Jealous cats

teapot_3

Hi, am hoping someone can give me a little advice please. I rehomed 2 cats in July and they have settled in really well and are lovely cats. Although they are brother and sister they never sleep with each other, preferring their own little places around the house and at night on my bed, one at each end!!

The female one in particular gets very jealous if her brother is on my lap or I am making a fuss of him and quite often they end up fighting with each other. Even if he walks past her she hisses at him.

Obviously I give them both absolutely equal attention but I just wondered if this is fairly normal behaviour or is there anything I can do to stop them fighting so much. There havent been any injuries and the fighting doesnt seem really vicious but I would prefer to avoid such problems in the future.

basilcat7

Hi teapot,
i have 2 cats- both females, 1 is 5 and the other 4. The one we got first has always been extremely jealous of the other one, hissing and basically being nasty to her.
However the other one has never done anything back and even adopted her as her Mummy when she was a kitten. The first one now tends to tolerate the other one but there will never be a massive amount of love there.
I think its normal but not nice especially as yours are both participating in the fighting !
What I used to do when they were scratching when they were naughty was to get a planty spray and fill it up with water and give them a blast of it. It soon used to stop bad behaviour This may help as they hate it !!
Good luck !!

Sola

It's normal - 2 of mine can't stand each other and fight daily even after 4 years together (although it rarely gets beyond bad language and waving paws). I let them get on with it (but I'd intervene if it got serious).

tanith

teapot you will probably find that they are never going to be bosom buddies , I had 2 cats (one died recently) lived together in the same house for 18yrs and they tried their best to avoid and ignore each other for all that time.. if they 'met' accidently they would hiss and snarl and take a swipe at each other but the never really got on, just tolerated each other.... I would do as basilcat says give them a blast with a waterpistol if they fight but otherwise try to ignore their bad behaviour and let them get on with it...

Badger_Lady

Just to chime in - from everything I've read on Cat Psychology (yes, I am that sad!), cats rarely like eachothers' company, even if they are siblings.

The best that you can normally hope for is tolerance of one another - they will either accept one another reluctantly, or fight one another at every opportunity. Sadly, there's no quick fix to cat relationships!

teapot_3

Thank you all for your replies, they are very reassuring. I shall adopt the water pistol technique and see how things go.

badmumof1

teapot i had 2 cats that we rescued aged 18 months old and right up till we lost one aged 18 years at beginning of the year they never cuddled up with eachother and most weeks would hiss at eachother.

last week i adopted another cat to go with my remaining 18 and half year old and they get on brilliant and my new she cat has settled in lovely

redmel1621

I have two kittens (6mths) brother a sister, they fight a lot but then will curl up together licking each other and even fall asleep cuddling.
I do hope they don't start hating each other they look so sweet when they curl up like this. The male is much more of a fussed baby and is always looking for attention, the female is much more of a loner apart from with me.

mel x

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Cats are like humans they either like each other or they don't.Only difference is they show it more openly.It realy is quite natural for them to do this.We had five cats once,two boys who were happy to be together all of the time,until you stroked one of them,when the other one would then attack the one you were stroking.We had to make a point of stroking them together.A beautiful marmalade cat who was very peaceful and the two boys would totally ignore.A sweet little black girl who was very playful but got attacked by all the others and an old lady cat who they were all terrified of and used to scatter and hide when she came in the room.We just used to let them get on with it as we could never understand any of the goings on.

patchy987

guess i got lucky, i have had 6 cats over the last 10 years, (i now only have 3 sadly) they all gte on great and spend most of their time cuddled up together under the radiator and grooming each other !!

lilmissmup

I got my baby girl Izzy and then my boy Spencer about 7 months later.

Spencer tried his best when he was a kitten to be her friend and snuggled with her but she used to smack him one and hiss so now they don't get on as she wouldn't accept him.

They tolerate each other but thats all, sometimes see them sitting next to each other but very rarely, i wish they were best buddies but never gonna happen!