Cat self esteem issues

Ophie

So...

I have 4 house cats. They will remain house cats for their entire lives due to breed and a super busy road that I live on, people do 80+mph past my house. Two of the cats are Sphynx and are coming up 5 years old. I have a 2 year old Snowshoe and the last and most troublesome cat is one that I brought home as a tiny kitten last summer but who has become a massive thuggish lump! She's part Bengal according to the vets.

Anyway, the Snowshoe pre Bengal was always top cat, she's a miserable sod. I bought her for breeding, but she didn't grow big enough and so at 11 months old she was spayed. This didn't change her at all and she remained confident and in charge. But as I said I brought home the thug and for some reason both hairy cats do not get on. Snowshoe thinks that whenever the Bengal goes near her she must hiss and spit and hit her on the head (Bengal is also spayed, she was done at 4mths old). Bengal charges round the house like a mad thing and makes the Snowshoe uneasy. To try and combat this I allow the Snowshoe in to my bedroom alone so she has some respite from the thug. Snowshoe becomes a different cat in my room, is very talkative and loving.

All 4 are raw fed and they all have their own places to eat, the snowshoe has to be in a closed off room because she eats so daintily. The other 3 eat like pigs. But what I'd really like is some advice about how to settle relations between thug and Snowshoe. Thug has been placed in time out for her behaviours and Snowshoe always has back up from humans against Bengal to try and help her feel more confident. When Snowshoe is feeling very picked on the other 3 will join in all chasing and hitting her if they corner her. However, there are no issues with spraying or urinating/pooing in places that aren't allowed. All bodily functions are carried out in the trays!

(they do have names btw )

Hermoine

There's a very good cat behaviourist called Vicky Halls who has written some really helpful books including much about multi cat households. One of her points is that, sometimes, by adding one more cat to the mix, you just push a household over the edge - too many cats for the space available. There's no precise formula as it depends on the cats - I got there when I added a second cat in a 2 bedroom terrace..This could be what has happened here, now your fourth cat has grown up? Since you can't be around all the time to intervene and the cats can't get out, I'd suggest that you need to find diversionary activities for your young stroppy cat ( more toys/games/places to play) and more hiding places/ safe places for your older cat. If there's no peeing or marking they can't be that stressed, can they? When I had 2cats that didn't get on there was a definite odour... Good luck!

dandelionclock30

I think you have got a lot of cats in one house and they dont go out so have a lot of pet up energy.I would be thiking about building a run in the garden for them and putting a couple in for a while then alternating it so that they can have a run around and fresh air.
If this isnt for you then I would get a couple of harnesses and use these for exercising them in the garden.
Basically I think they are carrying on like this because there are too many cats in the house and they are bored. If they are out exercising etc then they will be in a better frame of mind when they return.

Ophie

I have to disagree about there being too many in the house because if that was the reason they would show this by urinating in places other than their tray and all of them would be stressed and unhappy, it's not the case it's only the Snowshoe who has always been highly strung.

I do have a cat pen that I can put them in when the weather is better, but they have plenty of exercise and plenty of play times. I am home all day with them. Also if they hated being in the house they would be taking any given opportunity to leave, a friend accidentally left the front door open a couple of weeks ago and it was open for a good hour, not one cat went to the door, they all knew it was open and they know that you can go in and out of that door but they decided the outside wasn't for them. (thank god)

Lifeforms

Bengal's, part or whole, need a whole lot of attention and effort, and it is imo better to pair them like for like as they tend to annoy each other equally (along with self amuse of course!) The time that they're picking on other cats needs to be occupied with other things, less harmful, instead. Bengals can be forceful to the point of being childish and downright spiteful about it. They're an intelligent breed, and they let you know about it. They can also be vindictively spiteful, and giving one to one attention to the under-dog (Snowshoe; because that's what she is now) is akin to sibling rivalry of a very spoilt singular attention child. As daft as it sounds, they know, they see it, they never forget it!

