Help! Cat behavioural problems! (Aggression)

[Pegasus Marsters]

Ok, we have four cats. Phoenix is 6 later this year and female. Her children are Monochrome (female) and Tiger (male) and they'll be 5 later this year. Monochrome's daughter is Minako who is around one and a half years old.

Earlier today Tiger trotted into the room and next thing I knew Minako and Monochrome had attacked, chased him through the house and finally cornered him behind the pc. They weren't just hissing, they were practically screaming at him. I had to flick water at them to get them out of the room, and then locked them out and stayed in the room with Tiger to calm him down. Two hours later he finally stopped staring at the door and crawled into my lap to cuddle up and go to sleep. He spent most of those two hours shaking and jumping whenever he heard one of thier bells.

So when mum got home she opened the door, out Tigs trotted into the hall and within three minutes Monochrome and Minako had attacked him again. I threw practically a whole glass of water over each of them to get them off him and they didn't even care that they were soaking wet. He's now locked in the living room with us again whilst the others are out in the hall.

Two viscious attacks in a day, this is unreal. I cant just leave him alone with them incase they hurt him. The stupid thing is they're half his size but he's just a coward and hides away and cowers if anyone raises their voice, or puts thier hand near his face, or if the other cats go for him.

What the hell made them go psycho on him?!

[merlin]

Cats are like people; sometimes they just go potty. We have two very placid cats who most of the time cordially ignore each other, but sometimes they go into growling hissing and spitting mode. You have to remember that cats are fundamentally solitary and deep down they're not supposed to hang out in groups - what allows them so to do is that they have become neonates and have kept some of their infant characteristics into adulthood (which is why the sit on your lap rather than trying to rip your face off which is more normal behaviour for a cat species).

My guess is that they've decided that he's threatening them - for whatever reason, irrespective of him being a big girls blouse. He's bigger than them physically, he's (sort of?) male and he's scaring them. It's possible that there was an earlier phase you didn't see in which he swatted them and now it's payback time.

There are other possiblities such as that he's been somewhere which makes him smell different and that's freaking them out. Or maybe they're just having a rough day. The other thing is that cats are not team players - so my guess is that this is not them acting in concert: this is them both having the same idea at once. Try splitting Monochrome and Minako up for a bit and see if that calms them down (I assume you have more than three rooms so you can shove one in each).

Oh, have you changed anything in their environment? Cats HATE change and find it very threatening - that might have made them more predisposed to going loco.

[getoffmyskittle]

Cats are like people; sometimes they just go potty. [snip] You have to remember that cats are fundamentally solitary and deep down they're not supposed to hang out in groups - what allows them so to do is that they have become neonates and have kept some of their infant characteristics into adulthood (which is why the sit on your lap rather than trying to rip your face off which is more normal behaviour for a cat species).

[snip]He's bigger than them physically, he's (sort of?) male [snip]

Oh my God... laughing... so hard... :lafhard:

[Pegasus Marsters]

Nothings changed in the house and once all the grown ups were home the kitties all calmed down and made friends again. Bizarre tantrum Minako and Monochrome had there, but atleast they're not attacking Tiger anymore. Poor Tigs! He's calmed down now and isn't as scared anymore but I'll keep an eye on things.