How to best discourage cats fighting indoors

[Gardeninging]

Hi we have litter mates, two beautiful tabbies. Very intelligent, funny and charismatic.

We have an entrance where there's our glass front door with a cat flap, then a porch with the cat beds and scratching posts, shoes etc- then the main secure door into the house which has no cat flap. So at night a cat needs to "tell us" if they want to be outdoors/in porch all night, or in the actual main house all night.... They can't come and go freely.

We've lately found that if both cats decide they want to be in all night, which is most nights lately because of the bad northern weather, they spend a lot of time fighting with each other, hissing etc. They don't cause physical injuries at all, just psychological power play/chasing stuff.

One's male, one's female - you'd think the tom would have the more dominant aggressive personality but actually it's the beauty queen doing most of the aggressing 😕 tom cat is getting upset, and in the morning is often worried about eating his food next to her...

I'm getting worried about their fighting.....

Any advice?

Feliway. They do one for multi-cat households. Make sure that you have one more cat bed than cats, so you will need three sleeping places; and ideally one litter tray per cat as well.

How old are they?

Yes, Feliway Friends.

Feliway friends.
A really good wand toy too, get them jumping around for 10 minutes before bed, then feed them last thing.
Ours do this though, start fighting about 5am (male and female siblings about 3 years old) and actually we have found the best solution is to shut the boy in the living room overnight, we have been doing this about 3 months and he seems quite happy with it. I shout him when it's bedtime and he trots in quite happily.
We put a litter tray, dry food and water in there for him overnight.

Our cats fight if left stuck together despite having a huge house . They seem to seek each other out and start a row! The only solution for us was to have the cat flap open 24/7 ..

I can give you a HUGE list of what doesn’t work!

For example, saying “FFS, you pair of bastards, STOP IT!” is completely ineffective. But DH attempts it every single evening anyway. He’s an optimist.

Feliway works with some, as does the herbal one with Valerian. But not all by any means. Having three sleeping places for two cats helped for a while.

Can you separate them at night?

I'd really not want two cats fighting long-term. If one gets injured you could be in real trouble.

How do they get along the rest of the time?

Yes I would try to separate them in different rooms overnight, with a bed and litter tray in each.

We found cat entertainment reduced this significantly.

A ten minute session of playtime with cat toys - so holding stuff for them to chase etc - really burnt off energy and then they were able to be more amicable.

Oh that's great thanks

I had heard of Feliway vaguely, but always thought it was for the most extreme anxiety cases (cats pulling their own fur out sort of thing) but looking at it, looks like it might help them especially when they're cooped up in the winter months.

We'll give it a try

"in the morning is often worried about eating his food next to her..." "

Don't feed them next to each other, cats aren't social eaters and are usually best off eating well away from each other.

in the morning is often worried about eating his food next to her...

Good catch, @powershowerforanhour !

We need the bowls a good metre or more apart or they are NOT happy, @Gardeninging. Definitely move them apart to different bits of the room. Also, move BOTH, not keep one in the same place and move one. THey get funny about ceding positions.

Yes thanks we'll try that too.