Cats Fighting

For those reading this who have never heard of a "Feliway diffuser" (raises hand), it appears to be a sort of Glade plug-in air freshener for kitties, that throws off synthetic feel-good hormones.

https://raiseacat.com/feliway-diffuser-review/

Shades of "Soma" in Huxley's  "Brave New World"  but for cats.  Can the human version be far behind?

We've got a boy and girl, siblings, who aren't at each other constantly, but he's a jerk and beats her up sometimes. We think sometimes she starts it inadvertently because... well, she's not very bright, and has never really figured out how her claws work (or how to stop them poking holes in things/people).

The Jackson Galaxy stuff which suggested basically more cat-friendly places they could go, and whether it was from the book or not (I haven't read it; I'm getting the suggestions via my wife), making sure as many as possible have more than one way in/out so if Frankie decides he wants to be where Coco is, she can leave via another route if she doesn't feel like telling him he can lump it.

We also set up a catio with a cat door in a basement window, so it doesn't let the weather in. Having them (probably especially Frankie) able to get a change of scenery, get other stimuli (closer to birds etc) seems to have helped a bit.

It's not perfect. We should play with them more.

Oh! The other (relatively major, but not crazy) thing we did, and this is most useful for if you've got one aggressor and one victim more than two aggressors: We programmed a chip-reading cat door on the laundry room for Coco only, so Frankie can't get in. If she gets sick of dealing with him, she's got food, water, a litterbox, a little cat tower, and a bed in a room he can't get into.

Lots of good advice here. Cats are not social animals, so we're asking them to do something unnatural when they live with another cat.

I like the feliway diffusers. As has been pointed out, there is typically a bully cat and a victim cat. Sometimes the roles will change, according to the situation. There are medications that can help, but you've really got to know what you're doing. I do some basic behavior medicine but will often recommend a consulation with a behavior specialist, and certainly would in this case.

There's two of them in central Florida, which is quite lucky. One of them is a classmate of mine and founded the behavior department for the college of veterinary medicine at UF. I refer cases to her pretty regularly. She's really good. House calls are SOP for behavior cases. I'll PM you some information.

The other is based on the west coast. Coincidentally, she's a very good autocrosser. Between the onset of the pandemic and the shutting down of FAST, the Tampa Bay area autocross club, I haven't seen her this year.