return to main index

  mobile - desktop
follow us on facebook follow us on twitter follow us on YouTube link to us on LinkedIn
 
click here for Rodent Pro
Mice, Rats, Rabbits, Chicks, Quail
Available Now at RodentPro.com!
Locate a business by name: click to list your business
search the classifieds. buy an account
events by zip code list an event
Search the forums             Search in:
News & Events: Herp Photo of the Day: False Coral Snake . . . . . . . . . .  Herp Photo of the Day: Bearded Dragon . . . . . . . . . .  Greater Cincinnati Herp Society Meeting - Apr 02, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Calusa Herp Society Meeting - Apr 04, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Southwestern Herp Society Meeting - Apr 06, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Hamburg Reptile Show - Apr. 13, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  St. Louis Herpetological Society - Apr 14, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  San Diego Herp Society Meeting - Apr 16, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Suncoast Herp Society Meeting - Apr 20, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  DFW Herp Society Meeting - Apr 20, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Colorado Herp Society Meeting - Apr 20, 2024 . . . . . . . . . .  Chicago Herpetological Society Meeting - Apr 21, 2024 . . . . . . . . . . 
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research
full banner - advertise here .50¢/1000 views
Polar Rodents - US based provider of frozen rats and mice.
pool banner - $50 year

"Chasing" behavior?

[ Login ] [ User Prefs ] [ Search Forums ] [ Back to Main Page ] [ Back to Cat Discussions ] [ Reply To This Message ]
[ Register to Post ]

Posted by: utendi at Fri Jun 23 09:05:53 2006  [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by utendi ]  
   

This is a two-part question, hopefully it's the right spot for both.

First, we just recently (about three weeks ago) introduced a new cat into our house. Our first cat, Cleo, is a 9 year old spayed, declawed female. Very chatty, very people-friendly. We adopted Saku, a 1.5 year old exotic shorthair, male, fixed, still has his claws. He's a little timid, but very sweet, friendly, and relatively active.

We tried keeping them apart for the first few days, but they were both insatiably curious about one another -- he kept trying to get out of the room, and she kept trying to get in. Nights were hard, because we didn't want Cleo to feel like she was being punished (as she loves to sleep with us at night), and end up resenting the new cat, or getting jealous.

We introduced them very early. From the start, Cleo showed no aggression towards him -- all the hissing / growling came from him, and it was all defensive, as he was very shy of her. She has been incredibly curious about him, watches him in complete fascination, and obviously wants to know what he's all about. They are also very liberal with both litterbox and food/water dishes -- although we tried to keep all that separate, they used one another's litter, food, and water without any issues whatsoever, and don't seem to be territorial about any of that.

They've now been together, loose and unsupervised, for about two weeks. For the most part they co-exist peacefully; they either ignore each other in separate rooms, or can sit together in the same room (sometimes just a few feet apart) napping or just "hanging out." I've witnessed them sniffing noses just once -- for the most part they're still a little on guard with one another when they're in very close proximity, but aside from one instance where they startled each other in the first week, there isn't any fighting / growling / hissing or aggression.

Cleo doesn't hiss or growl at him, although he'll occasionally do that to her if she gets too close to him (at other times, he doesn't care at all.) He definitely seems to be the more submissive of the two -- when he hears her collar jingling he comes to alert and seems to look nervous, and if he enters a room and sees her there he'll immediately back out.

But on the whole, he doesn't seem actively AFRAID of her. We find him sprawled out on the floor, the couch, so he's not hiding himself away for fear of being ambushed. He does like to get in tiny, hard-to-reach places, but he does this whether or not they've had a face-to-face, so we think he just likes little spots (he's only about 6.5 pounds, to her 12 pounds -- he was apparently sick as a kitten, and it stunted his growth.)

The biggest problem is that Cleo stalks and chases him. Sometimes she doesn't seem to care about him one way or another, sometimes she's very interested, and watches him in fascination (she also sometimes makes the "I see a bird outside the window" chirpy sound when she sees him) but two or three times a day she actually charges after him.

Saku immediately runs away from her -- usually darting under the bed, or on top of something (she won't chase him ONTO things, just under them.) He'll sometimes hiss or growl at her after this, but he doesn't stay mad long; if he darts under the bed he'll stay there and nap for awhile, if he's out in the open he'll usually relax and go back to his business after a few minutes.

So far this hasn't come to a physical altercation -- she can't or doesn't try to "catch" him, and he doesn't fight back or try to defend himself, but it's obviously not them playing.

The chirpy noise she makes sometimes has me wondering if she sees him as prey. I don't expect them to cuddle and groom each other and be best buddies, and Saku's quality of life doesn't seem affected to the negative, but I really want her to stop chasing him! We've tried squirting her with a water bottle when she starts to go after him, but it's not always easy to catch her in the act (many times we don't know until we hear the thunder of cat paws, and the jingling of her collar.)

Saku's previous owner said that he enjoys the company of other cats, and was introduced to his friends' cats with no problem whatsoever, but Saku has not shown any real interest in getting to know Cleo -- just avoiding her. I know every cat is different, but is there anything that we can do stop her from chasing him?

As a side note, I bought some spray Feliway, but I haven't honestly noticed a difference one way or another.


   

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]


>> Next Message:  RE: "Chasing" behavior? - PHKitkat, Fri Jun 23 18:34:14 2006