to take them.

Apologies for the long post - well done for getting here - please help!

What a wonderful post thank you so much! This has really helped me and I will change my approach to my kitty from now on xx

Hello Luisa,
Ollie and Willow are gorgeous! And thank you for sharing , it is really helpful, I knew some of them but I didn't know every behaviour you talked about. I love cats and I want to know as much as possible about them.

Cats kneading — Kneading is very natural for cats, coming from the time when they were kittens