# Help - mother cat bullying daughter cat!



## cookieandcrumble (Sep 28, 2009)

Help - mother cat bullying daughter cat!
Hi all and thanks for reading. I have a problem!

We got two cats from a rescue shelter about a month ago. They are a delight with us - gentle, affectionate, good with children - we couldn't believe our luck. Unfortunately though, the mother cat (at least, the shelter told us they thought she was the mother) keeps attacking the daughter. We first noticed it because the daughter started weeing on the doormat and once did a poo on the carpet upstairs. We were quite surprised because she knows how to use the litter tray and had done it perfectly for a couple of weeks before the problems started. On maybe 7 or 8 occasions (about once every two days that we have seen) we have now seen the mother cat set upon the daughter quite viciously - she starts off with a swipe and then launches herself at her, clumps of fur flying everywhere. The daughter runs off to hide but the mother sometimes pursues her round the house. We thought this was caused by the mother being territorial about the litter tray but problem hasn't improved since we put another one in a different room (in fact today I saw the mother attack the daughter while she was on the litter tray). I am sure this is why the daughter started weeing on the doormat for a while and she is clearly nervous of the mother, albeit that the rest of the time, they play together and sleep together. We have tried everything we can think of in terms of some time out for the mother, the extra litter tray, feeding them separately etc but are having no luck. We are trying to decide whether to give one cat (probably the aggressor) back to the animal shelter but would obviously be sad to see her go and are worried that they will pine for each other (because every time we separate them after a fight, they sit at the door miaowing to each other). I should mention that they were bot neutered about 6 weeks ago at the animal shelter.

Can anyone help me in working out whether this is serious enough to rehome one cat? If not, any suggestions on how to stop the fights pretty urgently? Thanks very much!!


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## kittykat (Nov 2, 2007)

It's not that unusual for the mothers to start attacking the kittens once they have been weaned etc .... many years ago this happened to my cat and luckily all the kittens had homes to go to so I dont really know what to suggest. I think if it was me though I would possibily think of rehoming mum back to the rescue centre as its obviously distressing the little one. Sorry I couldnt be of more help.


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## Leah100 (Aug 17, 2008)

There are remedies you can use in the house to try and defuse the tension [feliway plug ins and spray] and zylkene capsules can be very useful for relieving stresses and strains in multi cat house holds.
It can take longer than 6 weeks sometimes for hormones to settle down, if you can wait a bit longer, hopefully you might see an improvement?


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## lizward (Feb 29, 2008)

This does sound extreme - how old is daughter?

Liz


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## cookieandcrumble (Sep 28, 2009)

Hi and thanks for the advice. Mother is reckoned to be about 7 and daughter about 4 years old - but these are guesses because they were abandoned half-starved in a carboard box with no details. On the recommendation of the animal shelter, I have tried putting some herbal remedies in their water (one which is meant to be calming - for the mother,and one which is meant to boost confidence - for the daughter) but of course it's virtually impossible to stop them drinking each others as I like to leave water down for them during the day. 

I am going to leave it for another couple of weeks and see if they settle down once their hormones calm down after the neutering operations. Failing that, I think we will have to consider rehoming the mother - they were only rehomed together because they had come in together and seemed to get on well, but it may not be in either of their interests to stay together. Our other thought was to keep a child's water pistol handy and give the mother a quick squirt everytime she starts on the daughter - I don't know if this kind of tactic will work on cats - any thoughts? Thanks again.


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## kittykat (Nov 2, 2007)

A water pistol can work wonders  - Hope there is some improvement soon.


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