Hi everyone,

It's been a few years since I've been on the forum but I'm in a desperate position with my 6 year old Bengal Freya.

I have 3 other cats that Freya is ok with, their ages range from 4-6, they are all girls. But in September we got a little boy kitten about 3 months old and we did everything by the book that behaviorist say. We even fitted a screen door so they could smell each other and see each other and touch , but no Freya will not accept him, she has accidentally in the 4 months twice got in the front room and attacked Thor, with huge aggression, biting and rolling him around the floor. The last time this happened was the beginning of December and since then we've been so careful.

Thor went for his castration yesterday so we are hoping in a couple of months that his male smell will change. I have tried Feliway in the first month of having Thor and it didn't seem to do anything, our Freya is very sensitive to smell more than the other cats. I have ordered a refill an an extra diffuser to give that one last try.

We have a draft excluder up against the living room door and recently her aggression has got that bad that she's dragged it under the door to her side in the kitchen. The other day I tried to get her away from the door with my foot and she grabbed my leg and went to bite me, this morning I struggled to get her from the door and using the draft excluder she attacked it, very viciously.

Has anybody got any suggestions what else I can try, if I can't get them together in the next couple of months it looks like I might have to rehome Freya, I really don't want to do that if I can help it because she is a good girl really but because Thor gets on with the others then I'd hate to rehome him as he is such a sweet loving boy.

Freya does fall out with the girls and sometimes I have to step in to stop the fighting.

I so want to find a way of moving forward and getting Freya to at least accept Thor, not cuddly buddies but no aggression. Freya has always been a loner.

A common problem in multi-cat households. Some cats simply cannot get along, even though the websites claim bengals love other cats. You have a very serious problem on your hands because the aggression is now directed towards you as well.

First, I'd take the cat to the vet to see if there is a hormonal imbalance somewhere. I'd want to make sure there is nothing medically wrong causing this behavior. Since the aggression seems to be towards Thor, you need to try to keep them separated. There are a couple of things you might try:

Make sure every single cat has their own territory in your home. Since you have five cats, that means at three to five cat trees. Bengals love to climb and be up high in the room. In order to live in harmony, the cats need to know they have their own space. Catification is a great thing where you create a super highway for the cats that can include shelves on the walls, bookcases -- something where Thor cannot get trapped and has an escape route. Many times when you give each of the cats a large enough space, they don't worry about the other cats.

You might try looking at http://spiritessences.com and check out their formulas to help with bullying. I don't use anything from there, a couple of gals are trying it on their cats here, and we've had another poster who thinks the whole holistic thing is rubbish -- and that's his right. You are trying to find a solution to a huge problem, so investigate everything.

I would suggest feeding your bengal and Thor where they can see each other but cannot have contact. They should concentrate on the food while knowing the other one is there, but there is no aggression and Thor can associate good things with your bengal.

You need to be playing with your bengal and wearing the girl out. Bengals are high energy cats and playing with them to the point they are worn out can help against their aggression. Make sure you play with Thor as well. All your kitties should be getting lots of play time.

Freya sounds like a typical bengal to me, she's just going overboard with the aggression. Diverting her attention from Thor with food and toys should help. Making sure Thor has an escape route to get away from Freya will help. His confidence level is waning and it needs to be built up. He is still growing and at some point will be a much larger cat to compete.

Naturally, there are medications that can be given, but side effects can be bad and not all cats metabolize mediations the same way. But, I'd start off with a visit to the vet to make sure everything is okay with Freya. Then catify your home. Jackson Galaxy has a great book out called "Catification" that features ideas from other cat owners -- there are some terrific stories in there and yours may be one of them.

All I can say, is keep trying different things until you hit on something that works for your kitties. Good luck and keep us posted!

Just take a step back for a sec... you had 4 happy cats living together, quite a feat I might add, then for some reason you said "what we need is a 5th cat" so you went out and got a kitten, and that upset your 6 year old cat (not surprising). And the upshot of that is that if your 6yr old cat doesn't play nice with the kitten *she* is getting kicked to the curb? Did I get that right?

That is just so wrong on so many levels... Look, you can try a cat behaviorist or more introduction techniques, further catify-ing your house, and all that. But at the end of the day you need to step up and take responsibility for the happiness of the cats you have, and not blame them when you change their environment to be less hospitable to them on a whim. We all know what the right answer is to all this... at least most of us do.

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The little monsters 3

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With every additional cat added the problems in the multicat household multiply and as you are finding out the limit of happiness for your particular household with your particular cats, was 4 cats, 5 was the last straw.
As Sherry and Brian have said you need to catify your home so that each can have a territory and somewhere to feel safe, otherwise it will not only be fighting, it will be peeing too.
It may be that you will just have to keep them in separate areas of your home.
Your 6 year old should not have to give up her home, she is not at fault here.

Thor is still a kitten, saying he gets on with your other girls, may prove to be wrong when he himself grows up and starts seeing his "aunties" as adults vying for territory.
You opened a can of worms here, catify your home and get a behaviourist.

The other day a friend sent me flyer from a local rescue service with a beautiful snow Bengal looking for a home asking if I had room for one more. I thought about it for ten seconds and resolved, no way. This happy home with two SLP has its daily struggles maintaining equality. I know for a fact that every surface has been claimed and there are daily power struggles silently going on during their exuberant playtime. Bringing in a defenseless declawed interloper would create resentment and upset for my existing two. The advertised cat is a beauty and they will find her a nice home I'm sure.