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Cat Forum / Cat Anecdotes / January 2004minor bullying problem
As many of you know, I have recently acquired a new kitty master, an adolescent boy named Licorice. He's a little sweetie, but he does have one habit I'm not very fond of - he sort of bullies Smudge. It hasn't gotten violent - no fighting, no blood - but he's gotten very territorial about certain things and places that Smudge has always felt perfectly free to use and occupy, and he shoves her away or chases her off. For example, he has decided that she is not allowed to use either of the sisal rope scratching posts (fortunately there's a third one that he does let her use). Whenever she starts to use one of the sisal ones, he'll stop whatever he's doing, wherever he is, and race over to it, shoving her out of the way. It really annoys me that he acts like this. I mean, Smudge was here first!! (I know, cats don't care about that. :)) My gut reaction when I see this behavior is to intervene. Usually I yell "Hey hey hey!" at Licorice, or I clap loudly toward him, and he goes running off (he's a little wuss around *me*). Smudge seems to understand that I'm not yelling at her, and will continue doing what she was doing. But I wonder if this is the best approach. If this is just normal cat behavior, then maybe I shouldn't be trying to stop it. Plus, I can't watch them all the time. I've just been hoping that if I shoo Licorice away each time he does this, he'll get the message eventually and stop. I don't know if that's a realistic hope or not. I just hate to see her made uncomfortable in a space that has always belonged to her. Any suggestions? Joyce Oh, we do have a bully here - a fat bully, and he does throw his weight around - the BT Rowdy....bullies the girls (older than him) frequently, resulting in either loud growls and skirmishes or they take wide berths around him to try to avoid physical action. I will yell at him, and believe me, Rowdy knows by tone of voice and "NO!" when to run under a bed and leave the girls alone. Being younger, however, he is always wanting to play and although they are his peers and his own kind, the girls are way over play age generally and just consider him at best (Maluce will stay near him at rest) a companion and at worst (Sylvie is a loner and avoids contact with either of the other cats) a pest. If we hoomins were going to get upset because everybody doesn't "get along" here, we'd be in a constant state, but as long as no one gets hurt, they're entitled to their preferences, we say. : As many of you know, I have recently acquired a new kitty master, an : adolescent boy named Licorice. He's a little sweetie, but he does [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] : : Joyce All I've read about this subject points to the fact that you're supposed to let the cats figure out their pecking order. However, they also state that cats do not have a rigid social structure like dogs do. There is no such thing as an alpha cat, but many cats can display alpha-type behavior at times. What we try to do is to verbally intervene when there is bullying going on (Luna is usually the victim and Basho and Issa the perpetrators). It usually takes a verbal command to stop the aggression, only in a few occasions we need to get up and go break it up personally. We've been having a lot of it lately, and I think it's partly because we've ran out of Feliway (I have a spare I need to plug in). It's also because Fez and Rufous are maturing, and that means a new pecking order must be established. Good luck! Perhaps a Feliway diffuser will help?  SignatureVictor Martinez Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM) Send your spam here: uce@ftc.gov Email me here: pistorLITTER@BOXaustin.rr.com > Good luck! Perhaps a Feliway diffuser will help? Feliway is an excellent idea, but it's pretty costly. How long does it last (ie, is it worth the investment)? I was really disappointed when I bought Nature's Miracle (actually, I think it was another, similar enzyme product). It cost a lot, and I used about half a bottle on one little poop stain. In other words, your money doesn't go far with that stuff. I hope it's better with Feliway. Joyce in article cKEMb.8208$XF6.177672@typhoon.sonic.net, jXwXeXrXmXoXnXt@sonic.net at jXwXeXrXmXoXnXt@sonic.net wrote on 1/12/04 3:56 PM: >> Good luck! Perhaps a Feliway diffuser will help? > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Joyce To me, it is worth the investment. The cats *definitely* get more ornery to each other when it runs low. The diffuser bottle lasts almost two months. I have two diffusers for my one bedroom apt. Karen > The diffuser bottle lasts almost two months. I have two diffusers > for my one bedroom apt. Does each bottle you buy come with its own diffuser, or do you buy the diffuser one time, and then buy refill bottles? Two months isn't that bad, especially if you buy refills at less money than the initial cost layout. I haven't worked in over a year, and money's starting to run out. I have to budget carefully! Joyce > Does each bottle you buy come with its own diffuser, or do you buy the > diffuser one time, and then buy refill bottles? The diffuser comes with one bottle, then you just buy refills. > Two months isn't that bad, especially if you buy refills at less money > than the initial cost layout. I haven't worked in over a year, and money's > starting to run out. I have to budget carefully! These guys seem to have the lowest price: http://store.yahoo.com/pet-guys/-039079027910.html SignatureVictor Martinez Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM) Send your spam here: uce@ftc.gov Email me here: pistorLITTER@BOXaustin.rr.com > These guys seem to have the lowest price: > http://store.yahoo.com/pet-guys/-039079027910.html Oh, thanks! Joyce in article rIHMb.8232$XF6.178484@typhoon.sonic.net, jXwXeXrXmXoXnXt@sonic.net at jXwXeXrXmXoXnXt@sonic.net wrote on 1/12/04 7:19 PM: >> The diffuser bottle lasts almost two months. I have two diffusers >> for my one bedroom apt. