3 sibling cats have started fighting

by Lee
(UK)

I have 3 cats all 2 years old in April next year. A male (Dinky) and female (Chloe) about the same size and a larger male (Sam). They're siblings I rescued at about 5 weeks and they've always got on really well. Whenever they're stressed they sleep in a heap together (too cute!). There's the usual play fighting with varying degrees of seriousness but nothing like what happened the other night. For no apparent reason they erupted into a a proper wailing, screaming, spitting ball of a cat fight. I split them up, waited an hour or so and then fed them together. They were back to normal for a short while and then it happened again. I can't work out the instigator or victim in it all. After 4 bouts over that evening and following morning I've split them into separate rooms. They're on their second day in solitary and they all hate it. Miaowing constantly and scratching at the door.
I should say I plugged in some feliway as well. Now I don't know what to do next. The male (Dinky) and female (Chloe) about the same size do play fight the most. The larger cat (Sam) is a big softy and runs away and hides any time he feels threatened. I can see that Dinky takes longest to calm down afterwards and he actually hissed at me a few times in all of this. Now I need to reintroduce them but in which order? The vet suggested the 2 males Sam and Dinky first but I don't want to make a mistake and end up back at square one. I can't live with them separated they are SO noisy :-(

RESPONSE:

Well, they are at about the right age for this kind of behavior. And I am going to assume that they are all neutered. Cats begin to reach full maturity around age 2. Your happy, secure little group of siblings are at a point where they are determining who is the dominant cat. And, just because they are related doesn't mean they will be nicer to each other.
We deal with this routinely and eventually, it does get better. Be sure you have lots of cubbies and high up places for them to get away from each other. Play with them more often, especially in the evening. Play until they are tired. Offer treats when they are in the same room and behaving. Don't get all excited when they start fussing with each other as they will feel your stress and get even more excited. And don't get in the middle of a tiff or you could get hurt. Most of the time. we just stand there, looking stern, and call them by name in a low, admonishing tone. We also keep toys stashed about the house and pull one out to distract them. This usually works to break their fixation on one another. For the tough cases, we squirt them with water from a squirt bottle. Again, this gets them to focus on us and not each other.

Cats often learn to turn this sort of fighting into a game. One cat intimidates another cat and the intimidated cat gets all upset, makes all kinds of noise and usually runs away screaming. To the instigator cat, this is great fun - a kind of victory for them. By getting the cats to focus on us, the game is ruined for the instigator cat. But it doesn't mean he or she won't try again! We rarely segregate them as this seems to make things worse. We find it is best to let them try and work it out for themselves. While there is the occassional loss of hair and nose scratch, rarely do they do any real damage to each other. It is the noise they make that sounds like they are killing each other!
Let them out together, give them treats, and have toys at the ready, and see what happens. You can also try giving them Vine and Holly Bach Flower Essences to calm the instigator(s). It will have no effect on the more timid cats and we have had pretty good luck using Bach Flowers to calm unruly cats. More play however, is the best method for just about all bad behavior.
Let us know how it goes.

Donna - House Full Cats Mom