How to help cats being bullied...

[HouseHell]

I have2 sibling cars and they have been spraying in the house for months now. I know they are being bullied by 2 neighbouring cats so are marking their territory. Is there anything I can do to help them?
My house stinks!

[HouseHell]

Cats....!

[wellies]

We had a similar issue with a neighbours cat who intimidated our girl cat. Neighbour cat would stare in the windows and really worry our girl who would then pee everywhere.
We got one of those pheromone plug in things from the vet which seemed to help settle our girls nerves. Since she's been more relaxed the neighbours cat gets no reaction and has given up bullying her. It's been about a year, I had to renew the plug in once but haven't bothered again and things have been fine for several months now.

[pumpkinpie5]

I would agree with getting a feliway plug in spray- we use them for the rescue cats we take in and it does help. You can also try putting a number of litter trays in se ure places- in a corner against a wall etc.it may help.

[HouseHell]

I've spent a fortune on plug ins...I clean everywhere with bio washing powder...and they seem ok for a couple of weeks and then it starts again.
I've never actually seen one of them do it...but the house reeks! We have a microchip cat flap so it's definitely one of them and they keep getting chased in by other cats. ??

[Micah]

We had this. Tried everything.

Only solution was to separate the cats. We gave one to my brother.

Both cats now very happy in their own homes. Spraying stopped pretty much straight away. They are marking their territory to each other. The outside cats won't be helping, but they need their own territory away from other cats completely.

[HouseHell]

I would be really reluctant to separate them as they appear to be best friends (currently asleep together at the end of my bed).
I'm at my wits end though...

[Micah]

Yep, ours were "best friends", slept, played together, to all appearances were inseparable brothers.

We really did try everything. Took advice from cats protection, rspca, bought every product, tried every technique. In the end we happened on a fantastic vet who went through everything again, but in the end was honest- cats are solitary creatures, and siblings are actually in fact worse when it comes to territorial behaviour as they don't keep out of each other's way and respect territory.

Honestly, it's been 10 years since we split ours and it was the best thing we could have done. In hindsight, even though they seemed to get along, they did have a lot of stress related behaviour, including the spraying. Which all went away once they got their own space.

You could try giving them their own rooms, feeding separately, separate sleeping area etc. But in the end we just got to the point that the spraying was so intolerable separating was the last option.

[justyeh]

First if your cats aren't neutered this is a common problem, if they are neutered sounds like it's caused by them being chased in by the other cats and not each other has they are friendly and sleep together, cats only behave like this when insecure or upset by change, is there no way you can keep other cats out of their outdoor territory or scare them off by spraying water at them and as mentioned feliway does help if you spray it around regularly at cat height, I find the spray works better than plug-in.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

1. Feliway
2. Microchip cat flap so there is no way intruder can enter house
3. Give L-tryptophan either in tablet such as zylkene or in one of the stress foods.
4. Provide at least three litter trays inside for two cats.

Feliway and L-tryptophan work together really well. L-tryptophan is a protein, but binds to same receptor as diazepam so you get all the anti anxiety effects with none of the addictive ones. I use it everyday for my boy cat who has stress cystitis.

[HouseHell]

Thank you for your replies.

I've ordered some Zylkene...at this point I'll try anything. I'm going to buy some litter trays too. (Not had them for years as they've always been happy to go out).

It's just so strange as we have had them from being babies and this is al very new. (They're 3 now)

[code]

The litter trays might solve it. Must be stressful going outside to do your business when being under threat of ambush.

[getinthesea]

All of this, but also when you are washing it away, don't just use the bio washing spray, but also then wipe with some kind of surgical spirit/vodka or whatever as that removes the last traces of the enzymes.

We also use this smell remover which is the best I've ever found.

[Stinkersmum]

Are they neutered?

[HouseHell]

Both neutered so that shouldn't be the issue. They both seem happy enough to go outside and enjoy mooching the neighbourhood...it's just on occasion (that I've witnessed) other cats threatening them (and actually attacking on the odd occasion too).