Some advice and possibly some help
Hi everyone,
I have two cats - one is a 2.5 year old male neutered black and white long hair domestic cat. we got him from a rescue centre about 1.5 years ago - his name is Finn. he has a great gentle temperment, and loves nothing more than spending his day outside and then coming in the evening and lying out on the floor infront of the tv....there are a couple of other cats in the neighbourhood, but he is so confident, he sees them off! he has even managed to bully the local dog into not entering our front patio..
we always felt he could handle and would enjoy having another cat for company, so in early march we took another cat from the rescue center - a 5 month old male neutered ginger cat (Oscar). Oscar is a bit crazy like all kittens, always on the move, investigating...getting into trouble! as soon as we started letting him out of the house he started getting stuck up trees but has always managed to get down eventually!!
anyway, we thought finn would be the dominant one, but oscar -being a kitten - is always attacking finn, causing finn to howl and hiss at him - the fights never get very physical but they are loud and a bit distressing. we followed all the 'introduce your new cat' steps as best we could and after a couple of weeks all was going well, the cats would play fight a bit, but would then end up sleeping on the same bed or chasing each other around the garden,
however, in the last couple of weeks, finn has stopped coming back to the house in the evening, and more often than not i have to go and find him and bring him back. he eats and then just wants to get away from oscar as quick as possibe - either out the door or into a back room in the house. if we keep them in the same room, the fighting starts again!
we are really at our wits end as to what to do, is it worht trying feliway diffuser or something like that? we always said our priority is Finn as he was there first, but i really dont want to have to bring oscar back - but i would be devastated if Finn ran away or dissappeared, but he is staying away longer and longer, sometimes he is gone for 16/17 hours...i dont think anyone else is feeding him, because he is always starving when he comes back!
Would Feliway work in this instance to calm the kitten down and help Finn feel more safe at home?
any advice would be great!!
Hi everyone,
I have two cats - one is a 2.5 year old male neutered black and white long hair domestic cat. we got him from a rescue centre about 1.5 years ago - his name is Finn. he has a great gentle temperment, and loves nothing more than spending his day outside and then coming in the evening and lying out on the floor infront of the tv....there are a couple of other cats in the neighbourhood, but he is so confident, he sees them off! he has even managed to bully the local dog into not entering our front patio..
we always felt he could handle and would enjoy having another cat for company, so in early march we took another cat from the rescue center - a 5 month old male neutered ginger cat (Oscar). Oscar is a bit crazy like all kittens, always on the move, investigating...getting into trouble! as soon as we started letting him out of the house he started getting stuck up trees but has always managed to get down eventually!!
anyway, we thought finn would be the dominant one, but oscar -being a kitten - is always attacking finn, causing finn to howl and hiss at him - the fights never get very physical but they are loud and a bit distressing. we followed all the 'introduce your new cat' steps as best we could and after a couple of weeks all was going well, the cats would play fight a bit, but would then end up sleeping on the same bed or chasing each other around the garden,
however, in the last couple of weeks, finn has stopped coming back to the house in the evening, and more often than not i have to go and find him and bring him back. he eats and then just wants to get away from oscar as quick as possibe - either out the door or into a back room in the house. if we keep them in the same room, the fighting starts again!
we are really at our wits end as to what to do, is it worht trying feliway diffuser or something like that? we always said our priority is Finn as he was there first, but i really dont want to have to bring oscar back - but i would be devastated if Finn ran away or dissappeared, but he is staying away longer and longer, sometimes he is gone for 16/17 hours...i dont think anyone else is feeding him, because he is always starving when he comes back!
Would Feliway work in this instance to calm the kitten down and help Finn feel more safe at home?
any advice would be great!!
