All in the family

Cleo grooms her daughter Cinta

Are the cats in your household stressed by each other? 

In their natural state cats live with their relatives - their mothers, siblings and offspring. We expect them to live in close quarters with total strangers and then wonder why they mark indoors, have bladder problems and overgroom - all signs of stress.

You know your cats consider each other family if they sleep together and groom each other, paying particular attention to each other’s heads. When all the cats in your household think of each other as family stress levels are low. 

More often in multi-cat households each cat considers the other as just another tenant of the house and would rather not share dining, toilet and rest areas. When forced to share tension levels between the cats will rise and fall. Occasionally we see outright aggression between housemates. Sometimes the only sign is the occasional spray of urine up the curtain or recurrent cystitis (inflammation of the bladder).

Check out your cats’ sleeping arrangements. If they are sleeping separately and not grooming each other with complete ease then make sure you have multiple resources available so that each ‘family’ can eat, drink and toilet in private. If you have three cats who do not groom each other then you will need feeding and water bowls, and a litter tray in three separate areas.

Home ground

The cat next door

My cats have come to a truce with Tiddles, the cat next door. When we moved in Tiddles and my crew had a few close encounters of the hissy kind but they soon worked out some compromises. Most cats prefer to avoid fights if they possibly can and use one or more olfactory signals to mark their territories.
Tiddles and my three skirt around each other in shared zones - the front gardens of both houses, the paddock across the road - and avoid each others' inner territories.
My cats still regularly mark their territory by scratching the fence post between the houses and Tiddles marks one of the trees with urine occasionally. Cleo used to defecate on that side of our house as a signal to Tiddles, but thankfully has stopped that now.
We rarely hear any warning hisses from the cats now that they've worked out their territorial limits.

Calm cats

When cats feel safe and happy they rub their faces against the furniture, walls and other objects. They are depositing a scent known as a pheromone that makes them feel at home and relaxed.

Researchers have developed a cat facial pheromone look-a-like for stressed cats that capitalises on this calming effect. It is available as a spray or in a diffuser known as Feliway.

A couple of squirts of Feliway spray in the carrier before a visit to the vet or a trip in the car helps relax a tense puss. Many boarding catteries spray their accommodation to help the cats settle in and start eating more quickly. If you take your cat with you on holidays then Feliway spray around the holiday cottage will relax him.

We leave a Feliway diffuser on in the cat ward at the surgery to calm nervous patients.

Feliway diffusers are also great for chronically stressed cats. These cats use other marking behaviours that are less acceptable to their owners. Urine marking, aggression toward other cats or people, house soiling and cystitis are signs of stress.

Feliway diffusers left on continuously in cats’ favoured areas help restore their balance and create a feeling of well-being. Together with modifications of the environment and sometimes medications we can lower stress levels and minimise unsociable habits.