Just moved house, cats hissing at each other

[jobnockey]

We moved house this week, Early days as the cats only moved in yesterday, tried to get them to settle into same room but big cat hissing at little cat, so put them in separate rooms. Little cat has explored round house but big cat hasn't left his safe room yet... When little cat went in to explore he hissed at her again. I guess this is a territorial.thing and he's confused at the moment but just wondering if there's anything I can be doing to make things easier, or any tips for helping him... He's in DSs room with litter tray, familiar bed and blankets, food, water etc and seems quite happy for now, just gets agitated when he sees her, like he doesn't recognise her...

[IdiotCreatures]

Time and introducing her smell to him through blankets she sleeps on etc.
Also feliaway pugins, catnip and maybe Zylkene, they are going to have to re-establish who gets what I guess.

[sunsetsandsandybeaches]

I would just leave them to it - they'll be fine in a few days once they've settled in.

We always get this with our big cat. Whenever one of the other two goes out of the house or to the vet, he decides he hates them when they return 🙄 hisses at them or even pushes them on floor 🙈

Within 24 hours or so he gets over himself and acts perfectly normal again! They're such furry little weirdos 🤣

[jobnockey]

Ah thanks for the reassurance. Hopefully he'll settle in a day or two. He is a weirdo at the best of times to be honest so I shouldn't be surprised at his behaviour! I may swap their blankets around tomorrow although DS has set up multiple cat blanket/ bed areas for cat and he's obviously ignoring them and sleeping on the floor.

[broadsurf]

The key to the answer maybe the fact that the big cat doesn't recognise which is what you state. And he doesn't recognise her because she smells different. The question is why does she smell different? It is something to do with the fact that they are in a new home. Perhaps she has picked up the scent on her fur of something in this new home which is masking her identity to the big cat. It's a guess but perhaps a gentle wet wipe of the female cat might remove that scent and it might lead to her being recognised once again. Domestic cats identify another cat visually and importantly by their body odour. If you remove the body odour, they see a stranger. Body scent is an identification mark.

[broadsurf]

"The key to the answer maybe the fact that the big cat doesn't recognise which is what you state". Correction: The key to the answer is maybe the fact that the big cat doesn't recognise her which is what you state. 😎.

[DessicatedWithering]

My cats don't recognise each other - their birth sibling - when they come back from the vets that they went to, together, at the same time. They seem to go by smell not looking.