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So I was living alone with my two cats Hani (4 year old male) and Nugget (~1 year old female). I recently moved back in with parents and they have two cats. Coco(3 year old female) and Lucas(2 year old male).

Hani gets along with both of my parents cats. He's a sweetheart. I think at first Coco wasn't that nice towards him but now they get along just fine. He follows her around the house all the time.

Nugget, on the other hand, doesn't get along with either. Coco attacks Nugget whenever she sees her, hissing and 'yowling' occurs. once or twice I've had to break up a fight between them. Nugget and Lucas can be KIND of near each other, but once they get like a foot apart, Nugget will hiss at him. Sometimes Lucas will go to play with her and she will yowl and hide under my bed.

She's usually always in my room. I guess that's her safe place. I feel hopeless, like the cats will never get along and I will have to keep confining her to my room or maybe give her up, which I don't want to do.

Please help!!

Hi and welcome,
have you read the following information? it may be helpful:

http://www.catchat.org/index.php/new-cat-introductions

I have a similar situation in my house and I'm afraid I haven't found the answer here.

Having just read the article that has been recommended to you, I can say they're all excellent steps to take (bar one, which I'll get to in a minute), but sometimes these steps just don't work. If you have a particular type of cat, they might not take to others, even if you follow the scent-swapping and slow introductions recommended. We did EVERYTHING as recommended when we brought our two kittens into the house but it has been to no avail. Our eldest cat hates them anyway and there are small fights frequently. Sometimes she growls at them and swipes at them with no claws. Other times she actually attacks them, claws out, snarling the whole time. And here's where I come to the exception to the excellent steps. If we tried to pick up and love our eldest cat when she attacks the kittens, we'd lose fingers in the process. She becomes VERY stressed around the kittens and has tried to bite and scratch us if we attempt physical contact while they're around her. She's perfectly calm and relaxed and happy when they're in another room, but as soon as they come into the room, touching her becomes very risky.

We did try Feliway but it did nothing. Whether we needed more than just the one for it to work, I don't know, but we saw absolutely no improvement during the month we had it plugged in.

The one thing we haven't tried yet is playing more with the eldest cat. We're going to start doing this from tonight and I hope it works.

In the meantime, try not to dismiss things that haven't worked for us. All cats are different and the fact it didn't work for us doesn't necessarily mean it won't work for you. I hope you find the answer you need.

In Littlepenbigheart's case, it sounds like her older cat is just one of those who would rather live alone, which is more difficult to resolve. I'm afraid some cats are just like that. But (LPBH) your plan of working on the older cat to make her feel more secure and more "loved" and involved in the household is a good one. Keep working on that. It may take a long while, but give her lots of love and she may become more relaxed with the kittens.

But with the four cats in your new household, they're used to sharing, so it's a start. Ok, sharing with one is totally different to sharing with three, and moving house/having two cats suddenly appear (whichever view point you see it from), but the problem appears to be with Coco, as Nugget is doing her best to fit in and is just having to hide away from Coco.

I would suggest you mostly work on Coco first, who sounds very stressed. Give her lots of reassurance, particularly when Nugget is within sight, really get to know Coco and do lots of scent swapping so that Nugget's scent gets spread around Coco's territory, so she gets familiar with the smell. She needs to learn that Nugget isn't a threat, so take things very gently with her. Meanwhile try to spend quality time with Nugget, so that her confidence isn't knocked too badly by this. Let her have her "safe space" in your room - it may be that Nugget keeps away from her in there, as cats will often carve up territory so they each have a space to retreat to.

This will take time, patience and understanding, but I suspect the cats will eventually come to an understanding that doesn't involved full-on battles. Meanwhile, try not to shout etc when the battles happen, as this just adds to the stress. Just quietly separate them (ie used to blow in their faces, or wave my hand in front of their face, and that would often distract them long enough for one of them to scarper) and give them "time out" to let them both calm down. And get the feliway going - it may well help destress them. You can also try Xylkene, which can also help calm stressed cats, until such time as they learn to get along.

Thanks! I'll keep trying. I forgot to mention that it's already been 4 months since I moved, so it will probably be a lot more difficult since so much time has passed already.

Don't give up. I've had some behavioural issues with my lot that have taken a lot longer than that to resolve, but we got there eventually! Sometimes the change in tack works wonders. Just remember that the "aggressor" is often the one who is most anxious or frightened.