Cat Conflicts: Living in a Multi Cat Home

Cats are notoriously picky about their companions. Many of us have brought home another cat or kitten to have them immediately snubbed by the already established cat or cats in the home. Others have had a stable cat society in their home to suddenly experience high levels of stress and aggression in their home out of nowhere. Here are some things to consider when managing and solving your cat’s disagreements. 

What Changed?

If you have started to see new behaviors in your cat or cats think about what may have changed in the past few weeks. Is there someone new in the house like a cat or a human? The arrival of new individuals into the home can often shift the careful equilibrium between two or more stressed cats. 

Have you moved furniture or closed off a room recently? Some cats have preferred rooms, furniture items, or spaces that they regard as either a safe place or simply theirs. Many multicat households find that their cats will split spending time with their people by area. Such as one cat snuggling with you on the couch and the other only on the bed. By removing any of these spaces your cats may become stressed and upset the other cat in the process of looking for a new favorite napping spot. 

Have you taken your cat to the vet to make sure that they are still feeling in tip-top shape? If your cat is feeling under the weather, they may have less tolerance with the other cats. 

Aggression

Some cats will take their stress of a changing environment out on the other cat. One frequently asked question is how aggression looks different from play. The biggest difference is that play will be quiet. Their claws will be retracted and both cats will go back to continue playing. Aggression is loud, involves low vocalization and higher yowls. Their claws will be out, their ears back and their backs arched with fur standing up. The best way to distract them from each other is to make a loud noise or toss something between them to get them to disengage then place them in separate rooms to calm down. The next steps would be to start reintroducing them, check out the Home Sweet Home course for how to introduce your cats, or book a consultation with us! 

Bottlenecking 

One place where you can help avoid aggression is by making sure your home is free of any bottlenecks where your cats would be forced to interact. As a general rule, cats who don’t wish to interact will avoid each other. However, if they are passing each other in a small hallway there is an increased risk of a reaction. Try keeping doors open or adding in tables or other vertical surfaces so your cats could duck into the rooms or take the high road to avoid the other if that is their preference. 

Food

A quieter form of aggression between conflicting cats is resource guarding. This manifests as one cat sitting around the food or water bowls, or jumping the other while they are eating. 

Try placing the food bowls to where they can watch each other while they eat or in different rooms. As always have enough food and water receptacles so that they don’t need to share. The general rule of thumb is one plus the number of cats you have, or if you do not have space, one plus the number of social circles you have in your home. 

Litterboxes

Cats can also resource guard the litter box. This is not only a problem as it can cause litter box problems to develop but it makes your cat less secure in your home. Litter boxes are used as scent spots that help cats mark their area. Follow the same rule as with food dishes, litter boxes equal to the number of cats plus one more, to help prevent these issues. 

Room Rotations 

In the case that your cats have zero intention of getting along in any capacity or you need to keep them separated for the time being as you slowly introduce them, you can rotate their access to the house and the room they are living in. To start each cat or cat social group should have their 'own’ room. This room should be only open to them and the humans. Give them all of their favorite items. Have all of their food, litter, toy, and bed necessities in this area. Then, each cat or group will have free reign of the house for a portion of the day and switch with the other cats or groups several times a day. For example, one cat lives in the bedroom and is free in the house from 8 am to 12 pm, at which time that cat is put back in the bedroom and the other cat is let out from their room from 12 pm to 4 pm. Then they switch again from 4 pm to 8 pm and again from 8 pm to 12 am. You don’t need to follow that exact plan but make sure each cat is getting an equal amount of time outside of their room. If they are bored in their rooms, be sure to have a play session to help relieve their boredom and prevent any destructive boredom behaviors. 

These are some suggestions for preventing and managing cat disagreements, however, each situation is unique, and if you would like some help with your multicat home reach out to us at tori@spacecatacademy.com! We would love to help you and your cats!