My mums Bengal will single out her catmate if she's been on the lap too much, even though the Bengal will not lapsit herself. She will hunt, stalk, and repeatedly attack if she feels that rescue moggy is even deigned to be higher in food offerings, or attention. She will fixate, and she will let you know about it. She will destroy things to get her way, she will throw off things to alert you to her demanding attention.

Don't get me wrong, she's a fab, gorgeous cat, adorable in her way, but she can be a b*tch, if she is allowed to stick in her way with another cat. What has helped is things she can self amuse with. Moggy needs forced into playing, yet the Bengal will help herself to toys, and has a cat wheel (yes, like a hamster wheel!) and this helps so much when she uses it. She also has kids/baby toys that amuse her, over a mouse on a stick as they're more interactive! The more time she's asleep, eating, and playing is the less time she's causing strife.

Ophie

Oh!

The Bengal is exactly how you describe your Mum's cat. In terms of not being a lap cat herself, but will come and stand on you and stare right in your eyes for no reason, let you stroke her and then she gets off again. Her tail is permanently up in the air. She stalks the others ALL the time, the boys (Sphynx) don't have a problem with it and quite often all 3 of them will be charging round the house doing the wall of death over the sofa. The Snowshoe has never involved herself in such activities.

The Bengal is now at least twice the weight of the Snowshoe who decided that being the size of a 5/6 month old kitten would be a good idea for the rest of her life, and almost twice the length of her, she's so long and she's not even a year old yet!

I shall invest in more toys, but to be honest she's not interested in playing with humans - she likes picking her own toys and throwing them in the air and catching it. I've never seen a cat like her. I also had no idea that she was going to grow in to the brute she has or that she had any Bengal in her at all, who am I to argue with a vet?!

gunsandbanjos

I have no advice, but being curious I googled snowshoe as I had never heard go it. Oh my, they are so cute! Grumpy cat is a snowshoe apparently.

Pics would be great if you have time.

Lifeforms

We're lucky in that mums Bengal didn't grow very big! She's a small cat, size and weight wise, but this was probably down to being the runt, and perhaps parentage as well as her feeding when she was a kitten, prior to getting her.

If you go down the route of toys, perhaps look more into things that are self occupying. Try baby toys, likes of sound/light ones, unless you know she's intimidated by sound, those ones where baby is lying on a mat under something seem to be reasonably good for patting and such like from a cat. Check the charity shop of course, lots of baby aged toys end up there and are usually ok for pets.

You could look at inteli cat toys like a track and ball set. That's the one my mum uses that the bengal loves, but only with the illuminated ball. Put a normal one in and she ignores it. However. Be aware it can be uber frustrating if they can't get paws in the track to whack the ball though. My tubby moggy (big boned, honest!) has paws too big to fit in, so instead of him enjoying it, he became fixated in breaking it because it wouldn't do what he wanted. He wanted to push the ball around to track and back to him, but fat fingers etc

Another thing my mum got recently was a cat treat maze (Catit food maze), which can be used with biscuits instead of treats. It's pretty good. Except. The bengal learnt within 2 mins of it being out where the biscuits went in, and managed to get her head in that way. The rescue moggy learnt to head butt it to knock biscuits out, instead of using her paws. That can be used for for distraction therapy. If she's being over opinionated (!) with the other cat, putting biscuits in there will distract both of them, and by the time it's empty again, all is forgotten.

Another thing that helps is high perches. The Bengal will use curtain poles, tops of units, and a 7 foot tall cat tree as her lording ground. Her being up there, out of the way of the other one (she's not interested in height stuff) helps. If you use a cat tree of unusual heights (ie not the ones most commonly available in uk pet stores) make sure it is absolutely stable enough to deal with Bengal cat size weights and motions! My mega-moggy decided to take root in the top and second top platform over new year when he stayed there. He's hefty, large, heavy, and every time that cat tree wobbled with him on it. Granted he stayed on it, but him 6 foot up, every time he'd come down, it sounded like someone dropped a cement block up stairs.

