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Cat Forum / Health and Behavior / October 2006

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Sudden aggro from Congo.

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meeee - 13 Oct 2006 01:14 GMT
Well, as you know, my gang of orange (Moe, congo and garfeeld) has turned
one year old not long ago. I just wanted to run Congo's behaviour by you
guys, and see if you have any suggestions to alleviate things. Congo seems
to have decided he wants to be 'top cat' which I suspected would happen, him
being the biggest and all. Garfield and he seem to be in cahoots on this, as
there has been a lot of chasing each other through the house; I'm not sure
if it's them working out which one is Boss or just demonstrating teamwork to
the rest, they seem to be playing, not aggro. Whereas his behaviour to mum
Jasmine is definitely aggro. Yesterday he decided to assert himself and
started laying into her, bapping her repeatedly, even following her around
when she tried to escape to 'continue the lesson' until I had to intervene.
He is also doing this to Tahzha our new girl, who is, although not
agressive, not as submissive as Cougar (other female). Should I just let
things happen, monitoring of course? So far there are only patches of fur
missing, but I'm hoping things will settle down before it gets too out of
hand. He is also attempting to monopolize me. All the others defer to him
now, so I guess its a NWO emerging.
RobZip - 13 Oct 2006 16:06 GMT
> Well, as you know, my gang of orange (Moe, congo and garfeeld) has turned
> one year old not long ago. I just wanted to run Congo's behaviour by you
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> down before it gets too out of hand. He is also attempting to monopolize
> me. All the others defer to him now, so I guess its a NWO emerging.

I would continue monitoring the situation and intervene as little as
required. My own mob consists of Spot, the boss cat, his brother Nacho, and
their mother, Sammy. My tabby female Cassie is approaching 7 yrs old. The
two brothers are 2 yrs old and their mom is 3 yrs old.
Spot has asserted his dominance over Nacho. Sammy likewise has installed
herself as Alpha female. All goes well most of the time.
I only intervene when things get particularly ugly. To do so at other times
only seems to cause an escalation of bad behavior, as the one attempting
display of dominance will sometimes ramp up his efforts to make up for
whatever I may have undone by intervention.
Nacho will sometimes attempt to renegotiate Alpha male status with Spot.
Spot at first seems rather passive. When his threshold of tolerance is
reached, he will take Nacho to the floor, biting him on the scruff of the
neck and pin him. Upon release a few good swats are delivered to send him on
his way. These things are fairly easy to distinguish from ordinary play
wrestling and common interest in the same toys. The vocalizations of pecking
order dispute is unmistakable.

The real problem is when Nacho goes after Cassie. Cassie normally submits
and flees the room. If Nacho goes after her, Cassie can be counted on to let
go with the most blood curdling screeches of pain even though Nacho hasn't
physically done ANYTHING to her. I think Cassie counts on that as my cue to
jump in and get the big oaf away from her. These two are the most likely to
engage in a high speed, leaping and diving, furniture busting pursuit. Their
collisions with stationary objects are legendary in the neighborhood and
have produced a few limps and wincing headaches. I try to stop this sort of
thing cold, as it seems to be more common bullying for amusement, rather
than legit social order purposes. It also shows the most potential for
injury. Nacho isn't particularly graceful and really doesn't seem to give a
sh.t what happens when he decides to rampage.

Then there are times when the entire red cat clan decides to harass Cassie.
They stalk her and take turns chasing her and covering possible escape
routes to a point that the old girl is definitely stressed out. Just like
kids, there comes a time when play crosses the line.
meeee - 13 Oct 2006 22:45 GMT
> I would continue monitoring the situation and intervene as little as
> required. My own mob consists of Spot, the boss cat, his brother Nacho,
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
> escape routes to a point that the old girl is definitely stressed out.
> Just like kids, there comes a time when play crosses the line.

Thanks for this. It is very similar to what's going on here. Funnily enough,
mine are all orange too (except for two tortie siamese girls) so maybe it's
a personality thing.  The destruction is usually caused by Garfield and
Congo chasing each other though the house; this seems like play, and anyone
and everyone joins in, maximizing the chaos. What's more worrying is when
Congo decides to pick on one of the girls; I suspect he also has tried to
bully my male siamese so I've separated them as Mango (siamese) was looking
quite stressed; Congo is quite pigheaded and continues even after the other
cat is obviously submissive. So I think I'll be keeping a close eye on him;
this shouls be easy as part of his bid for leadership seems to be
monopolizing my lap. We're hoping to move next year, and i think a larger
house and some outside time would help greatly; this is a rental so I can't
really set up a pen for them, which I intend to do next year.
 
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