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Joyce YOu buy the plugin, which comes with one bottle, then buy refills. You may find it sufficient to put a diffuser in the main area where contention happens. You could purchase one spray bottle to use daily in other areas. Karen > YOu buy the plugin, which comes with one bottle, then buy refills. You may > find it sufficient to put a diffuser in the main area where contention > happens. You could purchase one spray bottle to use daily in other areas. Thanks. So the spray bottle is different from the diffuser? I wonder if using a spray bottle would just rile up my cats rather than calm them down - they tend to see sprayed liquid as a cue to run off (which might be a good idea in the case of Licky bullying Smudge. Joyce - with Smudge curled up in my arms right now in article BxJMb.8268$XF6.178989@typhoon.sonic.net, jXwXeXrXmXoXnXt@sonic.net at jXwXeXrXmXoXnXt@sonic.net wrote on 1/12/04 9:24 PM: >> YOu buy the plugin, which comes with one bottle, then buy refills. You may >> find it sufficient to put a diffuser in the main area where contention [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Joyce - with Smudge curled up in my arms right now The spray bottle just squirts a bit. You can spray it around when they are off napping. Karen I know how you feel. Bruiser when he was tiny used to push Maya around terribly and she let him get away with murder. I know she was miserable about it but couldn't bring herself to hit a kitten. At one point I was afraid she was going to run away. Its actually better now that he is a lot bigger than her. None of us in the house is under any delusions about who would win a fight. Its not the size of the cat in the fight its the size of the fight in the cat. Maya is a small, ex-street cat and Bruiser has led a life of being pampered and loved. Bruiser is still really pushy but Maya stands up and he backs off. Its like Bruiser goes, I'm the biggest and I want it. Then Maya goes hisssssss and he runs away. > As many of you know, I have recently acquired a new kitty master, an > adolescent boy named Licorice. He's a little sweetie, but he does [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > Joyce I do hope everything works out fine. Best wishes, SignaturePolonca & Soncek > As many of you know, I have recently acquired a new kitty master, an > adolescent boy named Licorice. He's a little sweetie, but he does > have one habit I'm not very fond of - he sort of bullies Smudge. <snip > As many of you know, I have recently acquired a new kitty master, an > adolescent boy named Licorice. He's a little sweetie, but he does [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > Joyce I've noticed that Moogie has taken to bullying Mr. Bob quite often.. I think it's a fight for Alpha Cat. If Bob goes to lay in a certain spot (usually a very comfy one), Moogie will dash over and start trouble, then when Bob stalks off, he'll lay down in the spot and look very pleased with himself! I've tried yelling at Moogie and squirting Moogie.. but he just looks at me like I'm wacko! Stacey :) I adopted Imp last Jan 2003, and Mischief showed up in April. She's an adorable cat and very lovable, but as soon as she came into the house she looked at Imp and the ears went back and she started growling. In the next few days, she wasn't sure if she wanted to stay or not, so she was whining and growling at Imp and rolling around. Imp did the best thing any male can do in a situation where a female is in a bad mood, he hid under the bed. But still Mischief would perch on the corner of my bed and growl and hiss when Imp would walk in. And Imp was here first! There would be times when Imp would just walk by her and Mischief would take a swing at him for no reason I had to yell "No!" a couple of times, I'm single and I don't have any kids, but for a few weeks I felt like I had two bickering children. Now, almost a year later, they get along fine. They're not curling up next to each other, but they love to play and wrestle with each other. Imp came from a multiple foster home and wasn't the dominant cat there, so when Mischief came in and "took over" he let her, but was a little bit mad at me. But they've settled their differences and Imp is a LOT less skittish. Take care, Kristi Slave to Imp and Mischief > As many of you know, I have recently acquired a new kitty master, an > adolescent boy named Licorice. He's a little sweetie, but he does [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > Joyce When I first adopted Kona and Sabastian a few months ago (they were from the same vet/shelter but not buddies there) Kona bullied Sabastian. He would stalk Sabastian and Sabastian would cower; he would do things like pushing Sabastian out of the way at one of the food bowls. Kona was clearly jealous of any attention I gave to Sabastian and Sabastian was much more relaxed when Kona wasn't around. I got great and pretty much immediate results from using Feliway plug-ins and spray. The day after I first used it, I saw Kona trying to push Sabastian out of the way at one of the food bowls and Sabastian just stuck his head in the bowl and refused to budge. The minor downside was that Kona seemed to be a little upset at the change in Sabastian's behaviour and tried to spray a shower curtain that day. They have adjusted to each other really well now and in fact they now take turns chasing each other around the house-it looks like they are playing "tag" sometimes. :-) YMMV. |
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