Quite often people will put up shelves around the room so their Bengals (and other cats) can move around the room, off the floor, out of another cats territory, even if it's just the "this is my mat because i'm sitting on it so keep away" territory. Good for exercise, but my dad wont let my mum put some of these up. Her Bengal will self feed biscuits off the top of the kitchen upper cabinets, so no worry with her being up high. You can see some ideas of shelving for cats on google, like the image below.


The last thing you can do is boxes, lots of them. If your cats enjoy them.

There is a bit of worry as a cat owner that the house gets over run with toys and equipment for them, but it'd rather sequel at 3 am by standing on a rattly squidy mouse heading for the loo, than having a cat waking me up at 3am demanding attention! (I do love mums cat's as well as mine, despite the name calling )


Also do agree, pics please, a must!

kitty08

I've got three indoor cats (two spayed girls and one neutered boy) aged 12 years, 11 years, and five months. The middle cat is highly strung and has had severe anxiety issues (at one point she was scared of blackbirds calling and the vet was seriously considering putting her onto prozac!), but using a variety of methods she is now living a reasonably normal life. Like your Snowshoe, she likes time alone in the bedroom. Relationships between the three can be strained at times, but on the whole they are now tolerating each other, although we make sure that each cat has a bolthole where they can go to be quiet and on their own. Below are the methods I have used:
The Feliway pheremone plug in has definitely helped to ease stress and tension. I use one downstairs all the time and an additional one upstairs if they are going through a bad patch. The plug ins and refills are available online. Its worth shopping around as the price can vary a lot. I can tell when its running out as the squabbling often starts up again.
I also give my anxious cat zylkene (again available online without a prescription). This is not a drug so there are no side effects. I think its based on milk proteins and I have definitely noticed a significant calming effect. I read that it may take up to ten days to have an effect, but I noticed an improvement almost straight away.
I also feed her Royal Canin Calm cat food, which has helped her, (I read that you feed your cats a raw diet, but thought I would still mention it)
When there are periods of extra stress (for example when we got the kitten) I give her four drops of Rescue Remedy for Pets in her food for a few days. (This is different from the human version as it uses a glycerine base. The human version uses alcohol, and I'm not happy giving that to a cat.)
The cat has changed from hiding under the bed to lying on the rug by the radiator, and for some parts of an evening she will come downstairs and join everyone else in the sitting room. She still runs and hides when the doorbell goes, but will now venture out to cautiously greet a visitor. I don't think she will ever be best friends with the other two, but they do at least tolerate each other now.
I hope this helps! If you're still worried about her, I'm sure your vet would be able to help, possibly by referral to a feline behaviourist, or by prescribing anti anxiety medication. I can't comment on how effective either of these are, as fortunately the non drug therapies have worked on my cat, but they are all different!

Ophie

titbits for mine are a huge issue as they are all raw fed, mainly because one of my Sphynx has a massively sensitive stomach and he doesn't keep weight on (I admit he is my baby and behaves as such), so we can't have anything other than raw food and I don't fancy blood all over the carpet! But I do have a dog toy that I could try and get fat lass (Bengal aka Nettle) to get an interest in, until I go and scour pet shops and charity shops for suitable toys.

Also Nettle has from the moment she came to the house just flopped wherever she was, so if that's the middle of the floor that's where she's sleeping on her back all twisted... Is that a normal Bengal thing?

I've got and have used all the things you mention kitty08, vet has seen her and said she's fine. I am considering a thundershirt if the toy thing doesn't work.

Are you really sure you want photos? Oh dear! I have many!!!

Ok... here goes



Nettle when she was cute and small and I had no idea what she'd turn in to!



Nettle at Christmas, she isn't 1 until June!!!



Mab the Snowshoe



Another Mab photo

and finally my Sphynx... This is Finvarra, my baby (he's not very money saving friendly)



and this... is Ludo



I could bore you with baby photos of them all, but I'm holding back

gunsandbanjos

Bore away they are fabulous! I love cats, a home isn't complete without a furry presence.