Advice needed! Just adopted mother and daughter cats

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zobo
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Advice needed! Just adopted mother and daughter cats

Post by zobo »

On Monday, we welcomed Lulu and her daughter Jelly into our home. They are old cats, both 14 (6 months apart) and have always been together. We were told that they tried to re-home Lulu on her own once but she didn't like being separated from Jelly so they had to find a home together.

The first night a morning were fine. They seemed to be settling in slowly. Lulu was a little more tentative of us, and we had to coax her down from the landing to be sociable or when food was laid down. Jelly was never a problem...she's a bit bonkers (in a good way) very playful, mipps a lot and does a great impression of a meerkat. Lulu would cuddle up to us in the evening but otherwise spent most of the day asleep.

On Wednesday, both cats were waiting by their bowels to be fed in the morning. I thought this was great as we were getting them into a routine. Jelly didn't eat much. I decided to give her a couple of treats to make her feel more at ease. I turned me back to put them away and she was sick a couple of times. I rang Cats Protection and asked for advice, and she just said that Dreamies can make some cats sick. So I thought nothing of it. She ate fine that evening.

The next morning, my husband fed them both before he went to work. Jelly was instantly sick. She was sick 7 times in total, in the end it was just white foam. I was really panicked and rang Cats Protection again. They advised that I take her to the vets.

Getting her into the box was a struggle, she hissed and really hated me before eventually giving in. The vet said there was nothing wrong with her and that she was just a nervous cat and was probably stressed or competing with Lulu for food and that I should try and feed them separately and to give Jelly small portions at a time so she has to go slow. I also bought some of that Feliway spray to calm her down (as even the doorbell makes them jump!)

Jelly was really down the rest of the day, I felt like she hadn't forgiven me yet for the struggle in getting her into her box. Cats Protection rang me to see how I was getting on and advised that rather than having two set meal times in which I was giving them wet food (either Whiskers pouches or Felix tins) with Iams, to just keep some Iams down all the time. That way Jelly can eat throughout the day without having to scoff her food because she thinks Lulu is going to eat it.

I did this and I thought it had worked, we left food down over night in both bowels and by the morning it had all gone and they weren't pestering us for food as soon as we got up. I then realised that Jelly still wasn't herself. No more meerkat impressions, she no longer socialises with us. Lulu on the other had has become more dominate to the point that it is becoming a problem.

If I leave food down, Lulu eats it all. I have tried to separate them, but Jelly won't eat if I enclose her in a room away from Lulu (she gets nervous at being closed in). Today I managed to get Jelly to eat a little wet food (I gave it to her teaspoonful at a time) and then a handful of dried food. I gave Lulu some wet food and a little dry food. She then went on to eat what was left in Jelly's bowl.

Lulu had been down with me all night were Jelly had been hiding upstairs. Every time I went anywhere near the stairs Lulu would stare at me, and if she heard Jelly mipp at me or purr she would run over and Jelly would cower down. Eventually Jelly came downstairs. She looked like she was hungry (as she really hasn't had an awful lot). I put some dried food down, but as soon as I did that Lulu came over and Jelly went away. Eventually Jelly managed to get to the water bowl, she started to drink but Lulu walked over to her and again Jelly went away, used the litter tray and then went back upstairs.

Just before I came up to bed, Jelly kept trying to get to the water bowl, she managed to get there and have a drink before Lulu chased her away. I kept trying to get Lulu away from the food and water to let Jelly at them but each time, Lulu would run for me, straight to Jelly and swipe a paw at her! This happened three times in a row. Its almost as if Lulu is really protective of the food (she eats it every time), water, and us! She was practically guarding the water bowl at one point.

The silly thing is, is that when there is no food, water or humans about, they don't seem to mind each other. They both sleep upstairs on our landing (which is really small) and then just now I went downstairs and found them both crouched together up on the kitchen sink (Is there a way to stop cats jumping up on things?!).

Lulu goes up there to look out the window, whereas I caught Jelly up there once because there was a cup of water on the windowsill and she was drinking out of it (she's obviously thirsty because Lulu won't let her near the water bowl long enough). But I found it odd that they were both there at the same time and they weren't fighting or seemed bothered by one another.

I am starting to feel a little at a loss, they are both beautiful cats, but Jelly the last couple of days just hasn't been herself because Lulu is bullying her. I just want my playful meerkat cat back!

What can I do? The foster parents at Cats Protection said they never had any problem like this with them at all and they were with them for four months!

What should I do? Keep leaving food down (but then Lulu just eats is all) or try and get them into a set pattern of two meals a day (but slowly feeding Jelly which is very time consuming first thing in the morning before work). They don't really eat at the same time and won't eat if I close the door to separate them. Will Lulu be less territorial as they get more settled? Will we get the old happy Jelly back? Please help!!!!

(Sorry that was really long!)
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SarahT1 [PLLE]
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Re: Advice needed! Just adopted mother and daughter cats

Post by SarahT1 [PLLE] »

Zobo, can I suggest you repost this in Health and Behaviour as I think you'll get lots of response then. Your post is not is typical rehoming post and most folk who can help you don't look in rehoming because they already have so many cats! I came across it by chance. I think you'll get some great Reponses if you copy and paste it into Health and Behaviour.
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