A cat's meows

[Heath]

Hello, everyone. First time poster and owner of two sibling male short hair black cats that haven't been neutered, yet. A coworker feeds multiple strays mear her house, and we arranged me taking two kittens from a new litter four years ago. They've been perfect, as far as house breaking goes; no spraying whatsoever, compared to my past cags who did so rather quickly, whicb resulted in quick neuterings. They are indoor cats. One is dominant and chubby while his pesky brother is scrawny and an instigator. However, the three of us have had a few drastic moving/living situations in the past 18 months.

Last August(2015), we adopted Shi Tzu/Japanese Chin mix. That following September, we were financially forced to move out of an apartment into the attic of a house with my cousin, who had a hyperactive medium-size dog. The shi tzu puppy was given to another cousin to keep due to its overnight barking problem that developed between November and mid-December; this was semi-good news for the secondary reason that it would just not stop chasing the cats at that age. Gabriel(the scrawny cat) seemed to pick up the meowing behavior around this time, but it wasn't bad. Maybe once a week at night. Fast forward from December 2015 to September 2016, and we've moved into a one story house some ten miles away. Things seemed to go very well... until this past November. During the day, I noticed that Gabriel has started meowing more frequently in the den opposite of the side of the house where our bedrooms are. On the other hand, when his brother seldom does it, Gabriel goes to him withouy thinking. Gabriel also began to claw the fabric chairs in the dining room and den. So, I've been keeping them in my room when I go to sleep since I have to be up at 4am for work. However, Gabriel's counterattack has been to meow at the door between the hours of 1-3am. My current tactic is a spray bottle with water in it set on the narrow stream, which works instantly, but he makes 2-3 attempts before quitting. There is normally food and water available for them in my room, and their litter box is there, too. They likely sleep when I'm out of the house(440am-4pm). They eat when I wake up at 4am and while I'm gone since I pour a sufficient amount to last for that twelve hours.

Can anything more be done? Could there be another reason? I haven't seen any other odd behaviors from him, such as being sick and etc.

[Kay]

to be honest I'm surprised you haven't had more problems with the two of them - keeping any cat confined inside 24/7 is likely to cause some behavioural problems, but in the case of unneutered toms, whose instincts are wholly tuned towards a life of hunting and mating outside, especially at night, it is almost inevitable

I appreciate you are very fond of these two boys, and want to do your best by them, but please at least get them neutered so they are not bothered by a thwarted sexual drive all the time