Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Why have they turned against each other?

2 replies

wheresmymojo · 01/06/2019 11:35

I've had lots of cats before but we have a situation at the moment that is leaving me at a loss as to what to do...

We have four cats - three of them used to hang out together a lot.

These were two younger cats (sister - Leia and brother - Luke Skywhiskers) who we've had since they were kittens and are now 3 and a 6 year old - Mia.

They would play together and sleep together.

About 3 weeks ago however Leia and Mia the two females have started to fall out. They no longer play fight but chase each other around the house aggressively. There hasn't been much contact but lots of growling, yowling, ears down, fur on end stand offs.

They have constant 'stare offs' with growling and this morning I saw Leia stalking Mia before chasing her with Mia growling.

There haven't been any big changes in environment....the only thing that this has coincided with is a neighbour has moved in and upset our lot by deciding it wants to claim our garden as it's territory (and it's quite territorial). I've been chasing it out lately so it knows it's not welcome as it's upsetting my cats so much.

Any ideas as to why the two females have turned on each other?

As the neighbours cat is quite territorial I've started to wonder if it hasn't been neutered and if the girls behaviour is linked to that (they are spayed though)?

How can I get them to be civil to each other again?

OP posts:
MadCatEnthusiast · 02/06/2019 14:27

It sounds like redirected aggression.

New neighbour cat moved in and made its mark which they can sense and it's stressing your cats out so they take it out on each other despite the fact they've not done anything to each other.

littlebigcat.com/behavior/redirected-aggression-a-case-study/ here's a case study he wrote about 2 cats, similar to yours all loving for years, attacking each other

wheresmymojo · 04/06/2019 21:10

Thanks! Will read the link...

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.