I have an F3 Savannah cat. She is spayed. I got her when she was 14 weeks old. She was the only kitten in her "litter". However, I had another kitten at the same time that I got her. She gets along with him fairly well (they rough house and have been pretty close since kittenhood - probably because they were both kittens together).
She is about two years old now. I have six cats besides her. All spayed and neutered. She generally gets along with Davy, Onyx, Meeps, and Ginger. (And by "gets along" I mean they defend themselves when she instigates and the dispute is settled right away without further issues most of the time.) She has a tendency to randomly come up and attack the other cats, seemingly out of no where. This mainly affects my "whities" as I call them. Two white cats, Bubble and Creams, who are litter mates I ended up keeping from a previous litter. They look nearly identical. I think Vannah sometimes gets them confused. She mainly targets Creams but it seems like she sometimes mistakes Bubble for Creams (which doesn't go over well with Meeps who is very close with Bubble and frequently steps in to defend her as if she were her own kitten).
Creams doesn't defend herself well for some reason and tends to run away to the basement (where the majority of the litter boxes are) and basically guards the entrance there. SHe lets all the other cats through except Vannah. So I added two additional litter boxes upstairs.
However, Vannah is very upset and ends up spraying mainly on the counters and the couch (eww...). I clean it up every time, sometimes multiple times per day and it's honestly getting tedious. Seriously, I end up not wanting to get up in the morning because I know I'll spend 20+ minutes cleaning up cat pee. I know it's Vannah because I've seen her do it. Bubble has also been guilty of spraying but not as often and not in those locations. (Usually the expected places like the wall or near a door - but it's infrequent and then she tries to bury it so I figure it's stress, not territorial spraying).
Vannah, I assume it's both stress and territory. Except I don't know how to add more territory for her. I literally have the entire living room lined with shelves and even the kitchen has a tall cat tree. I can't even remember how many scratching posts I have. So, I don't think it's so much a lack of territory as who she needs to share it with.
How can I help her stop being a brat to the other cats so they can get along better? Only Creams comes after Vannah. The rest leave her alone and I often see them blinking at her, as if they're trying to prevent her from freaking out on them.
I have tried playing with her to the point that she is exhausted (and the others), even daily - it didn't seem to make much of a difference.
She's a very people cat, with us - she doesn't like strangers and growls when strangers knock on the door. But she's very friendly with the people that she knows - especially the kids. She's sweet and loving with us.
I already feed all the cats together and they don't fight or chase each other away during or immediately after (they do bicker while I'm getting food in the bowls - mostly Vannah going around instigating and the others trying to ignore her and focus on me dishing out the food). And she does use the litter box for regular elimination. She is definitely spraying.
Is it too late or a bad idea to leash train her? She doesn't like the harness. I don't want to stress her out more. She has run outside a couple times but then right away cries to go back in (thankfully).
Anything else I can do for her?
Onyx was her partner in crime but I started letting him outside. He stays in the yard but seems to get his energy out catching moles and birds with Davy (Davy was allowed out against my advice as a kitten and even after years of being kept inside he still kept trying to get outside so when we moved here I let him go out in the yard. Him and Onyx hang out there and Onyx has since calmed down a great deal and doesn't really help Vannah corner Creams anymore).
I want to build a large catio for them, but can't afford it (and don't have time) right at this moment.
She is about two years old now. I have six cats besides her. All spayed and neutered. She generally gets along with Davy, Onyx, Meeps, and Ginger. (And by "gets along" I mean they defend themselves when she instigates and the dispute is settled right away without further issues most of the time.) She has a tendency to randomly come up and attack the other cats, seemingly out of no where. This mainly affects my "whities" as I call them. Two white cats, Bubble and Creams, who are litter mates I ended up keeping from a previous litter. They look nearly identical. I think Vannah sometimes gets them confused. She mainly targets Creams but it seems like she sometimes mistakes Bubble for Creams (which doesn't go over well with Meeps who is very close with Bubble and frequently steps in to defend her as if she were her own kitten).
Creams doesn't defend herself well for some reason and tends to run away to the basement (where the majority of the litter boxes are) and basically guards the entrance there. SHe lets all the other cats through except Vannah. So I added two additional litter boxes upstairs.
However, Vannah is very upset and ends up spraying mainly on the counters and the couch (eww...). I clean it up every time, sometimes multiple times per day and it's honestly getting tedious. Seriously, I end up not wanting to get up in the morning because I know I'll spend 20+ minutes cleaning up cat pee. I know it's Vannah because I've seen her do it. Bubble has also been guilty of spraying but not as often and not in those locations. (Usually the expected places like the wall or near a door - but it's infrequent and then she tries to bury it so I figure it's stress, not territorial spraying).
Vannah, I assume it's both stress and territory. Except I don't know how to add more territory for her. I literally have the entire living room lined with shelves and even the kitchen has a tall cat tree. I can't even remember how many scratching posts I have. So, I don't think it's so much a lack of territory as who she needs to share it with.
How can I help her stop being a brat to the other cats so they can get along better? Only Creams comes after Vannah. The rest leave her alone and I often see them blinking at her, as if they're trying to prevent her from freaking out on them.
I have tried playing with her to the point that she is exhausted (and the others), even daily - it didn't seem to make much of a difference.
She's a very people cat, with us - she doesn't like strangers and growls when strangers knock on the door. But she's very friendly with the people that she knows - especially the kids. She's sweet and loving with us.
I already feed all the cats together and they don't fight or chase each other away during or immediately after (they do bicker while I'm getting food in the bowls - mostly Vannah going around instigating and the others trying to ignore her and focus on me dishing out the food). And she does use the litter box for regular elimination. She is definitely spraying.
Is it too late or a bad idea to leash train her? She doesn't like the harness. I don't want to stress her out more. She has run outside a couple times but then right away cries to go back in (thankfully).
Anything else I can do for her?
Onyx was her partner in crime but I started letting him outside. He stays in the yard but seems to get his energy out catching moles and birds with Davy (Davy was allowed out against my advice as a kitten and even after years of being kept inside he still kept trying to get outside so when we moved here I let him go out in the yard. Him and Onyx hang out there and Onyx has since calmed down a great deal and doesn't really help Vannah corner Creams anymore).
I want to build a large catio for them, but can't afford it (and don't have time) right at this moment.
I do have a clicker that I bought with the intention to clicker train her but I wasn't sure how to begin. The fighting isn't constant, thankfully. I do see the hierarchies shift occasionally (usually only among the "lower levels" though. The main alphas tend to stay that way - mainly Meeps and Davy. Probably because they are aged in the middle. They're kind to the others but sort of lay down the law if anyone gets out of hand.) There was certainly a shift after I locked Onyx out for a couple weeks (for some reason he kept meowing and meowing and fighting with everyone so I put him outside with the intention to keep him out there. For the first few days he kept trying to get back in and brought moles. Then he stopped trying and stopped bringing moles. One day it was raining heavily so I let him back in and he has been super sweet with everyone since then and doesn't meow too much. I can't do this with Vannah because she'd wander off and get lost or get eaten by something - she's smaller than I thought an F3 would be. She's not a pure bred so she has orangey calico colors with the Savannah build).
