Cat aggression

[KatiesKittens]

My cat gave birth to a litter of kittens in May and up to that point was a very loving and friendly cat who had never scratched or bit anyone. She was neutered in August and all was well, we kept one of her kittens and they were very close and affectionate with each other. However, over the past 3-4 weeks she has become exceptionally aggressive towards the kitten and is now attacking him if he even dares walk past the room she is in. The kitten is now terrified of her and freezes as soon as he hears her growling as he knows what is coming. She has also bitten my ds, dd and me for no reason and is frequently growling at all family members. I am really at a loss as to what has changed (other than her neutering) and wondered if anyone has had similar problems?

[purplewerepidj]

Have you taken her back to the vet to get checked over - there might be an infection or something in her surgery wound or elsewhere that's causing her pain?

Feliway is supposed to be good, and homeopathy can be used with cats - possibly a tiny drop of Rescue Remedy in her water as a short term relaxant?

Do both cats have plenty of access to outside, litter tray, water, food, hiding places?

[KatiesKittens]

She has been back to the vet for all her checks and they are happy with her. At the moment, the kitten is still indoors only (he is being neutered tomorrow morning) but Katie is in and out all day whenever she pleases and they have full run of the house with plenty of hiding places. I've always made sure that they are both given separate bowls of food and the kitten has his own litter tray too as i know they can be terratorial over that. Strangely, one of the rare occasions she doesn't attack him is at meal times? It's upsetting I suppose because she has always been quite affectionate and if she was scared of anything she tended to go and hide rather than attack. She has also started hunting much more, and even took home a dead pigeon a couple of weeks ago.

[purplewerepidj]

That was all the obvious stuff I could think of, I'm afraid. Cat interaction is ridiculously subtle - my parents (who look after the animals on the odd occasion I'm away) were convinced for the 5 years of his life that my ginger boy was bullying my b&w girlie. Careful observation on many occasions proved that, actually, Millie had the upper paw 95% of the time, including allowing Mango to finish food she didn't want...

Is there any chanch whatsoever that the new boy is intimidating Mum? Catching and bringing home prey is more of a sucking up thing I would have thought?

[Fluffycloudland77]

I'm no expert but cats are a matriachial breed, they chuck the male kittens out and the females live in little groups.

So basically she is thinking "WTF? Why haven't you left home yet? Just bugger off".

I have heard people say before mum has turned against her kittens but as far as she is concerned it's high time he left home.

One of my childhood cats moms came to live with us, even after a year they knew they were mom and daughter, it was an uneasy truce and mom always won the argument.

Apparently teenage strops are the human version, you don't like them much, they don't like you and they think they know it all and would be fine on their own.

[purplewerepidj]

Has he been snipped yet?

[KatiesKittens]

He is getting the snip tomorrow morning, we've been hoping that will help the situation. I am going to mention it to the vet tomorrow while I am there to see if they can shed any light but just wondered if anyone on here had any experience. I've never had a male cat before, and he is a lovely little man. I do wonder if she is just a bit pee'd off at his needyness, he did tend to follow her around before, although not now. As soon as he see's mum he kind of freezes in terror, bless him!