Hi all! I'm having a few problems with my kittens, I hope someone can help.
I have four male kittens, Ben, Jerry, Archie and Humph (who is still with his breeder as he's too young to come home yet). Ben and Jerry are 9 months and Archie is 7.5 months. All three are neutered are were done at 5 and 6 months respectively.
Archie came into his own very early but the vet refused to neuter him as he was the runt of his litter and was very small even at 6 months - he was just about hitting 2kg despite being on an excellent diet. He had a few aggression problems due to coming into his own so early (would growl at anything and start fights, was aggressive over toys, and still is what I refer to as a stress eater although this has improved). Since being done he has calmed down dramatically, as one might expect, and his instigation of fights has stopped. All he wants to do now is play.
Ben and Jerry are littermates and absolutely huge for their age, both are hitting 4kg already and they're all muscle and brawn. Jerry, the oldest of the two, has always been dominant, with Ben and Archie vying for middle and bottom positions in our family hierarchy.
My worry now is that Jerry is going after Archie frequently. I don't know if this is a retaliation from the months of Archie starting fights, but I wouldn't have thought so as I know cats aren't really like that, unless I have got this wrong? I'm not sure if it's a dominance thing either as Archie isn't fighting to be top cat any more, he's quite happy with his position at the bottom as long as he can get cuddles.
The only thing I can think that of is that Archie constantly wants to play with Ben & Jerry and they aren't interested or are too busy palling up together. You will rarely see one without the other, understandable with them being littermates, but Archie is then rather left out. Could it be that, even with such a small age gap, they just don't want to play with him any more? We play with him as much as we can, but he's very much a cat person and will prefer playing with other cats rather than humans.
Humph will be home with us in April at the latest, so we just need something until then. I have considered Feliway but am reluctant to get it unless it's getting to the point where hissing and spitting is a common thing. So far, we have only had two incidents of hissing and spitting, and one rather rough fight where fur was flying. As yet, there has been no blood spilt but I don't want it to get to that point either.
They have plenty of mice, balls and da birds, a catit track, a 7ft cat tree, a radiator bed, three good meals a day and unlimited cuddling time when we're at home.
Any thoughts on what we could do would be greatly received.
