Need help with cat behavior!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Need help with cat behavior!
4
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 5:29pm
I'm wondering if anyone has ever had a similar situation. We used to have four cats, two males and two females, all fixed.

Well in the past three months, one of the males died and one of the females just dissapeared and it look like she's not coming back.

About a month ago, we decided to get a new kitten. He's a male and about six months as far as I can tell, we got him from a neighbor who found him roaming around. As far as I can tell, he's not neutered yet, but we plan on doing that within the next month or so.

The problem is that the other female cat, Zoey is extremely unhappy and jealous. She's always been a problem cat and extremely needy and demanding. (She's ten years old and has been with me since she was born.) She loves my husband and demands to be in his lap all the time. If he doesn't have the time or energy to deal with her, she will keep jumping on his lap over and over and over.....I swear there have been times when she's come back 20 times.

Anyway she's increased her neediness level. She spends a lot of time outside in the summer, but everytime she comes in, she hisses at the kitten. I know that he's annoying her because he likes to try to get her to play.

Then she just sits around whining and crying and meowing. She guards their food, I've woken up in the middle of the night and she's just sitting there by the food dish. Its like she can't remember that we used to have four cats and everyone got fed, and now we have three so its going to be ok.

I have two food stations for them and they always have food available. They always have fresh water available, too.

I just don't know what she wants sometimes. She just sits and meows at me, and I swear it sounds like she's berating me, she sounds angry! Then I try to hold her and pet her and she just keeps on meowing and acting like she's mad.

I take the kitten outside beside I don't want him out there by himself. Well everytime its like she's mad at me for even looking at him! She won't shut up unless I'm holding her in my lap petting her. If I even stop petting her for a minute she starts meowing really loud again, especially if I am looking in his direction.

Its starting to drive my dh and I crazy. I have some chicory flower essence that I gave her, but it just doesn't seem to help at all. Is there another flower essence that might be more appropriate for this situation? Or do have any other suggestionson how to get her to calm down and stop meowing constantly and guarding the food?

Thanks in advance!

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-01-2003
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 5:39pm
Tiger always loved catnip and it would distract him from anything! I had trouble with him when we got the puppy and it took forever for him to adjust so i would just say you are doing a good job and it will just take time

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 5:55pm
That's a good point....bribe her with some catnip! I forgot about that option. Thanks!

 

Avatar for cl_lcni
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Tue, 08-10-2004 - 9:57am

I'm so sorry for the loss of


Photobucket

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 08-10-2004 - 3:04pm
The odd thing is, before we got the kitten, I was so worried about the other two cats' reactions. The male linus did seem to be upset for a while, he would go around the house meowing. But it just didn't seem to phase zoey one bit. She has always been an independent cat and wants to be dominant over all the other cats even when she's a lot smaller than they are.

I think I'm going to try giving her RR for a while and see if that helps. She doesn't seem very interested in playing games, ever! I don't know if she's too old or what, but even when there are no other cats around, she just ignores us when we try to get her to play.

Thanks for your help!